Swimming pools are in almost all villages around, except in Haacht itself. Boating and wind-surfing, too, can be done at a short distance. There's a large, friendly family zoo ("Plankendael"), specialising in breeding animals, with a large park for fine summer walks and challenging children's playgrounds, near Mechelen (10 km from here), and another, an even more world-famous one in Antwerp. Restaurants are in ample variety.
The seaside (North Sea) is at 130 km. Gent (Ghent) is about 80 km, Brugge (Bruges) about 110 km. The Netherlands are either to the North or to the East at 1 hour's drive. Germany half an hour further to the East. Paris is about 4 hours (two and a half by high-speed train). All those towns are connected by 4 to 6-lane motorways (speed limits are 50 km/hr - or less - in village and town centres, school areas 30 km/hr, 70 and occasionally 90 km/hr for longer stretches in rural areas and 120 km/hr on motorways). Even Great-Britain is only three to four hours away through the Channel tunnel (train or car-on-train). To the South of Brussels and Leuven are large woods. One hour further to the South are hills and mountains: the Belgian Ardennes and the Eifel in Germany.