The 12 best parks and gardens in Mechelen

Visited the zoo on a Monday with my daughter. Well worth the trip. Although I was a bit shocked about the price of parking (you can park for free close by…) , the park itself felt reasonably priced and was well organized! Seems they are rebuilding and revamping in some places, but that wasn’t a problem as we got to see all the animals.

You can easily spend the whole day here. There is a lot to see, animals are separated by continents of origin, and most of them have decently sized living spaces. There are enough food and drink stops, toilets and playgrounds for children.

We visited Planckendael on Saturday with family and a small child. There is plenty of parking on site. It costs €11 for one day and €32 for a yearly pass, which is a good deal! The animals are organized by continent, and we managed to visit three continents in one day. There are many play areas for kids, which is really nice. On the downside, the washrooms were not clean at all. We checked four different ones, and it seemed like no one was in charge of maintaining them, which is disappointing. The bird enclosures were quite small, with not enough space for them to fly. Other animals seemed to have better conditions, although of course a real jungle would always be more suitable. There are also several restaurants and places to grab a drink or ice cream. We chose the warm food self-service restaurant, which wasn’t very crowded, but the prices were high for self-service. The tables were not clean, and the service was quite slow. Honestly, if they lowered their prices, I believe they would have more clients. On the positive side, there is also a flying show at certain hours, which could be very interesting for some visitors. I also noticed a baby cabin with a microwave for parents who want to rest or warm up their baby’s food, which is a very nice detail. All in all, considering everything, I give Planckendael 4 stars out of 5. Thank you to the team, and I really hope to see some progress on my next visits.

To maximize revenue and improve the visitor experience, it would be helpful to have more than one food court open in the park. The kids were quite hungry and only Asia’s food court was available. Otherwise, it’s a wonderful zoo. I’d happily visit every week if I lived nearby!

One of the best zoo's ive been to worldwide! A bit expensive but worths it. You need at least 4hours to finish it, so better come early

First off, we are zoo people (we have a membership at our home zoo and often go to zoos in places we visit), so do with that what you will. We have visited our fair share of zoos around the world and this particular zoo is without question the best one we have had the pleasure of visiting. It is also one of the more expensive ones, but the cost was well justified in my opinion. We spent over 5 hours in our first visit to this zoo and only made it through about 2/3 of the zoo itself. The layout of the zoo was simply incredible: the walks between exhibits were beautiful and each major exhibit had a variety of different vantage points (some being incredibly high and one being a tunnel you can crawl into for a from the ground view). Overall the animal exhibits were amazing and the activities and parks for kids were the best we have seen at a zoo. The one caveat was that the food was quite expensive so maybe pack some snacks or bring your own lunch. We will definitely be returning to Planckendael Zoo next time we are in the area - thanks for an amazing experience!

A beautiful zoo where animals are kept in habitats that feel as natural as possible. There are also several great playgrounds that kids will love. The food is good, though a bit pricey—especially the drinks.

Vrijbroekpark is a beautiful and well-maintained provincial green domain in Mechelen. It’s perfect for a relaxing walk, not really for hiking – more of a leisurely stroll kind of place. The park is very dog-friendly, with plenty of open space and paths to enjoy with your four-legged friend. The gardens are absolutely stunning, especially in spring and summer when everything is in full bloom. A peaceful spot to unwind, enjoy nature, or have a quiet picnic. Not an adventure park, but definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area!

Was able to have a bachelorette picnic here because of the available picnic tables. One of the park's features was its pond, with lively croaking frogs. This added a nice touch to our celebration. I was impressed by the park's upkeep. Despite its popularity, the grounds were spotless. People came for a run, to cycle, relax or even practice yoga here. You can fully get in your element here. I like it here.

Nice park near Mechelen, worth a visit for a walk through nature. There is a tavern in the center of the park, and a kids playground. Recommended. 👍

Rainy walk can be enjoyable! Nice place to unwind.

This park/green space has it all - enough lush green space, the coolest playgrounds for younger and older kids, wonderful place for a walk and a restaurant. Next to the restaurant you can find toilets and you can use them even though you don't need to order anything in the restaurant. It is yet another great park in Flanders, Belgium!

One of the best parks I’ve ever been to. It’s very big with a lot of different zones. Roses,mixed flower beds, trees, lawns, sport fields…all you could expect from a park, and more.

Place is too good with lot of greenery . Park have lot of space for jogging , walking area and chairs for sitting. It has lake where you can do fishing. It has restaurant and washroom in there. You can come here to play bakset ball , cricket , tennis , soccer etc games. They have decicated ground for the same. Love the beauty of this place. Park has area where you can find lot of variety of roses and other flowers and plants. Spent a day with your family and friends.

It was fun to walk around this site as well as walking through it. Standing under the wooden gate hung in the air, and using the reflection of the sunlight on my smartphone as a torch, I was able to see the detail of those walls hidden far above my head and in the darkness.

