When my wife told me a few months ago that she wanted to do something different for her birthday, I was not expecting to spend a few days in a Hobbit house! She clearly had a plan, and we found ourselves in a magical world that is only 1.5 hours away from where we live.

The place is known as Warredal Recreation Park, and located in Ketelstraat, Maaseik, Belgium. But for our family, it’ll be always known as The Shire, or the Hobbit park.

I think the only disappointment the children had was their unfruitful attempts to discover actual hobbits running around, or hidden in the secret passages in the fantastic house where we spent the weekend.

Most of the time, the only noises we heard during the weekend were occasional horses neighing, or some birds singing. Of course, if you run out of wood to burn the stove that keeps the outside hot-tub’s water warm, you can go and hear yourself chopping some wood. Coming from the busy city of Antwerp, seeing less plastic and mostly wood and metal creates an interesting psychology.

From the architectural, fairy tale-like details to the landscape and horses, as well as deer and other animals going around, probably the only missing thing is the soundtrack of “The Hobbit” 🙂

Below you can find a few more videos and photographs depicting the scenery. There are many other adventures, recreational, and sports activities you can find in this big park, and I can very easily recommend the place, especially for the kids.

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