West Flanders
West Flanders is one of the five provinces of Flanders in Belgium and the country's westernmost. It encompasses Belgium's entire coastline and thus is a favourite travel destination for Belgians in the summer months.| Tap on a place to explore it |
Photo: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Essential Destinations
Top destinations include Bruges and Kortrijk.
Bruges
Bruges is a picturesque city in Flanders, the northern part of Belgium. Once Europe's richest city, it is now both cosmopolitan and bourgeois in its compact size.
Kortrijk
Photo: Velvet, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Kortrijk is a city in Flanders, the northern part of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the arrondissement of Kortrijk, which has about 285,000 inhabitants.
Ypres
Photo: Paul Hermans, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Ypres is a friendly town of 35,000 inhabitants in Flanders endowed with wonderful architecture and a troubled past. Ypres is best known as the site of three major battles of the First World War, the most famous being the Battle of Passchendaele from July to November 1917.
Destinations to Discover
Explore places such as Ostend and Roeselare.
Ostend
Ostend is a seaside city of 70,000 inhabitants in West Flanders in Belgium. Its North Sea beaches have drawn in tourists since the 19th century when it was a fashionable outing for royalty and aristocracy.
Roeselare
Photo: Velvet, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Roeselare is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Roeselare proper and the towns of Beveren, Oekene and Rumbeke.
Knokke-Heist
Photo: Paul Hermans, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Knokke-Heist is a beach resort and town of 33,000 inhabitants on the Belgian sea coast in the northern corner of West Flanders. The mayor, Count Leopold Lippens, said that he wants that worldly people would feel at home here.
Nieuwpoort
Nieuwpoort is a beach resort and medieval port on the Belgian sea coast in West Flanders. Nieuwpoort consists out of two centres: the old medieval centre, with small houses and cobblestone streets, and the coastal centre, comparable to the neighbouring coastal cities: a sandy beach and lots of apartments.
Damme
Photo: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Damme is a postcard-perfect village in the northern corner of West Flanders, about 5 km northeast of Sasplein in Bruges, on the cross-country Damme Canal.
Koksijde
Koksijde is a sea resort in West Flanders. It consists of Koksijde section, the seaside resort of Oostduinkerke and the rural village of Wulpen. In 2018, it had 22,000 permanent residents.
De Haan
De Haan is a beach resort on the Belgian sea coast in West Flanders. Thanks to a clever and strict real estate policy, De Haan has kept the charm of the 1930s, with a lot of white villas and compared to the other Belgian seaside resorts a very limited number of postwar apartment blocks.
Tielt
Photo: Paul Hermans, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Tielt is a small town in the eastern part of the Belgian province of West Flanders. Tielt is about 25 km south of Bruges, the capital of the province. The town has about 20,000 inhabitants.
Poperinge
Photo: Wernervc, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Poperinge is a charming town in the southwest corner of the province of West Flanders, close to the French border. The town of 20,000 inhabitants is mostly known for its World War I heritage sites and captivating beer culture with many hop fields in the surrounding area.
Avelgem
Avelgem is a town in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality has more than 10,000 inhabitants. Avelgem is in the extreme southeast of the province, southeast of Kortrijk, along the Scheldt, against the border with the provinces of East Flanders and Hainaut.
West Flanders
- Type: province of Belgium with 1,230,000 residents
- Description: province in Flanders, Belgium
- Also known as: “BE-VWV”, “Flandre Occidentale”, “Province of West Flanders”, “Provinsje West-Vloandern”, “West Flanders Province”, “West-Vlaanderen”, and “West-Vloandern”
- Neighbors: East Flanders, Hainaut, and Zeeland
- Location: Flanders, Belgium, Benelux, Europe
- View on OpenStreetMap
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Satellite Map
Discover West Flanders from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
In Other Languages
From Afrikaans to Zeeuws—“West Flanders” goes by many names.
