Mountain biking and hiking in the Ardennes & Adventure Park Durbuy

What are you going to do when all the holidays are being drilled through your nose? Mountain biking with your brother in the Ardennes of Belgium† The surroundings of Durbuy are definitely recommended, both for walking and mountain biking.

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Durbuy

What a beautiful town that is! Nice terraces, alleys, shops, streets, it really feels like being abroad! By the way, you pronounce this as Durbwie. I found out after the holidays.

Also read: The best alternative city trips in Europe | Nice and different!

B&B La Lisiere

We slept 4 nights in B&B La Lisière, just outside Durbuy. The room would be ready at 17 pm, but when we arrived at 14.30 pm and wanted to explore the area, we were already able to get into the room! It is a large house with several rooms and 2 garden sheds. There is a jacuzzi and space in the shed to put the mountain bikes.

The room is fine. The beds were pushed apart for our request for twin beds. The room is spacious, there were plenty of towels, clean linen and a nice view.

The last morning we booked an additional breakfast for 12 euros, delicious! My brother and I actually both eat cottage cheese in the morning, so we only had breakfast once in the B&B. The breakfast was very extensive, with different regional products, different types of jam, cold meats, sandwiches, pancakes and an egg was fried

Adventure Park Durbuy

Adventure Park Durbuy is a popular park in the Ardennes and is certainly fun to go to. There are several tickets that you can purchase for this park, a regular ticket costs 37 euros at the door, but online the tickets are 5% cheaper. The park actually has 2 parks, this is something that is not clearly indicated. I would definitely not skip the park that is outside the regular park!

1. Challenge Park

We started with the Challenge Park near the center of Durbuy. This is a high-altitude course with ziplines. A simple explanation is given on how to connect and disconnect yourself and the like. There are 6 courses on 3 different levels. From a tower you can choose your own route and with a zipline you go back to the beginning and then choose a different route. There was also a high climbing wall. This was a lot of fun and we enjoyed ourselves here for at least 2 hours continuously.

In this park is also the naturewalk, but you can also walk without a ticket. It is a 3,5 km loop, a bit of climbing, over a suspension bridge and during the route you can scan QR codes for information about the flora and fauna. Here we saw a squirrel.

2.Adventure Valley

The other park is a bit further, easy to do by car. The parking costs here are 7 euros per day. Here are many more activities you can do. The park is quite busy and you have to be careful that you don't run over or cycle anyone.

In this park we used the MTB rental to mountain bike a trail through the park. The route is not difficult, but sometimes a bit steep. Some extra loops have been built in for the more experienced mountain bikers. There is also a small pump track. People come to this park from all corners of the Ardennes to go mountain biking.

What was also very nice in this park is the Via ferrata with 4 different climbing routes along a rock wall. There was a simple, but good explanation. With the help of iron foot bars, support cables and handles you can climb your way up.

At the top is the Free Fall 32, where you can make a free fall, but you need a different ticket for this.

The 3D labyrinth is an obstacle course in height. It is accessible to everyone. Nice to be able to view the park from above. It net park is also accessible to everyone. You actually walk up between and over the nets.

There are also other activities that you can do in the park, but we didn't do those, because we thought that was more for the younger people in the park, since we are about 30 years old! Although we were a bit older than the average person in the park, we had a great time and had a great time!

There is also a restaurant in the park with various sandwiches, snacks and drinks. I had ordered a sandwich with chicken, this turned out to be a whole baguette! I was able to enjoy this even more the next day. The prices in the park are as normal for an amusement park.

Mountain biking around Durbuy

There are several mountain bike trails in this area. You can start a lot in Durbuy, near the center. On the internet you can find the many routes through the Ardennes on several websites.

We first opted for the red plates, route number 4† At first we could not find the starting point, it turned out to be on the other side of the road. After a small piece of route red number 4 we had missed a sign and we ended up somewhere 15 km from Durbuy .. We had been on the road for almost 4 hours, hadn't eaten anything and cycled back without a route. The part of this route we did was very beautiful and fun for mountain biking.

We also have through the Wikiloc . website cycled a route. This was a handy app, because if you went off the route you received a notification. Perfect for us!

The route was almost 30 km long and we've had it all, steep up, steep down, forest, road, mud, fast, slow, walk, everything you can think of! The height difference was 450 meters, it took us 3 hours, the average speed was 3,5 km per hour, burned 828 kcal and I suffered minor damage to my legs from branches and the pedals. But it was a very nice route, definitely recommended!

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The route along the river Ourthe was recommended to us by the B&B host. It is a very nice route, not difficult at all, just nice to cycle away. After about 10 km you leave the paved road and you do need a mountain bike. In the last part back towards Durbuy there was a small difference in height. We cycled 15,5 km and checked on the phone whether there was anything to eat in the area, but unfortunately. We had missed the previous village and the next village was 23 minutes away, so we went back the same way. All in all, we cycled for almost 2,5 hours along the beautiful river Ourthe.

Tips for Eating in Durbuy

7 by Juliet, tasty tapas (but in French on the menu) and a tasting of desserts finished it off!
Le Vieux Point, good price for a simple but tasty 3-course menu.
La Brasserie Ardennaise, nice restaurant with a nice terrace outside. Delicious eaten!

There are also many terraces and restaurants in the center of Durbuy. Something for everyone!

Closing comments

That was 5 days Durbuy. We did not sit still, walked a lot in the Ardennes, went mountain biking, ate a lot and drank a lot. All in all, we had a very nice mini-vacation and I would recommend everyone to go to Durbuy in the Ardennes. I did not expect that there is so much beauty within a 3 hour drive!

More Ardennes tips? Then read Things to do in the Ardennes from liesronddewereld.nl!