Our properties in the Westhoek

The Westhoek is a region best explored slowly. The landscape is flat, so cycling past hop fields, polder ditches and quiet villages is effortless, with a dense network of cycle nodes between Ypres, Poperinge and Diksmuide. Walkers will find long, peaceful routes through fields and meadows, with the occasional old fort or field chapel as a resting point.

Ypres itself, with its rebuilt Cloth Hall and lively Grote Markt, makes a pleasant base, with pavement cafés, a weekly market and small museums on the town and the region. Diksmuide has a more intimate feel, with its Grote Markt and the Yser flowing through the centre, and Veurne boasts one of the finest market squares on the coast, ringed by historic facades.

Cycling past the many hop fields south of Poperinge is well worth it in late summer, when the tall poles and wires are still full. Culture lovers are also well served: small regional museums in Poperinge and Diksmuide each shed light on a different slice of local history, from hop growing to fishing life along the Yser.

Every September, Poperinge holds its well-attended hop market, with stalls, music and tastings around the freshly harvested hop. In the smaller villages between Ypres and Veurne too, a village fair or flea market is held regularly, a good chance to get to know the region up close.

Nowhere in Belgium is the First World War as tangible as in the Westhoek. Under the Menin Gate in Ypres, the names of tens of thousands of missing soldiers are still honoured every day. The In Flanders Fields museum brings the front to life with personal stories and interactive installations, and anyone heading further into the fields will find smaller military cemeteries scattered among the crops, each with its own silence.

Tyne Cot near Passendale, with almost twelve thousand graves, is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world and makes clear at a glance how hard the fighting here was. In Diksmuide, the Trench of Death and the 84-metre Yser Tower, the largest peace monument in Europe, lead back to the 1914 Battle of the Yser. Poperinge lay just behind the front and housed a place of rest for soldiers at Talbot House, still open to visit today just as it was then.

Scattered across the fields around Ypres are dozens of smaller Commonwealth cemeteries, often no bigger than a garden, with a few hundred names on white stone. Together with Tyne Cot they paint a complete picture of the scale of the war. German and French cemeteries are also dotted around the region, each with its own style of remembrance.

Poperinge has been Belgium's hop town for centuries. Around the town you can still see the tall hop poles and wires in late summer, and the National Hop Museum in the centre shows how the pickers once lived and worked. Every three years Poperinge celebrates the Hoppefeest, with a parade, music and a lively bustle in the streets.

Anyone wanting to taste the beer that made the region world famous heads for Westvleteren, where the monks of St Sixtus Abbey sell their Trappist beer in limited quantities, often best enjoyed at the café In de Vrede opposite the abbey. In Veurne the tradition lives on in a different way, with the striking Boetprocessie parading through the streets every year at the end of July. Local restaurants like to put stew, regional cheese and hop shoots on the menu, depending on the season.

Besides Westvleteren, a handful of smaller breweries in the region also brew their own beers, often with hops from their own fields. Anyone who prefers not to drink can try regional specialities in Poperinge and Ypres such as hop shoots in spring, a local delicacy that only appears on menus for a few weeks a year.

Restaurant terraces in Ypres and Poperinge often also feature simple classics such as vol-au-vent, rabbit with prunes or a hearty fish soup, paired with a regional beer on the menu. Anyone who prefers to cook for themselves will find farm shops around Poperinge and Diksmuide selling vegetables, cheese and cold cuts straight from the farm.

The Westhoek can be visited all year round, but each time of year gives the region a different feel. Around 11 November, when the 1918 armistice is commemorated, it gets especially busy in Ypres and at the Menin Gate. Summer brings activity around the hop fields and the Hoppefeest, while spring and early autumn are quieter, with the flat polders at their prettiest.

Ypres has its own railway station, but anyone coming from Brussels has to change at Kortrijk, which makes a car the easiest option for the Westhoek. Allow for just over 125 kilometres and a good hour and a half's drive from Brussels via the E403 and the A19. The region is also notably flat, which makes it ideal for a cycling holiday, with France barely three quarters of an hour away for anyone keen to explore Lille or the Opal Coast too.

Anyone combining the Westhoek with a stay on the coast or in Lille does well to plan at least two nights: one day for the remembrance sites around Ypres, one for Poperinge, Diksmuide or Veurne. That leaves time to simply walk or cycle too, without rushing from one monument to the next.