A WWI history excursion to Belgium would not be complete without spending time here. The building…read morein which it is housed is a sight unto itself as it features wonderful architecture. The museum allows a somewhat personalized visit as a watch issued upon entry allows registration of basic information such as nationality and preferred language. One can then activate certain displays to get a response specific to that information. There are many items of interest to the history buff and the casual observer alike. It will require two to three hours at minimum to take in all of the information though some will spend more. The displays are excellent. The multimedia presentation is gripping and very well done featuring re-enactments of the accounts of medical personnel. For an extra cost, you can choose to climb the tower to take in the magnificent views afforded by the perspective from the top. Overall, this is a must-see if you are visiting Ypres. The information presented is outstanding, the displays are well done and the museum is well laid out. The €9 fee is unquestionably worth it.

What do you do when you've already visited Brussels & Bruges? We decided to take an In Flanders…read moreFields tour that includes admission to this museum. It was a great tour! It's located in the reconstructed Cloth Hall (Lakenhalle) at Grote Markt in Ypres. Did you know that it had been totally destroyed during WWI? You would never know this by looking at it. The museum itself is very well done. It focuses on the battles of the Ypres Salient. It's the Western Front in WWI that covered about 9.2 square miles and formed a semicircle around Ypres. The objective of the museum is to show more of the human side of the trench warfare battlefield through personal experiences and artifacts. There's a great amount of information about the artillery projectiles that were responsible for two-thirds of all deaths on the battlefield. There's also a display of medical items used to dress these wounds during the battle and at Advanced Dressing Stations such as the one in Essex Farm. The chemical warfare exhibit is the most haunting of them all, but then you'll see art in the midst of all of it. The art pieces are scattered throughout the displays as a segue or transition that humanizes the subject matter. My only regret is not purchasing the audio guide. They give you a microchipped poppy bracelet that allows you to enter. It can be personalized, but no one really gives you any instructions on how to program it. Who has the time for that anyway? It can be used with the interactive displays to scan for personal stories of people who lived through the war. You can keep the bracelet as a souvenir. We just dropped it back into the dedicated container on the way out. There's an option to climb up to the bell tower if you have the time. We also saw a nice café in the museum with a gift shop. We had a very nice visit at the museum and Ypres. It's a beautiful city!

This was a very nice museum. I really enjoyed the exhibit here. Before coming, i read that the…read moremuseum had been closed and renovated. If that's true, they did a wonderful job. The rooms are layers out in a timeline. The very first thing you see is a video that goes over the battle at Dunkirk. You then move on to learn about the civilians, life during the war, and Dunkirk's place in all of that. There are a lot of artifacts and memorabilia. There is a very well done model of some of the shops involved in the rescue. And there is a lot to read! You can easily spend a good hour learning about this important piece of history. I highly recommend a visit.

Terrific museum We spent the best part of a rainy Saturday…read moreafternoon in this surprisingly good art museum. There was an extensive and varied collection of art and it was terrific value at €7. It would have been great if there had been some information in English.

I'm going to be very upfront in the beginning of this review, when I arrived at Palais des Beaux…read moreArts I was pretty burnt out with museums at this point, it was extremely cold, raining, and we were waiting in a line outside for like twenty minutes so the start to this experience was pretty miserable. Once we got into the building and through the security checkpoint, you could tell right away that this place was pretty beautiful. The building itself is 3 stories and each floor has something a little bit different to offer you. We headed down first and spent some time looking at the statues which were absolutely incredible, followed by the second floor which was a mixture of different pieces of art and a dome style room you could sit on beanbags and watch something. The main event of the show was upstairs where I couldn't even estimate the insane amount of paintings that fill the walls of the different colored rooms. The rooms themselves are all tall and covered from floor to ceiling with such incredible pieces, and everything you think you are done suddenly the red painted rooms turn into white rooms or green rooms and it just keeps going, it was truly remarkable. Overall, the Palais des Beaux Arts was a fantastic place to spend an hour or so learning about French art. Did I leave some stuff out? Yeah, because this was like my 23rd museum and at some point they start blending together. I loved how diverse the art here was and really did enjoy walking around, I highly recommend checking this place out if you are in Lille.

The story behind this place is that during some time after the war some children were playing in…read morethe forest and one of them fell down a hole. When their parents came to rescue them they discovered a huge network of preserved trenches. In fact this is apparently one of the very few preserved trenches from the war namely beause after the war ended, with the exception of a couple of patches of land, and a huge number of cemeteries, any trace of the war was pretty much destroyed. However, this is on private land but it has been opened to the public for you to crawl through the old trenches and bunkers, and it is definitely worth checking out. I came here on one of the tours, and you do need to purchase tickets to enter.

These are the only trenches left intact from the Battles of Ypres in World War I. They are a grim…read morereminder of how millions of soldiers lived and died during the four years of the conflict. The farmer who preserved the (British/Canadian) fortifications passed them on to his grandson, who still operates a private cafe and museum on the grounds. The museum is a bit hokey, but the trenches themselves are certainly real enough. And what an odd name for the place - it was anything but a sanctuary, and within a few days of the conflict's start, any wood had been completely blown to bits.

A great place to visit & experience the Ypres salient battle field. Trenches & tunnels to explore…read more A museum full of artefacts & photographs including old slide boxes to view. It is also strewn with old shells. It's 10 euros to enter. There is a cafe for coffee & snacks. The only problem is the the 15 cats that have free rein & their associated smell within the cafe area.

The museum building was being renovated on the outside so looked a bit shabby but once inside the…read moremaze of small rooms on the 2nd floor held information about the other allies, in the main the Belgians and their part in the war. The other interesting part to this is that they have recreated underground bunkers in the cellars which was interesting. The museum is set in a park with a lake, which would have been nice if it hadn't have been raining during our visit. Car parking is free & entrance is 5 Euro per person. Toilets are available but are a bit public, by that I mean, men & women can hear each other going!

By far the best museum for WWI. We visited The Flanders Field Museum as well as other trenches and…read morethis museum was WAY better. We had our 4 young children (ages 4-10) with us and everyone enjoyed the museum. It is so comprehensive, interactive and fabulous. I feel if you're only seeing one museum that this is the one to see. Unfortunately we went to the Flanders Field Museum after and were so disappointed after this museum. Must see!

If you're a beer enthusiast, this is a must visit. They do some cool exhibits on the history of hop…read morefarming, and after driving the area and seeing modern hop vines, it was cool to know how they got that way. There are also a handful of displays on breweries that are local to the Ieper and Poperinge area. On the ground level is a 42 cabinet display of almost every beer made in Belgium, from every region except Brussels. (I told them Brussels was missing and she said she'd note it to the guys.)

Everybody knows that Belgium is famous for beer, but there would be no beer in Belgium if it wasn't…read morefor hops. Hops are plants used in beer making that are a stabilizing agent and also to give it flavor. The Hop Museum celebrates this plant by showing the history of it, which was once harvested in abundance in the area. You are given an audio guide that will talk to you through the displays over the museum's four floors. Other than a couple short movies and quizzes, you will learn how the hops were grown and harvested, about the peasants and foreigners who used to come to Poperinge to help out with the harvest, and of course the celebrations (with lots of beer!) that were held after the harvest was completed. Hops are still grown in the area but not in the numbers as before, with most of Belgium's hops now coming from Germany and the Czech Republic. This museum is very interesting and will give you a better apprecation for the nation's favorite drink. And just added to the museum is the Belgian Beer Wall so you can see the hundreds of different national brews. Sante!