World War 2 Sites in Belgium: Museums, Forts and Tours

Belgium’s World War 2 sites sit in three clusters, and knowing which one you are heading for saves a lot of driving. The Ardennes in the south-east holds the Battle of the Bulge museums, the American cemeteries and the massacre site at Baugnez. The fort belt around Liège holds the concrete the German army broke through in May 1940. The north and the coast hold the camps, the transit barracks and the Atlantic Wall bunkers.

This is a list of the World War 2 museums, forts, cemeteries, memorials and other war sites in Belgium you can actually visit, with the opening arrangements that catch people out. Everything here is Second World War unless the entry says otherwise, because several Belgian sites carry both wars on one ticket and the two get mixed up constantly. Belgium‘s First World War ground is a separate trip, mostly around Ypres in the west, and 1815 Waterloo is a third thing again.

I have not visited every site on this list myself. I am working through them and update the page as I go, and where I have been I say so.

Where Belgium’s World War 2 sites are

Belgium’s World War 2 sites divide by region, and each region has one anchor site worth building a day around. The table below sets out the four areas, what happened there, and the site to start with.

Two dates hold the whole story together. Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940 and the Belgian army capitulated 18 days later, on 28 May. Germany then tried to split the Allied line one last time in December 1944, which is the Battle of the Bulge, and lost.

World War 2 museums in Belgium

Belgium’s World War 2 museums are concentrated around Bastogne, with a second group along the coast and in the cities. The 14 below are the ones that hold a full visit.

1. Bastogne War Museum

The Bastogne War Museum is the main museum of the Battle of the Bulge, and it sits on the Mardasson hill next to the memorial, at Colline du Mardasson 5. The Battle of the Bulge was the last large German offensive in the west and the bloodiest single battle American forces fought in the Second World War. It is often confused with the Siege of Bastogne, which was one episode inside it: the US 101st Airborne was encircled here from 20 December 1944 and relieved on 26 December.

The museum tells the battle through three civilian and military characters, an audio guide in several languages, film and photography. It opens every day, which matters in an area where several smaller museums shut for the winter. The same operator runs the Bastogne War Rooms in the town.

2. Bastogne Barracks and the Vehicle Restoration Centre

Bastogne Barracks is the Belgian “Heintz” barracks where General McAuliffe set up the 101st Airborne command post during the siege, and it is now a War Heritage Institute site. The map room, the radio room and the offices have been put back using wartime photographs, and you see them on a guided tour rather than by wandering in.

The Vehicle Restoration Centre on the same site holds the institute’s armoured vehicles, some of them still running. It is a working workshop, so it opens to the public during events rather than on ordinary days. Check which of the two you are booking before you drive out.

3. 101st Airborne Museum Bastogne

The 101st Airborne Museum sits in the former Belgian officers’ mess on Avenue de la Gare, a few minutes’ walk from McAuliffe Square. It covers the 101st Airborne’s part in the defence of Bastogne through dioramas, a reconstructed field hospital and a bomb-shelter sequence that puts you through a German air raid.

Adult admission is €8 (about $9, £7), and the museum closes on Mondays.

4. Führer Headquarters Wolfsschlucht I, Brûly-de-Pesche

Wolfsschlucht I is the bunker and hut complex Hitler used as a field headquarters in June 1940, in the forest at Brûly-de-Pesche near the French border. The village was cleared of its inhabitants and a fortified compound was built in a fortnight so that Hitler could direct the assault on France from Belgian soil. He was there for weeks, not months.

The site today is a small museum of reconstructed buildings and exhibition rooms, with the original bunker and the chapel still standing.

5. Fort Breendonk

Fort Breendonk is the Nazi camp in Belgium that survives most nearly intact, and it is the hardest site on this list to walk out of. Built in 1909 as part of the outer defensive ring of Antwerp, it was taken over by the SS in 1940 and run as the SS-Auffanglager Breendonk, a prison and transit camp for Belgian resistance members, political prisoners and Jews before deportation.

About 3,500 people passed through it. Around 300 were killed at the fort itself, and 1,733 of the 3,500 did not survive the war. The dormitories, the forced-labour site, the torture chamber and the execution ground are all still there. It is a National Memorial run by the War Heritage Institute and it closes on scattered days for commemorations, so check the calendar. Read about my experience visiting the fort here.

