Our surroundings
Gistel is a small town of about 10.000 inhabitants, with all necessary shops, more than five bakeries, more than five butchers, three supermarkets, three chemists, post office, swimming pool, etc. You can do all these by bicycle. There's also the local market on mondays. Shops are normally open from 9h to 18.00h. But in Oostende all shops stay open till 20h00. The language in Flanders is Dutch. But many people speak or understand English, French, and sometimes German. The Belgian coast is at about 10 minutes with the car. If you want the nice dunes, then you should count half an hour by car. Bruges is also just a quarter of an hour's drive away. One of our Intervac exchangers did it by bicycle; a long part can be done along a canal. It's flat everywhere. The Belgian coast has a lot off nice fishermen's ports (Oostende, Nieuwpoort, Zeebrugge...)
There are a lot of activities and things to visit at our coast:
Click below for an overview.
Bruges is 15 km away.
If you follow our street in the direction of Bruges, you automatically get at one of the old main entrances, the "Smedenpoort".
Click below for a nice video of Bruges.
The end of the coast line to the west is Plopsaland, a very popular Amusement parc for children. Click on the image for their website. Tram stops there.
Small animal farm for children and adults, at 11 km from Gistel.
Click on the image for more pictures.
Animal Park De Zonnegloed Vleteren
Just half an hour by car
Nieuwpoort has a nice port with lighthouse.
Click on the image to go to their website.
Belgium has a lot of castles: here are just two of them,the first one is in Torhout (12 km), the second one is in Gent (65 km).
Caste at Torhout at 15 km from Gistel.
Castle in the center of Gent
Gent is a very beautiful and cultural city
Where there was once an old railway track, there is now a nice bicycle road, through the fields, from Gistel to Oostende and to Torhout.Groene 62
Our city has a nice windmill. A very special one. It is used to mill grain and to press oil. It can be visited and seen in action, nearly every day in the summer holidays.
And Flanders has a lot of windmills.
If you go to Bruges, on the eastern city walls you'll find 4 windmills, one is mostly in action and open for public.
Look here: Windmills Flanders (go to Molenkaart)
Close to Oostende you'll find Bredene and De Haan with beautiful sand dunes.
If you are interested in the second world war,we have Walraversijde, a part of our coastline, intact since the end of the second world war, a couple of kilometers of the Atlantic Wall.
Ypres/Ieper is the center of the World War I battlefields.At 15 km you'll find an authentic part of the Atlantik Wall of the second World War with bunkers and trenches.
Click here to go to their website.
http://www.raversyde.be/en/atlantikwall-0http://www.raversyde.be/en/atlantikwall-0
Brussels is just one hour by car
Antwerp, the city of Painter Rubens, it's beautiful cathedral, musea, port...
With the tramway you can see our whole coast (65km) in a couple of hours.
According to The Gardian 04/04/2023: 'Rail route of the month': Read their article here: Rail route of the month: a tram ride along the Belgian coast
The beach (Oostende/Ostend) is 15 km West. On a sunny day it can be very crowded.
But on a clouded or windy day it's also very nice
Watch a video of Ostend
One of the greatest and most beautiful animal parcs is Pairi Daiza. It is at one and a half hour by car, but exceptionally beautiful.
Elephants, girafs, panda's, hippos, pingiuns, zebras, flaminos, bisons, a lot of birds in cages you can walk in, impressive show with birds of prey,the largest chinese garden in Europe, beautiful buildings,
Click here or on the image to go to their website.
Some other interesting sites :
Flanders: Toerisme Vlaanderen
Oostende: Ostend
Bruges: Bruges
Brussels: Brussels
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