Why this ride
A 211 km loop that starts and ends near Liège, about 3 h 34 of riding. The stops in between: Spa, Signal de Botrange, La Roche en Ardenne and Durbuy. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Belgian Ardennes Scenic Loop from Liège
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 211 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 34
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Belgian Ardennes Scenic Loop
For about 40 km this is Belgian Ardennes Scenic Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 40 km
- Named road
- Belgian Ardennes Scenic Loop
Belgian Ardennes Scenic Loop
The ride follows Belgian Ardennes Scenic Loop for 25 km.
Rider note
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 25 km
Signal de Botrange → La Roche en Ardenne
51 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it — this is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 67 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Liege
Liège is a hard-working Walloon city on the Meuse, where steelworks once glowed along the river and the people have a reputation for warmth and bluntness. It has none of the polished prettiness of Bruges, and that is part of its appeal. The old centre is a tangle of lanes and courtyards under the hill called the Citadelle, with the grand Palace of the Prince-Bishops standing on a vast square, a reminder that this was an independent church state for nearly eight centuries.
Read the complete Liege write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Liege is where the day begins. Next is Spa.
2. Spa
The word spa comes from this town, and that is the kind of claim that most places make and few can prove. Here it happens to be true: Spa, in the Ardennes foothills of eastern Belgium, has been a place for taking the waters since the Romans, who are said to have noted its iron-rich springs, and from the sixteenth century it was a fashionable resort. Visitors have included the Russian emperor Peter the Great, who came in 1717 to cure his stomach, and the town's central spring, the Pouhon Pierre-le-Grand, is named after him. The bottled water that bears the town's name is sold worldwide, and the little town has a quiet, slightly faded charm, with grand hotels, a thermal baths complex on the hill and a casino.
Read the complete Spa write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Spa comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Signal de Botrange.
3. Signal de Botrange
Belgium's highest point is a gentle bump in a moor, and the country is rather proud of it. Signal de Botrange stands at 694 metres in the Hautes Fagnes, a high plateau of peat bog in the east of Wallonia near the German border, and it is so modest that a short stone staircase was built on top to give it a little extra height. Climb the steps and you reach a round 700 metres, which is, technically speaking, as high as anyone in the kingdom can stand, and the view across the heather and the fir trees is an unexpectedly open one.
Read the complete Signal de Botrange write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 65 km into the recorded legs you reach Signal de Botrange. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is La Roche en Ardenne, mostly downhill.
4. La Roche en Ardenne
La Roche-en-Ardenne is a town of about four thousand folded into a tight loop of the Ourthe river, with the ruins of a medieval castle on a rock above the rooftops. The Ardennes here are not high, but they are steep: wooded ridges cut by deep, winding valleys, with fast clear rivers, slate roofs and stone farmhouses. The town was a tourist favourite long before the motorcycle, and it fills on summer weekends with riders from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, who come for the roads.
Read the complete La Roche-en-Ardenne write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
La Roche en Ardenne, about halfway. Next is Durbuy.
5. Durbuy
Durbuy bills itself as the smallest city in the world, a claim based on a charter granted in 1331, and while the title is more marketing than fact, the little town on the Ourthe river in the Belgian Ardennes is a delight. Its old centre, packed into a bend of the river beneath a limestone cliff, is a tangle of cobbled lanes, stone houses and small squares, with a castle above that has belonged to the same noble family for centuries.
Read the complete Durbuy write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Durbuy sits at 117 km, late in the day. Next is Liege.
6. Liege
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Liege write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 211 km.
Leg by leg
Liege to Spa
Liege → Spa is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Spa to Signal de Botrange
Spa → Signal de Botrange is 25 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Signal de Botrange to La Roche en Ardenne
Signal de Botrange → La Roche en Ardenne is 67 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
La Roche en Ardenne to Durbuy
La Roche en Ardenne → Durbuy is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Durbuy to Liege
Durbuy → Liege is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- High Fens and Spa Loop · 43 km
- Brussels · Eifel and High Fens Day · 321 km
- Ourthe and La Roche Loop · 107 km