6. Atlantikwall Raversyde, Ostend

Atlantikwall Raversyde holds one of the most completely preserved stretches of the German Atlantic Wall, and it carries both world wars on one site. Battery Saltzwedel-neu is the Second World War position. Battery Aachen, in the dunes beside it, is the only preserved German coastal battery anywhere from the First World War and won a European Heritage Award in 2022.

Between them the site holds over 60 bunkers, observation posts and artillery positions linked by open and underground corridors. The Atlantikwall section runs a season rather than a full year: in 2026 it is open from 14 March to 15 November, while the surrounding provincial park stays open all year. Older guides describe this place as the “Atlantikwall Museum Oostende”, which is the same site under its former name.

7. Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen

Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen was the SS assembly camp from which Belgium’s Jews and Roma were deported. Between 4 August 1942 and 31 July 1944, 28 trains left for German-occupied Poland carrying 24,916 Jews and 351 Roma, most of them to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Only 1,240 of them survived.

The site is now a memorial, museum and documentation centre split between part of the original barracks and a new building opposite. It works outward from the deportations to the mechanics of mass violence, so it is a heavier visit than its size suggests.

8. Truschbaum Museum, Camp Elsenborn

The Truschbaum Museum covers a century of Camp Elsenborn’s history, including the Elsenborn Ridge fighting during the Battle of the Bulge, and it is the one entry on this list you probably cannot get into. The museum sits inside an active Belgian Army artillery training camp near Bütgenbach.

It has been temporarily closed to the public under tightened base security. Groups of at least 15 can still apply by telephone at least two weeks ahead, and the deputy camp commander decides case by case. Do not build a day around it without a confirmed booking.

9. Musée de la Bataille des Ardennes, La Roche-en-Ardenne

The Museum of the Battle of the Ardennes in La Roche-en-Ardenne gives more room to the British part of the Battle of the Bulge than the Bastogne museums do. British XXX Corps fought on the northern shoulder and is usually a footnote in the American telling.

Three floors hold weapons, uniforms, vehicles, maps and film, with one room given over to rifles and sidearms, and a section built from items veterans of the battle donated themselves.

10. December 44 Historical Museum, La Gleize

The December 44 Museum in La Gleize explains where Kampfgruppe Peiper’s advance ran out of road. American forces held the routes that could carry tank traffic, which left Peiper’s armour stranded in and around the village in December 1944.

The museum is small and densely packed with authentic objects and full-kit figures, and an hour and a half is a fair allowance. It opens daily in July, August and September and cuts back sharply in winter, so ring ahead outside the summer.

11. Baugnez 44 Historical Center, Malmedy

Baugnez 44 stands at the crossroads where the Malmedy massacre happened, and that is why it is worth the detour rather than because of its size. On 17 December 1944, the second day of the Battle of the Bulge, SS troops of Kampfgruppe Peiper executed 84 American prisoners of war in a field beside the road. Forty-three men survived by playing dead or running. The memorial across the street lists the victims by name.

The museum opened in 2007 and reconstructs 15 scenes with sound and light alongside its collection. One warning: the museum’s old web address no longer belongs to it and now serves unrelated commercial content, so do not plan opening times from anything found there. Confirm by telephone or through the Malmedy tourist office.

12. Mons Memorial Museum

The Mons Memorial Museum covers the military history of the Mons region across three periods, 1830 to 1914, the First World War and 1940 to 1945, in roughly 1,200 m² of permanent exhibition. Mons matters to both wars: the British Expeditionary Force fought its first battle here in August 1914, and American forces liberated the city in September 1944.

The Second World War rooms deal with occupation, resistance, persecution, survival and liberation rather than with battle narrative, which makes this a different kind of visit from the Ardennes museums.

13. Museum Cabour, Adinkerke

Museum Cabour traces the Second World War in the far west of Belgium, near the French border, and it is built around the Robert Moeyaert collection the town acquired in 2009. Its themes are the air war, refugee columns, the evacuation at Dunkirk and the local units caught up in 1940.

