Luxembourg with a Dinant visit: what 3,934 reviewers said
What the reviewers are rating
The five quotes I have from this listing are about four things between them: the guide, the driver, the languages spoken on the coach, and how much of the day is spent sitting on it. That is what a day trip of this length lives or dies on, and 4.6 across nearly four thousand people is a good score for it. Verbatim below, with the typing left as it was written.
“The guide was so friendly and knew so much about each place. Had great tips of where to go, a great sense of humour and the day itself allowed a great amount of time for each place. Although it was 3 hours there and back on the bu…”
“Amazing day trip Our guide Stephane was very nice. We had a wonderful day and a must see.”
“It was a wonderful trip, and our guide Colin made the day even better by explaining everything in both English and French in 35-degree heat, and with his cheerful demeanor.”
“Perfect I loved it and it was very nice for our family as it was the first time to arrive in Luxembourg”
“It was such a lovely day trip out and the guide plus driver were amazing. Visiting Luxembourg and Dinant was perfect and the guide was very knowledgeable and spoke so clearly in both languages. I highly recommend. The early start…”
Two of those trail off mid-sentence because the listing truncates them there, and I have marked where. Tom is partway through the one complaint that recurs on a day of this shape, which is the hours on the coach. Raquel is partway through the same subject from the other end.
The Dinant problem, stated plainly
Dinant has a citadel of its own, upriver from this one, and its photographs circulate under Belgian search terms that also return this hill. It is not the Citadelle de Namur. Neither is the citadel at Huy, which turns up in the itinerary of a third listing on this site alongside both of the others. Three fortresses on one river, and when a reviewer here praises the view from one, they are not praising the one I am writing about.
The same goes for the category tag on this listing, which reads “Underground, catacombs & cemeteries”. That is Luxembourg’s casemates. It is not an inclusion, and it has nothing to do with the galleries under the Citadelle de Namur, which are ticketed at the citadel’s own desk and sold nowhere else.
What works
- Deep rating: 4.6 across 3,934 reviews, the largest sample in this catalogue
- Reviewers name their guides repeatedly, which usually means the guiding is the product rather than the coach
- Bilingual commentary comes up again and again in the quotes
- Dinant and Luxembourg City in one run, if that is the trip you want
Worth knowing
- It does not go to Namur, and nothing in the reviews is about the Citadelle
- A twelve-hour day with a long drive at each end, which is the recurring complaint in the quotes above
- The “underground” category tag refers to Luxembourg, and misleads people searching for the souterrains
- Entry to anything in Namur is not part of it, because Namur is not part of it
If Namur is what you actually want
Then this is the wrong booking, and I would rather lose it than have you spend twelve hours discovering that. Two listings on this site reach the Citadelle by their own account: the Namur photo shoot, whose itinerary takes the cable car or the footpath up, and the private day trip from Brussels, whose inclusions read “Visit of Namur city and citadel”. Neither has a single review, which is the trade you are making.
Photo shootNamur: Photo shoot with a professional photographer
Namur includedFrom Brussels: Dinant and Namur Private Day Trip
Meuse valleyFrom Brussels: Guided Day Trip to Dinant and Luxembourg
The other Brussels coach day covers the same two towns and is reviewed on its own page. Everything else is on the reviews hub, and the hill itself costs nothing to walk, which is the argument of what costs nothing here.
Frequently asked questions
Does this tour go to the Citadelle de Namur?
No. It leaves Brussels, stops at Dinant on the Meuse and spends the rest of the day in Luxembourg City. Namur is not on the itinerary, so none of its 3,934 reviews is about the Citadelle de Namur. The two listings that do reach the fortress are on every tour we list.
Is 4.6 from 3,934 reviews a good score for a day trip?
It is a strong one, and more to the point it is a large enough sample to mean something, which is not true of most listings on this site. What it tells you about is the guiding, the driving and the schedule of a long coach day. It tells you nothing about Namur.
Why is this tour tagged “Underground, catacombs & cemeteries”?
Because of the casemates in Luxembourg City. It is a GetYourGuide category tag, not an inclusion, and it sends people looking for the tunnels under the Citadelle de Namur to the wrong country. Those are described on the souterrains page and sold only at the citadel’s own desk.
What do reviewers complain about?
The hours on the coach, in the quotes I have. Tom’s review is cut off by the listing partway through that exact sentence. It is a twelve-hour day out of Brussels with a long drive at each end, and no rating changes the arithmetic of that.
Is the Dinant citadel the same as the Citadelle de Namur?
No. They are two fortresses on the same river with a stretch of valley between them, and a third at Huy appears in another listing’s itinerary. A reviewer praising the view from Dinant is praising Dinant. What is on this hill is described on what there is to see.