Used to be more useful, now everyone can just get around the whole thing since they tore down the wall. Now it is just a bit pointless and a huge risk to the city defenses when some duchy decides to lay siege again.

It's a nice historical well maintained building, however you can't really go inside and it's also in the middle of an area with high traffic around it. Interesting to look at and spend five minutes to take a photo, but nothing more.

I enjoyed exploring the site and wandering through it. It is an interesting building in the middle of the road. I enjoyed looking at it and spent five minutes taking photographs, but nothing more.

In the middle of a multi-way crossing close to the canal, this is the imposing, surviving and restored gate of the old wall around Mechelen. You can climb the stairs up, I believe. You can also take pictures of it. That is about all, though. It's beautiful, but doesn't offer much more than it's history and a great sight.

This was a must see for this area, but it wasn't open for viewing or anything. It was still quite neat to snap some pictures of a historic gate. The gate is located in a rather hectic part of the city that is less friendly to pedestrians than the rest. The crosswalks are on very long timers here.

As good as an airport can be, but as a smoker person I am very disappointed how smoking is treated after a check-in. I know I should not and it is in public interest to force back this habit, but if you do smoke you should get as much as you can before check-in, and than don't look for the smoking area - It's the worst I've ever seen.

A rather discreet baroque church that was granted the title of basilica. It merits a short visit for the stunning sculptures.

Small but with a magical force, excellent play of light. The recent renovation makes it very bright. A labyrinth, woodcarving and peace.

Beautiful quiet baroque cathedral with some magnificent pieces of art including woodcarving.

Reviewing my ancestors as I am a van Hanswyk trying to find out more if anyone has knowledge of van Hanswyk or any interesting information i would be very grateful

I goes to this beautiful church on a regular basis to be in the presence of the Lord. Pray, empty my mind, light 🕯️ candles, and talk to God in the house of God makes me feel better and relief and happy.

Mavellous design with the roof or doom

A very lovely priest,a great place to worship and in the heart of the city

Its a catastrophy. Food is made of plastic… worst experience ever

There is only fast food. The doner kebab was atrocious.

The doner is not edible. Dry and bland, no taste, and extremely overpriced at 17 euros.

We visited as a group of three before the Dragon and Unicorn Light Show at Planckendael. Whereas the zoo is lovely and well and thoughtfully designed, this restaurant is unfortunately not up to par. The price-quality-ratio is, as referenced by other reviews, quite bad. Ketchup or mayonnaise, e.g., cost heavily extra (about four times the amount you have to pay at McDonald’s), the Döner plate is at about 17-18 Euros, etc. What was really astonishing, was the quality of the food. Maybe I was lucky so far, but never have I ever had frites this bad in Belgium. Same goes for the chicken nuggets. My friends said the same of their dishes. The plates of the other visitors were returned half full. My recommendation is if there is no alternative that you go for the prepacked salads.

Modern clean building. Cafeteria type diner, food is okay. Fast service!

Hugely overpriced for the food-quality, rather a go-to because of the lack of substitutes.

Good food and good prices

(Translated by Google) Yesterday we went to Planckendael and in the afternoon we had lunch here. I ordered a 4 cheese pizza but received a margherita pizza. To be sure, I tasted my daughter's pizza, which was a margherita pizza. Both pizzas tasted the same. The other people in our party also indicated that I had indeed received a pizza margherita. However, when I returned with the pizza and told my story, I was told that I had indeed received a 4 cheese pizza. Mistakes can be made, but if they do not admit their mistakes, I find this very unfortunate. I am a subscriber and regular customer and have already eaten the 4-cheese pizza several times. What I had to eat now was certainly not a 4-cheese pizza. I am not at all satisfied with this service! (Original) Gisteren waren wij naar Planckendael gegaan en 's middags gingen we hier lunchen. Ik had een pizza 4 kazen besteld maar een pizza margherita gekregen. Voor alle zekerheid heb ik van de pizza van mijn dochter geproefd welke een pizza margherita was. Beide pizza's smaakten hetzelfde. ook de andere mensen in ons gezelschap gaven aan dat ik inderdaad een pizza margherita gekregen had. Toen ik echter met de pizza terugging en mijn verhaal deed, kreeg ik te horen dat ik wel degelijk een 4 kazen pizza gekregen had. Fouten kunnen gemaakt worden maar als ze hun fouten niet toegeven vind ik dit zeer jammer. Ik ben een abonnee en vaste klant en heb al meermaals de 4 kazen pizza gegeten wat ik nu heb moeten eten was alleszins geen pizza 4 kazen. Ik ben totaal niet tevreden met deze service!

(Translated by Google) Very busy, took a long time to order. (Original) Zeer druk, heel lang aanschuiven om te bestellen.