The museum shares the Cabour estate in Adinkerke, part of De Panne, with a domain and nature reserve, so it pairs with a walk.

14. Memorial Museum of the 12th and 13th Line Regiments, Spa

The Memorial Museum of the 12e and 13e de Ligne Prince Léopold in Spa follows two Belgian infantry regiments from Belgian independence in 1830 to the present day, through weapons, uniforms, maps and archive material. It is run by the regimental association rather than by a museum operator.

Visits are by appointment only, and an hour is the minimum. Some older listings give it as “Avenue du 12e de Ligne Prince Léopold”, which is the street it stands on rather than the museum’s name.

The Liège forts you can visit

Liège was ringed by 12 forts built between 1888 and 1892 to hold the Meuse crossings, and four more were added in the 1930s when a new German invasion looked likely. Eleven of them can be visited today, in conditions ranging from a full museum to a summer walk through the ruins.

The distinction that matters is the generation. The 1930s forts, Eben-Emael, Aubin-Neufchâteau, Battice and Tancrémont, were designed against modern artillery and are the ones that fought hardest in May 1940. The 1880s forts had been modernised but were built for a different war.

1. Fort Eben-Emael

Fort Eben-Emael was the strongest fort in the belt and it was neutralised faster than any of them, which is why it is the one to see. At dawn on 10 May 1940, 85 German glider troops of Sturmabteilung Koch landed on the roof and used shaped charges, a weapon nobody had seen used this way before, to blow the gun casemates open from above. The fort itself held out for roughly 30 hours before the garrison surrendered at 12:30 on 11 May, with 23 Belgians killed and 59 wounded, and more than a thousand taken prisoner.

Guides that say the fort fell in 15 minutes are compressing the assault on the guns into the fall of the fort. The living quarters, kitchen, hospital and command post are laid out as they were in 1940. The fort opens from mid-February until just after New Year, Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm with last entry at 3pm, and the combined ticket with the 2-hour guided tour is €18 (about $21, £15). Individual visits are bookable online, so you no longer have to arrive and hope.

2. Fort d’Aubin-Neufchâteau

Fort d’Aubin-Neufchâteau held out against a coordinated German attack for eleven days in May 1940 before surrendering, and that resistance is what the volunteers who run it commemorate. After its capture the Germans used the fort to test bunker-piercing weapons, which is why several rooms are wrecked.

The tour takes you through the munitions store, the machine and generator rooms, the barracks, hospital and chapel. Much of it is underground, cold and damp for most of the year, so bring a jacket you would not wear in August. Opening days are limited to set Sundays in the warmer months, so check before travelling.

3. Fort d’Embourg

Fort d’Embourg was surrounded by German troops during the Battle of Belgium in 1940 and traded suppressing fire with Fort de Chaudfontaine until air attack knocked out its 75mm guns, after which the garrison surrendered. It now holds a collection of uniforms, weapons and equipment inside the fort.

4. Fort de Barchon

Fort de Barchon is the fort that shows you what was learned between the wars. The original Liège forts had known weaknesses, and after the First World War the ceilings were reinforced, ventilation was rebuilt, steam engines gave way to diesel, and kitchens and latrines were moved inside the structure. Walk the tunnels at Barchon and the improvements are visible as you go.

There is a museum inside the fort as well, with memorabilia, photographs, maps and diagrams.

5. Fort de Battice

Fort de Battice was one of the four forts built after the First World War to back up the original twelve. It was designed around longer-range artillery in retractable turrets and pillboxes for heavy-calibre guns, with better living quarters than the older forts because morale under bombardment had turned out to matter.

The museum shows a 75mm twin-cannon turret demonstration and a casemate for a 60mm gun, alongside restored machine guns and equipment.

6. Fort de Tancrémont

Fort de Tancrémont holds a small distinction: its garrison was the last Belgian unit still fighting the Germans in 1940. It held out for 19 days from the invasion and surrendered on 29 May, the day after the Belgian army had capitulated, and only because it had run out of ammunition.

Over 2 km (1.2 mi) of tunnels run under the site, holding the command post, barracks, ammunition stores, hospital, radio post, kitchen and engine rooms. The retractable turrets and the ammunition lifts that fed them are still there, and there is a museum attached to the fort.

