By car · Full day ~60 km
Castle-Hopping Grand Tour
Seven castles in one sweep — from the hands-on knights' halls of Hoensbroek to a candlelit dinner inside the walls of Neercanne.
South Limburg has more castles per square kilometre than anywhere else in the Netherlands. This loop links the greatest hits: climb towers and dungeons at Hoensbroek (the best family castle in the Benelux), walk the abbey courtyards of Rolduc, catch the fairy-tale moat of Schaloen in the Geul valley, then stand on the ramparts of Valkenburg's ruin. End across the border-line gardens of Château Neercanne, where the terraces are Baroque and the wine cellar is a marl cave.
- 1
Hoensbroek Castle
Hoensbroek · €€
Forty furnished rooms, towers and dungeons — kids can be knights.
- 2
Rolduc Abbey
Kerkrade · €
Europe's best-preserved abbey complex, now a stately quarter of Kerkrade.
- 3
Kasteel Erenstein
Kerkrade · €€€
A moated carré castle turned elegant stop for coffee.
- 4
Kasteel Schaloen
Oud-Valkenburg · €
The prettiest moat in the Geul valley — walk the estate lanes.
- 5
Valkenburg Castle Ruins
Valkenburg · €€
Storm the only hilltop castle ruin in the country.
- 6
Château St. Gerlach
Valkenburg · €€€€
Baroque church and manicured estate gardens next door.
- 7
Château Neercanne
Maastricht · €€€€
Finish with dinner in a terraced Baroque château on the Belgian border.