- Submit a written request for a guided bike tour to Ypres Tourism at least 2 weeks in advance
- Maximum of 25 people per guide
(Small groups of families are also welcome) - Bike tours consist of cycling to the location, followed by a short walk with commentary from an expert guide.
- Bicycles are not included in the activity.
Please bring your own bicycles or contact a local bike rental company
Ypres Salient Bike Tours
These three different bike tours are entirely dedicated to the “visible” relics of World War I in the landscape around Ypres. You’ll follow the arc-shaped front line—also marked by the newly planted memorial trees—which remained nearly unchanged around the center of Ypres during the war years. The new starting points along the Ypres Salient—North, East, and South—are stops along the bike route where you can take a short walk past authentic reminders of the war in the landscape.
- Bring your own bike or rent one
A. Ypres Salient North Starting Point
Route: Grote Markt, Ieperlee Canal, Essex Farm Cemetery (where John McCrae wrote the poem “In Flanders Fields”), Carrefour des Roses, North Starting Point/Yorkshire Trench & Dug-Out, Wieltje, Saint Charles de Potyze French Cemetery.
It is also possible to visit the German cemetery in Langemark during this bike tour.
- Duration: 4 hours
- Guide: €160.00
B. Ypres Salient – East Pickup Point
Route: French cemetery Saint Charles de Potyze, Begijnenbosstraat, 't Hooge/East pick-up point, Hill 62, and Zillebeke Pond
- Duration: 4 hours
- Guide: €160.00
C. Ypres Salient South Pickup Point
Route: Grote Markt, Zillebeke Pond, Hill 60, Caterpillar Crater, Palingbeek/South Pickup Point/The Bluff, Sint-Elooi Crater, and Bedford House Cemetery.
This bike tour offers the option to pass by the French cemetery St. Charles de Potyze.
- Duration: 4 hours
- Guide: €160.00
Bike Tour: The Flat, Water-Rich Ypres
- Distance: 25 kilometers – 4 hours
- Guide: €160.00
- Bring your own bike or rent one
We’ll follow a very flat route of approximately 25 km. Along the way, we’ll highlight the economic, ecological, and even military role that “water” plays—and has played—in and around Ypres.
Passing through the eastern fortifications, we reach the Zillebeke Pond, which has been of great importance for the drinking water supply for centuries and remains so to this day. Further on, we’ll ride along the old Ypres-Komen canal (or how an economic failure became an ecological asset) and also reach the Ypres-Leeuwer Canal.
At Essex Farm Cemetery, we’ll discuss the medical aid station where John McCrae wrote his famous poem “In Flanders Fields” in 1915.
Via the Boezinge lock, we return to Ypres with a brief stop at “Carrefour des Roses” (site of the first gas attack) or a short visit to the Yorkshire Trench (British deep dugout and trenches).
Bike Tour: Green Ypres
- Distance: 30 kilometers – 4 hours
- Guide: €160.00
- Bring your own bike or rent one
This bike tour follows a more undulating route. Passing by the fortifications and along the Bijlanderpad, the guide leads cyclists to the De Palingbeek provincial park. The tour continues along scenic bike paths to the Polygoon Woods in Zonnebeke. After a stop, the group begins the return trip to Ypres. The route covers 30 kilometers.