7. Fort de Chaudfontaine

Fort de Chaudfontaine was one of the original 12 forts and was rearmed in the 1930s with better guns, electrics, communications and ventilation. In May 1940 it was attacked by ground troops and by the Luftwaffe, and exploding munitions inside the fort caused enough structural damage to force its surrender on 17 May 1940.

A small memorial and cemetery near the main entrance mark the dead. The fort itself has become an adventure park with zip lines and a three-dimensional labyrinth, used mostly by school and corporate groups, which is a strange combination to walk into unprepared.

8. Fort de Flémalle

Fort de Flémalle survived the First World War, was reconditioned just before the Second, and surrendered in 1940 after aerial bombing. A 3D reconstruction shows the fort as it stood in 1940, fully armed.

The walking tour covers 1.7 km (1.1 mi) of underground corridors and passes the bomb craters that led to the surrender. The museum holds documents, medical equipment, Belgian uniforms and weapons from the fort itself.

9. Fort de Hollogne

Fort de Hollogne was one of the original twelve and was not on the list for 1930s modernisation, so it was turned into an ammunition depot instead. German Stuka bombers attacked it in 1940 having mistaken it for Fort de Flémalle nearby, by which time the ammunition had gone and the fort was empty.

The Germans then held it, intending to launch V2 rockets from the site, and the area was liberated before that happened. The US Army used it as a hospital during the Battle of the Bulge. Much of it has been restored and you can walk it on a tour.

10. Fort de Pontisse

Fort de Pontisse was another of the original twelve. An air strike on its 105mm turret gun and a shortage of ammunition forced its surrender in 1940. It was later used as a munitions store by the army and by private companies and has been stripped of its equipment.

A charity now keeps rescued donkeys and other abandoned animals in part of it, and the local bat colony winters there. In summer you can walk through the remains.

11. Fort de Boncelles and La Tour d’Air

Fort de Boncelles no longer stands as a fort, and what you visit at the site is La Tour d’Air, a museum of Belgian military history covering both world wars. Much of the collection came from private hands, and the military scale-model section is the part enthusiasts come for.

Military vehicles stand in the outdoor area, and the cafe is furnished with officers’ mess furniture and seats taken out of tanks. Visits are guided and run on set dates, so book rather than turn up.

Fort de St Heribert, the one Namur fort you can visit

Fort de St Heribert is the only one of the nine forts built to defend Namur that can still be visited. Like the Liège belt it went up in the late 1800s and was refurbished, re-equipped and rearmed in the 1930s.

The upgrades were not enough. German artillery and air attack in 1940 left the fort indefensible and the garrison surrendered. It was later abandoned and sold to a private owner who buried much of it, and volunteer associations have been digging it back out and restoring it since.

World War 2 cemeteries and memorials in Belgium

Belgium holds three American cemeteries, two large German ones and a Commonwealth cemetery from the Second World War, plus hundreds of smaller memorials in villages across the country. Belgian war dead are usually buried in ordinary communal cemeteries rather than in dedicated war cemeteries, which is why you will not find a Belgian equivalent of the sites below.

1. Ardennes American Cemetery, Neupré

Ardennes American Cemetery near Neupré, roughly 19 km (12 mi) south-west of Liège, is the resting place of 5,162 American war dead, and 65 percent of them are airmen of the US Army Air Forces. The headstones are set out in the shape of a Greek cross in front of a stone memorial carrying a large American eagle.

Along the outside of the memorial, 463 names are cut into granite for the missing whose remains were never found, with rosettes added beside those since recovered. This cemetery served as the central identification point for the entire European Theater until 1960, which is unique among American cemeteries. It covers 90.5 acres (36.6 hectares), opens daily from 9am to 5pm except 25 December and 1 January, and admission is free.

2. Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery

Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery holds 7,987 American war dead across 57 acres (23.1 hectares), most of them killed in the US First Army’s drive into Germany and in the Battle of the Bulge. The headstones curve in long arcs down a sloping lawn, facing a colonnade, chapel and map room.