- Afrikaans: “Wes-Vlaandere”
- Albanian: “Flandria Perëndimore”
- Arabic: “فلاندرز الغربية”
- Aragonese: “Flandres Occidental”
- Armenian: “Արևմտյան Ֆլանդրիա”
- Asturian: “Flandes Occidental”
- Asturian: “provincia de Flandes Occidental”
- Azerbaijani: “Qərbi Flandiriya”
- Azerbaijani: “Qərbi Flandriya”
- Balinese: “Flandria Kauh”
- Basque: “Mendebaldeko Flandria”
- Belarusian: “Заходняя Фландрыя”
- Belarusian: “Заходняя Фляндрыя”
- Bengali: “ওয়েস্ট ফ্লান্ডার্স”
- Breton: “Proviñs Kornôg-Flandrez”
- Bulgarian: “Западна Фландрия”
- Catalan: “Flandes Occidental”
- Cebuano: “Provincie West-Vlaanderen”
- Chinese: “West-Vlaanderen Séng”
- Chinese: “西佛兰德省”
- Chinese: “西法蘭德斯”
- Corsican: “Fiandri Occidentali”
- Croatian: “Zapadna Flandrija”
- Czech: “Západní Flandry”
- Danish: “Vestflandern”
- Dutch: “Provincie West-Vlaanderen”
- Dutch: “West-Vlaanderen”
- Dutch: “WV”
- Egyptian Arabic: “فلاندر الغربيه”
- Esperanto: “Okcidenta Flandrio”
- Estonian: “Lääne-Flandria provints”
- Finnish: “Länsi-Flanderi”
- French: “Flandre de l’Ouest”
- French: “Flandre-Occidentale”
- French: “Province de Flandre Occidentale”
- French: “province de Flandre-Occidentale”
- French: “Province de Flandre-Occidentale”
- Galician: “Flandres Occidental”
- Georgian: “დასავლეთი ფლანდრია”
- German: “Provinz Westflandern”
- German: “West-Flandern”
- German: “Westflandern”
- Greek: “Δυτική Φλάνδρα”
- Gujarati: “વેસ્ટ ફ્લેન્ડર્સ”
- Hebrew: “מערב פלנדריה”
- Hindi: “वेस्ट फ्लैंडर्स”
- Hungarian: “Nyugat-Flandria”
- Icelandic: “Vestur-Flæmingjaland”
- Indonesian: “Flanders Barat”
- Irish: “Flóndras Thiar”
- Irish: “West-Vlaanderen”
- Italian: “Fiandre occidentali”
- Italian: “Fiandre Occidentali”
- Italian: “Provincia delle Fiandre Occidentali”
- Japanese: “ウェスト＝フランデレン州”
- Kannada: “ವೆಸ್ಟ್ ಫ್ಲಾಂಡರ್ಸ್”
- Kashubian: “Zôpadnô Flandriô”
- Kölsch: “Wäßßflaandere”
- Korean: “베스트플란데런주”
- Latin: “Flandria Occidentalis”
- Latvian: “Rietumflandrija”
- Limburgan: “Wes-Vlaandere”
- Limburgan: “Wes-Vlaondere”
- Lithuanian: “Vakarų Flandrijos provincija”
- Low German: “West-Flannern”
- Low German: “Westfloandern”
- Luxembourgish: “Provënz Westflandern”
- Macedonian: “Западна Фландрија”
- Malay: “Flanders Barat”
- Maltese: “Fjandri tal-Punent”
- Marathi: “पश्चिम फ्लांडर्स”
- Min Nan Chinese: “West-Vlaanderen Séng”
- Northern Frisian: “Prowins Waastflandern”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Vest-Flandern”
- Norwegian: “Vest-Flandern”
- Occitan (post 1500): “Flandra Occidentala”
- Ossetian: “Ныгуылæн Фландри”
- Persian: “استان فلاندری غربی”
- Persian: “فلاندر غربی”
- Picard: “Flande-Occhidintale”
- Polish: “Flandria Zachodnia”
- Polish: “Prowincja Flandria Zachodnia”
- Portuguese: “Flandres Ocidental”
- Romanian: “Flandra de Vest”
- Russian: “Западная Фландрия”
- Saterfriesisch: “Wääst-Flandern”
- Scots: “Wast Flanders”
- Serbian: “Западна Фландрија”
- Serbo-Croatian: “Zapadna Flandrija”
- Sinhala: “බටහිර ෆ්ලන්ඩර්ස්”
- Slovak: “Západné Flámsko”
- Slovenian: “Zahodna Flandrija”
- Spanish: “Flandes Occidental”
- Spanish: “Provincia de Flandes Occidental”
- Swedish: “Västflandern”
- Tamil: “மேற்கு பிலான்டெர்ஸ்”
- Tamil: “மேற்கு பிளாண்டர்சு”
- Tamil: “மேற்கு பிளான்டெர்ஸ்”
- Tatar: “Көнбатыш Фландрия”
- Telugu: “వెస్ట్ ఫ్లాండర్స్”
- Thai: “จังหวัดเวสต์ฟลานเดอส์”
- Thai: “จังหวัดแว็สต์-ฟลานเดอเริน”
- Tosk Albanian: “Provinz Westflandern”
- Turkish: “Batı Flandre”
- Ukrainian: “Західна Фландрія”
- Urdu: “مغربی فلانڈرز”
- Vietnamese: “Tây Flanders”
- Vietnamese: “West-Vlaanderen”
- Vlaams: “Provinsje West-Vloandern”
- Vlaams: “West-Vloandern”
- Volapük: “Vesüda⸗Flanän”
- Volapük: “West-Vlaanderen”
- Walloon: “Flande coûtchantrece”
- Walloon: “Province di Flande coûtchantrece”
- Walloon: “Province di Wess-Flande”
- Waray (Philippines): “West-Vlaanderen”
- Welsh: “Gorllewin Fflandrys”
- Western Frisian: “West-Flaanderen”
- Western Panjabi: “لیندا فلینڈرز”
- Wu Chinese: “西佛兰德省”
- Yue Chinese: “西法蘭德斯”
- Zeeuws: “West-Vlaonderen”
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About Mapcarta. Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, except for photos, directions, and the map. Description text is based on the Wikivoyage page “West Flanders”. Photo: MJJR, CC BY 3.0.