Belgium Rally 2025
Nov 06 2024
The organisation for the 2025 rally is at an advanced stage and will be centred at a hotel close to Niewpoort in Belgium and will take place from Thursday 5 June 2025 to Tuesday 10 June 2025. Please put these dates in your diary if you are interested in joining us.
At this stage we are keen to obtain an idea of numbers and therefore if you would like to join us, then please can you complete the attached application form. There is no obligation on you at this stage, we are trying to assess interest and will be contacting you early in the new year, when we will have more information for you and when we will need a financial commitment.
We have listed below the key information that you may be interested in, but if you want further information then please email me on ncanfor@outlook.com or phone me on 07887 690405.
Location
The event will be based at Hotel Domein Westhoek (https://www.domein-westhoek.be/nl/) which is a 3 star hotel with plenty of parking for trailers and is located about a 10 minute walk from the beach and is about 1.5 miles South of Nieuwpoort.
Calais is about an hour away by motorway, but there are other ports available including Dieppe, Dunkirk and Ostend. So, there is plenty of choice and will be dependent on where you are travelling from.
Itinery
The provisional plan is as follows:
Thursday – we will arrive in the afternoon and this will be a setting in day.
Friday - will be a short ‘shakedown’ rally of about 32 miles, visiting an outdoor museum and historic town square.
Saturday - will be a 60 mile rally visiting WW1 places of interest (museum at Passendale, trenches, cemeteries and a bar/restaurant dedicated to WW1)
Sunday will be a free day that could be spent at nearby Brugges which is a beautiful city with windmills, chocolatiers and lots of retail opportunities!!! Or, to travel to Ipes which has a huge amount of WW1 history, including the Menin Gate and is a very beautiful city, in its own right.
Monday will be rally day of about 45 miles and will take in a beautiful town square, lovely quiet roads next to canals, a visit to a motor museum and the gala dinner.
Tuesday we will depart for home after breakfast.
The roads are generally quiet, the countryside is very flat and we are making a lot of effort to avoid the cobbles!
Other
We will not be providing a recovery vehicle so you would be well advised to bring a trailer, especially as it can be problematic to board a ferry if a vehicle will not drive under its own steam. I will act as tail end Charlie and be able to return anyone to the hotel car park if the worst happens.
Costs
The costs for the hotel, meals entry to events etc. have not been finalised yet, but are likely to be comparable to previous DDBUK rallies in Europe, so in the region of £1,725 for a couple (as was the case with Vannes rally) but this would exclude any costs of ferries/Le Shuttle which would be met by the applicant.