The names of 451 missing are inscribed on the colonnade’s piers, with rosettes for those since identified. Henri-Chapelle is also where the repatriation of American war dead began: disinterment started on 27 July 1947 and the first shipment of 5,600 left Antwerp that October, with more than 30,000 Belgians attending the ceremony. It opens daily from 9am to 5pm and admission is free.

3. Mardasson Memorial, Bastogne

The Mardasson Memorial, now formally the Battle of the Bulge Monument, stands next to the Bastogne War Museum and honours the American soldiers killed and wounded in the battle. Belgian architect Georges Dedoyard shaped it as a five-pointed American star, 12 m (39 ft) tall with 31 m (102 ft) sides, and it was dedicated on 16 July 1950.

The insignia on its walls represent the 76,890 Americans killed and wounded in the offensive. That figure counts casualties, not deaths, and it is worth saying plainly because the number is misquoted as a death toll all over the internet. Ten passages cut in stone tell the battle, the names of the then 48 states run round the parapet, and a crypt below holds Protestant, Catholic and Jewish altars decorated with mosaics by Fernand Léger. A spiral staircase runs to the top, where plaques identify the ground the battle was fought over.

4. Lommel German war cemetery

Lommel German war cemetery is the largest German military cemetery in Western Europe outside Germany, with 39,111 burials on 16 hectares (39.5 acres). It was laid out from 1946, and German dead found anywhere on Belgian soil were brought here, many of them from temporary American burial grounds at Henri-Chapelle, Fossé, Overrepen and Neuville-en-Condroz.

Most of the dead are from the Second World War. A further 483 came from a First World War soldiers’ cemetery at Leopoldsburg. Around 6,221 of the graves hold men who have never been identified, largely because the German records that would have named them burned in the bombing. A crypt at the entrance holds a sculpture of a fallen soldier and gold-tiled murals, and the rows of stone crosses run to the treeline.

5. Recogne German war cemetery

Recogne German war cemetery near Bastogne holds 6,807 German war dead in straight rows of low crosses, and its history explains why it feels different from Lommel. American forces created it in February 1945 for both sides, burying roughly 2,700 Americans and 3,000 Germans together after the fighting round Bastogne.

The American dead were moved to Henri-Chapelle in 1945 and 1946, and German graves from cleared cemeteries elsewhere were brought in, including men killed in 1940 and during the occupation. It is maintained today by the German War Graves Commission, largely by volunteers from the countries these soldiers fought.

6. Heverlee War Cemetery, Leuven

Heverlee War Cemetery on the edge of Leuven is the Commonwealth war cemetery of the Second World War in this part of Belgium. It was established in 1946 and holds 977 Commonwealth burials from the Second World War, 37 of them unidentified, along with 29 First World War burials brought in from other sites.

Many of the men buried here served in the air forces and were shot down over Belgium during the bombing campaign, rather than falling in ground fighting.

Other World War 2 sites in Belgium

Beyond the museums, forts and cemeteries, ten more places carry the war in a form you can still stand in front of. These range from citadels used as prisons to coastal gun positions and a defensive line that never held.

1. Dinant Citadel

Dinant Citadel commands the Meuse from a cliff above the town, and its position is exactly why it was fought over in both world wars. A fortification has stood here since 1051, when the prince-bishop of Liège built the first one, and the structure you see went up under Dutch rule in the years after 1815.

German forces occupied it in both wars. You reach it by cable car or by climbing the stairs cut into the rock, and the second option is longer than it looks from the bottom.

2. Huy Citadel

Huy Citadel was built above the Meuse in the 1800s to watch and control river traffic, and it was occupied in both world wars for the same reason. During the Second World War the Gestapo used it as a prison, holding political prisoners and resistance members before deportation to camps in Germany. Thousands passed through it.

The cells and the memorial rooms are part of the visit, and a cable car runs up from the town.

3. Royal Military Museum, Brussels

The Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History occupies the two northern halls of the Cinquantenaire in Brussels and is now part of the War Heritage Institute, the same body that runs Fort Breendonk and Bastogne Barracks. Its collection runs from armour and edged weapons to armoured vehicles and aircraft.

