Dinant Travel Guide

Dinant delivers one of Belgium's most dramatic first impressions: a narrow town pressed between the green River Meuse and a sheer rock cliff, with a bulbous-spired collegiate church at the water's edge and a citadel glowering from the heights above. Ride the cable car or climb the steps to the fortress for a view straight down the river valley — then come back to earth for the town's two claims to fame.

The first is musical: Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone, was born here, and the instrument turns up everywhere from the bridge railings to the souvenir shops. The second is the landscape: Dinant is the gateway to the Ardennes, the forested, hilly south of Belgium, and the Meuse here is made for kayaking, cycling, and slow river days. An easy and scenic escape from the flat northern cities, it shows a completely different side of the country.