Unfortunately, a cafe and a shop is not as interesting as visiting the brewery or the monastery 🙁

Indeed, the monastery itself is not open for visitors, but there is a cafe and shop on premise you can visit.

Hi Hannah,

I haven’t been to Orval, so can’t speak to that one. The only one of the Belgian Trappists that I noticed really being able to see/access the brewery itself was Achel. Westvleteren, Westmalle, and Chimay all have cafe’s in proximity to the brewery/monastery, but none had tours that I recall. Rochefort had nothing at all, not even a cafe, when i tried to visit, but that was many years ago. Zundert, the new one in the Netherlands, only has a small shop at the monastery. La Trappe has tours available, including an option that includes food pairings. This is perhaps the best option for brewery + beer tasting + food pairing of all the trappists. From a proximity perspective, you could easily hit Achel, Westmalle, Zundert and La Trappe in a single day, if you so chose. The other four are all pretty spread out. If you go to Westvleteren, I’d suggest going on a Saturday, as you can then also visit the Struise brewery in Oostvleteren, which is one of the best craft breweries in Belgium.