The Second World War rooms cover the occupation of Belgium and the liberation of Europe. Older guides still describe an extension being built “for the 75th anniversary”, which is long past, so read the museum’s own pages for what is open when you go.

4. The K-W Line

The K-W Line was Belgium’s answer to German remilitarisation, a bunker line running from Koningshooikt to Wavre and nicknamed the Iron Wall. It was built behind the Albert Canal as a second position, using anti-tank barriers, floodable trenches, barbed wire, Cointet elements, part-buried railway track and steel cable.

Bunkers from the line survive across Flemish Brabant and Antwerp province and several are signposted on walking and cycling routes, which is the usual way to see them.

5. Camp Beverlo, Leopoldsburg

Camp Beverlo was built in 1835, four years after Belgian independence, and was occupied by German forces in both world wars. In the Second World War it trained thousands of Hitler Youth members and held prisoners waiting to be sent to camps in Germany.

The museum of the camp’s history is in the former military hospital and shows documents, scale models and photographs. The grounds are seen by coach or on a walking tour.

6. The Tir National and the Enclos des Fusillés

The Tir National in Schaerbeek is the Brussels firing range where the German authorities executed prisoners in both world wars. It opened in 1859 as an army range and was enlarged as weapons improved. The First World War executions here included the British nurse Edith Cavell, in 1915.

The Enclos des Fusillés, the Enclosure of the Shot, is the memorial cemetery beside it: 365 aligned crosses and an urn holding ashes of Belgians who died in the German concentration camps.

7. The Vierfrontenbrug and the Maïskot, Zulte

The Vierfrontenbrug, the Bridge of Four Fronts, stands at Zulte on the old course of the Lys and takes its name from four separate conflicts it was fought over, going back to the Salt War of 1452. Both world wars added to that tally, and the Belgian army blew it up in each of them.

The Lys has since been rerouted, so the bridge now spans dry ground and you can walk across it. The Maïskot beside it was a maize store for the Anglo Belge brewery, hit repeatedly in 1940. It has been converted into four lofts and the bullet holes were deliberately left in the brickwork during the conversion, which earned the building its local name of Kogelhuis, the bullet house.

8. Railway Battery E690, Bredene

Railway Battery E690 at Bredene, in West Flanders, is where the Germans built a railway gun position in 1941. Two 280mm guns were mounted on a turntable so they could fire through a full circle, with the fire control bunker in front and ammunition stores and crew bunkers behind.

The guns went with the retreating German army, but the Regelbau 636 fire control bunker survives in good condition because the Belgian Navy used it after the war.

9. Gun Battery Bamburg, Westende

Battery Bamburg at Westende was built to cover the entrance to the port of Nieuwpoort, and the water table beat the design. The ground was too wet to dig into, so the bunkers were built above ground and the connecting trenches were lined with brick.

Firing positions were set around the main guns in a defensive ring. The construction was heavy enough that most of the bunkers are still sound and can be seen from the public paths.

10. Gun Battery Adinkerke

Battery Adinkerke was built by the German Army in late 1943 for the German Navy, to engage Allied shipping, and it never fired in that role. Canadian forces captured the position in 1944 before it was operational.

The guns were removed after the war and the site became a protected monument in 1999. Several of the bunkers are accessible today.

There are many more small memorials than any list can hold, one in almost every Belgian village. The sites above are the ones that reward the drive.

World War 2 tours in Belgium

A guided Battle of the Bulge tour makes sense if you are not driving, because the Ardennes sites are spread over 60 km (37.3 mi) of back roads with no useful public transport between them. Day tours run from Brussels and from Bastogne, usually taking in Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, the Mardasson Memorial and the Baugnez crossroads, and the good ones put the battle in order rather than treating each stop separately.

Tour operators change their line-ups every season, so the widget below shows what is actually running and bookable now, with current prices and departure dates.

Staying longer? The battle sites pair well with the rest of the country, and there is a fuller list of things to do in Belgium if you want the non-military days too.

Where to stay near the Belgian battlefields

Base yourself in Bastogne for the Ardennes sites and in Liège or Maastricht for the fort belt, because those two clusters are 100 km (62.1 mi) apart and doing both from one hotel wastes a day in the car. Bastogne has hotels and guesthouses within walking distance of the museum and the memorial, which is useful in December when the light goes early.