Nice domain with lots of farm animals. There is plenty of space for playing, picnicking, wandering around or just chilling. The farm have many activities for kids. There are alsohave a huge playground and adventure hike for children to discover the forest.

Fantastic domain. Great for kids on a sunny day.

This is a great park to visit next to Mechelen. There is a big playground, multiple ponds, a castle and a petting zoo. Parking is sometimes is a bit hard, but definitely worth the visit and fabulous for half a day out with kids. They sometimes also host events, so make sure to check their calendar!

My kid loved it .best garden in town. Must visit. Lot of swings and adventure activities are there. And it's kind small zoo as well. Some peta like duck, ,pigs goats there.very nice

A great park to relax in the bosom of nature! You can make a barbecue. There are benches with a table. Children's Playground and a few animals- sheep, horses. 😃

Nice domein to walk in but most times the kids can only see a few birds and a couple Shetland ponies 🐎... Difficult to find a parking spot.

Nice parc. It is not very big so you can explore it very quickly.

(Translated by Google) Unprofessional company. Maintenance contract with them where they would do maintenance every two weeks. Trees have NEVER been trimmed, hedges have never been pruned. Only mowed the grass, but then visited once a month, because they don't come in bad weather and you can't request a replacement day. When contacted by telephone, which is already difficult since they are not available, we wanted to talk about our dissatisfaction and the answer we received was that if we did not agree with the quality of their service we would have to mow the grass ourselves and then zr was taken. A few days later we received a message that they were stopping the collaboration and would therefore not come to prune the hedge... Unprofessional company and very rude. (Original) Onprofessioneel bedrijf. Onderhoudscontract bij hen waarbij ze om de twee weken onderhoud zouden doen. Bomen zijn NOOIT in orde gebracht, haag nooit gesnoeid. Enkel gras gemaaid, maar dan 1 keer per maand langsgeweest, omdat ze bij slecht weer niet komen en je geen vervangdag kan aanvragen. Bij telefonisch contact, wat al moeilijk is aangezien ze niet bereikbaar zijn wilden we het hebben over onze ontevredenheid en als antwoord kregen we dat als we niet akkoord waren met de kwaliteit van hun service we het gras maar zelf moeten maaien en dan werd zr afgelegd. Paar dagen later kregen we bericht dat ze de samenwerking stoppen en ze de haag dus niet komen snoeien... Onprofessioneel bedrijf en zeer onbeschoft.

(Translated by Google) Never answers the phone. Unprofessional service. Invoice for services not provided. Frankly, to avoid. And when we point this out to them they respond that we had to do it ourselves pffff (Original) Repond jamais au telephone. Service pas professionelle. Facture des services non prestes . Franchement a fuir. Et quand on leurs faits la remarque ils respondent qu on a cas le faire nous mêmes pffff

Small but beautiful park in the heart of Mechelen. You can see a lot of ducks in the small lake, and there is a pad nearby to walk over the Dijle river. The park was also decorated with lights on the last two weekends for the light festival.

Nice and quiet piece of nature. Ideal for jogging and if you feel like a walk away from the city

Very nice park. Small but cute! 🥰

Clean and a great place to walk around and a lots of space to have a picnic.

Nice park, close to the city center. Worth a visit.

A peaceful garden in the center of Mechelen. Sometimes, at night, turned in to a place of wonder.

Beautiful and peaceful every year’s season

Small but nice quite park outside the centre,, good for children to play.

Clean, spacious, fresh air, and good for long walks biking or running . Cool place for the children too

Nice park, just outside the city. Many playing opportunities for children. In the back of the park also a public bike repairing station is available. Not a five star, because the horizontal climbing wall is oddly placed above grind. P.s. bonus activity, you can talk/shout with the prisoners who have a view on the park.

Fun playground with a climbing wall, football pitch, sand pit, water plays.

You may pass thrpugh and dont see, but if you slow down you will find football pitch, climbing wall, wild playground, free public flower beds, bike workshop, pinkpong.... Etc.... Lovely place...

Nice park , but close early, I don't know why, very bad close early, this park should be open every day every time.

Good playground and mini-football field for children

It is a very small park. But it is a great recycling place

It s an awewome place to hang out for a few hourw and chill!

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(Translated by Google) Nice play area for the children. The lovely landscape encourages play and adventure. (Original) Leuke speelplek voor de kindjes. Het leuke landschap daagt uit tot spel en avontuur.

(Translated by Google) The garden gate was closed and the bicycle was still there. It was only a quarter to seven (Original) Poort van tuin was gesloten en fiets stond er nog. Het was nog maar kwart voor 7

(Translated by Google) Small-scale city garden. Quietly located a short walk from the shopping center. (Original) Kleinschalige stadstuin. Rustig gelegen op korte wandelafstand van het winkelcentrum.

(Translated by Google) Clean but just too small, yet a cozy park in the middle of the city (Original) Proper maar net te klein, toch gezellig parkje midden in stad