Guided days near the Citadelle de Namur
I live at the bottom of this hill and walk the Route Merveilleuse most weeks, so I am asked the tour question often. The answer has to start with what a booking cannot do for you here, because the listings themselves are clear about it and the search results around them are not.
Namur itself
Five listings begin in Namur or stop here. The two walks with a local, one of an hour and one of two, cover the town below the fortress; both say in writing that entry tickets for museums and monuments are not included, and on this hill that sentence means the tunnels. The photo shoot is the only listing whose itinerary describes the climb: it takes the cable car or the footpath up, and its exclusions name the cable-car ticket as yours to buy. The private day trip from Brussels puts Namur and its citadel in the inclusions and says nothing at all about paid entry, so read that as the walls, the ramparts and the view.
The Bastogne day is on this list because it passes Namur, not because it stops at the citadel. Its included tickets are the War Museum, the Mardasson Memorial and Bois Jacques, none of them in Namur. If the Citadelle is what you came for, this is not the day that gets you to it.
Walk with a localNamur: Best Intro 2-hour Walk with a Local
One hourNamur: Express Walk with a Local in 60 minutes
Photo shootNamur: Photo shoot with a professional photographer
Namur includedFrom Brussels: Dinant and Namur Private Day Trip
Drives through NamurBastogne, Battle of the Bulge Private Tour from Brussels
The one that actually goes up
If you want a guide and the hill in the same booking, the photo shoot is the listing that says so in its own itinerary. Budget separately for the ride: the fares are on the cable car page, and walking up costs nothing.
Down the Meuse
South of Namur the river runs towards Dinant, and three of the twelve go that way. The two coach days from Brussels are the only products on this page with real review depth behind them, thousands of reviews between them, and neither comes to Namur’s citadel. They stop at Dinant and cross into Luxembourg. The third is a château and a wine tasting at Bioul, between the two towns.
One thing to watch on those two coach listings. Both carry a GetYourGuide category tag that reads “Underground, catacombs & cemeteries”, which sends people here looking for the souterrains. The tag is about the casemates in Luxembourg City. It is not an inclusion and it has nothing to do with the galleries under this hill, which are described on the souterrains page.
Most reviewedFrom Brussels: Luxembourg Tour with Dinant Visit
Meuse valleyFrom Brussels: Guided Day Trip to Dinant and Luxembourg
Near DinantBioul: Château de Bioul Tour and Wine Tasting
Wallonia around it
Four more days out, none of them near the Citadelle: the Van Gogh house at Mons, the Napoleon virtual-reality experience at Waterloo, a beer tour and tasting at La Chouffe and Orval Abbey, and a guided walk round medieval Braine-le-Comte. They are listed because people who give Wallonia three or four days ask what else there is, and because the answer is not always another fortress. For the Namur end of that question, see what else there is to do here.
MonsMons: The Van Gogh House
WaterlooWaterloo: Napoleon Virtual Reality Experience
Beer and abbeyGuided Tour: La Chouffe & Orval Abbey Beer Tour with Tasting
Medieval townBraine-le-Comte: Guided Tour of the Medieval City
Six of the twelve have no rating at all
Both Namur walks, the photo shoot, the private Brussels day trip, the Orval and La Chouffe day and the Braine-le-Comte walk carry no star rating and no reviews. That is not a poor score. It is no score, and there is nothing on those pages for you to read before you commit. Four of the six are the listings closest to this hill, which is an awkward thing for a site like this one to admit and true anyway.
The review depth sits with the two coach days down the Meuse, and those reviewers are describing Dinant and Luxembourg. A traveller praising the view at Dinant is not praising the Citadelle de Namur, and I have kept the two apart on the reviews page, where every quote names the tour it came from.
If a listing has no reviews and you want a guide anyway, book the one with free cancellation and message the operator first with the plain question: do we go up the hill, and do I pay for the cable car? The two Namur walks answer that in their own exclusions, in writing.
Can’t make these dates?
Browse more available Citadelle de Namur tours and find one that fits your schedule — all with instant confirmation and free cancellation.
Before you book any of them
Work out what the hill costs first, because for most of a visit the answer is nothing: the free half of the Citadelle is set out on what costs nothing here. If you want the tunnels, the tariff and both passes are in a table on the tickets page. If you would rather not climb, the cable car is a separate ticket from a separate operator. And if you are still deciding whether to come at all, is it worth it is the version I would give a friend.
Frequently asked questions
Does any of these tours include a ticket for the souterrains?
No. Not one of the twelve includes entry to the underground galleries, to Terra Nova, to the Citadel in the Middle Ages, or a Citadelle Pass. Those are sold at the citadel’s own desk and nowhere else, and the prices are listed on the tickets page. What the tunnels are actually like is on the souterrains page.
Which tours actually go up to the Citadelle?
Two. The Namur photo shoot, whose itinerary takes the cable car or the footpath up to the fortress and lists the cable-car ticket as excluded, and the private day trip from Brussels, whose inclusions read “Visit of Namur city and citadel”. Neither says anything about paying to go inside. The ride up is priced on the cable car page.
Why do six of the twelve show no reviews?
They carry no rating at all, so there is no score to interpret and no traveller text to read. The two Brussels coach days down the Meuse hold nearly all the review depth on this page, and their reviewers are describing Dinant and Luxembourg rather than Namur. Every quote I use names its tour on the reviews page.
Do I need a tour to see the Citadelle at all?
No. The citadel is a public park you can walk at any time of year at no cost, and the car parks around it are free too, which is the whole argument of what costs nothing here. A tour buys you a guide and a route, not admission. Getting yourself here is covered on how to get there.
Is the Bastogne tour a Citadelle tour?
No. It drives through Namur on its way east and does not stop at the fortress; the tickets it includes are the War Museum, the Mardasson Memorial and Bois Jacques. If the fortress is the point of your day, look at the Namur listings above or read what there is to see up here.