For the coast sites, Ostend puts you within a short drive of Raversyde, Bredene and Westende. Belgian hotel, apartment and guesthouse options across all four regions are listed on Booking.com’s Belgium pages, which is what I use for accommodation on trips like this.

Travel insurance for a Belgian battlefield trip

Travel insurance covers the things a battlefield trip is quietly exposed to: a cancelled leg, an injury on wet fort steps, or a camera stolen out of a car at a rural car park. An EHIC or GHIC card gets EU and UK visitors state healthcare in Belgium on local terms, and it does none of the rest.

If you do not have a policy yet, SafetyWing sells plans you can start after your trip has already begun, which is the practical difference from most insurers. They were the first travel insurer to cover COVID, and when I caught it they reimbursed my costs without an argument.

Belgium World War 2 sites FAQ

What is the main World War 2 site in Belgium?

Bastogne is the main World War 2 destination in Belgium, because the Bastogne War Museum, the Mardasson Memorial and the Bastogne Barracks command post all sit within a few kilometres of each other. Fort Breendonk is the most significant site for the occupation and the camps, and Fort Eben-Emael for the invasion of May 1940.

Where was the Battle of the Bulge fought in Belgium?

The Battle of the Bulge was fought across the Ardennes of eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg between 16 December 1944 and 25 January 1945. In Belgium the key places are Bastogne, La Roche-en-Ardenne, La Gleize, Baugnez near Malmedy, Houffalize and the Elsenborn Ridge.

Are Belgium’s World War 1 and World War 2 sites in the same place?

No, and mixing them up is the commonest planning mistake here. The First World War sites are concentrated in West Flanders around Ypres and the Yser, while the Second World War sites are in the Ardennes, around Liège and along the coast. A few places carry both, including Atlantikwall Raversyde, Mons Memorial Museum and the Tir National.

Can you visit the Liège forts?

Eleven of the Liège forts are open to visitors, though most open on limited days run by volunteer associations rather than daily. Fort Eben-Emael has the fullest visitor operation, with individual tickets, set opening days from mid-February to just after New Year and guided tours you can book online.

How many days do you need for Belgium’s World War 2 sites?

Four days covers it comfortably: two in the Ardennes for Bastogne and the eastern battle sites, one for the Liège forts, and one for Breendonk and Kazerne Dossin. Two days is enough if you pick the Ardennes alone. Adding the coastal batteries makes it five.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 5 tips below come from checking every opening arrangement on this page against the sites’ own information in September 2026, and each one has cost somebody a wasted drive.

1. Check the closed day before you set the route, not the opening hours. Fort Eben-Emael and the 101st Airborne Museum both close on Mondays, and Baugnez 44 closes Monday and Tuesday. The Bastogne War Museum opens every day, which makes it the safe anchor for a Monday.
2. Treat the Truschbaum Museum at Camp Elsenborn as closed. It sits on an active artillery training camp and has been shut to the public under tightened security. Only groups of 15 or more can apply, by telephone and at least two weeks ahead, and the deputy camp commander can still say no.
3. Book Fort Eben-Emael’s combined ticket rather than turning up. The €18 (about $21, £15) ticket covers admission, the 2-hour guided tour, the barracks and museum, and the immersive film, and it is valid all day. Last entry is 3pm, two hours before the fort closes.
4. Do not plan a coastal battery trip for winter. Atlantikwall Raversyde runs a season, 14 March to 15 November in 2026, though the surrounding park stays open all year. The Bredene and Westende bunkers outside the domain are open ground and can be walked whenever you like.
5. Do not trust the museum’s old web address. The museum at the Baugnez crossroads is still there, but the domain it used to publish on no longer belongs to it, so any hours or prices found there are not the museum’s. Confirm through the Malmedy tourist office or by phone.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, a Belgian travel writer, and the first-hand notes on Fort Breendonk come from her own visit to the fort. The team covers Belgium for independent travellers, including the battlefield tours, museums, forts and hotels worth booking, and updates this page when opening days, seasons and ticket prices change.