Discover Balinge

If you are looking for a hotel in Balinge, you can plan your trip around what interests you most: the landscape, a walk or local history. Balinge offers specific points of interest in its sandy and boggy landscape, a named walking route and the history of the settlement. These different themes can be considered separately and provide a factual basis for deciding what matters most to you during your stay.

A landscape of sand, heathland and bog

Between Balinge and Nieuw-Balinge lies the Balinger- en Mantingerzand, a long stretch of heathland and drifting sand. It features well-developed areas of drifting sand with pronounced relief, including parabolic dunes. There are also sand-covered bogs and sandy paths. The landscape therefore cannot be reduced to heathland or sand alone: its relief, bog areas and paths are distinct features of the same natural landscape. If landscape forms are your main interest when travelling, this combination is a distinctive local feature; for local history, by contrast, the settlement and its historical names are important.

Since 2003, the Mantingerzand has been designated a site under the European Habitats Directive and a Natura 2000 site. Alongside its physical landscape features, it therefore has two specific protected-area designations. You can distinguish these designations from the terrain itself: parabolic dunes, sand-covered bogs and sandy paths describe the landscape, while the Habitats Directive and Natura 2000 specify its protected status. The two designations complement the landscape description but do not replace it: relief and drifting sand characterize the area’s landscape, while the status designations classify it as a protected area.

Balinge’s early settlement is also connected to the terrain. The first inhabitants settled on higher sandy ground amid extensive bogland. Balinge and Garminge also share the Garminger- en Balingerstukken complex of arable and pasture land. Thus, the first settlers’ location on higher sandy ground sits alongside a shared cultural landscape of arable and pasture land. This offers a view of the rural surroundings that differs from the description of dunes and bogs.

Walking route and historical connections

The “Dorpsommetje Garminge” walking route is 7.5 kilometres long and passes through Balinge. Its distance is a clear reference point if you want to include a specific walking distance in your plans. Check the latest route details before setting out, as route information can be updated.

Place names and path names also tell different parts of the area’s history. Balinge was founded in the Middle Ages as a daughter settlement of Westerbork and was first mentioned in 1383; at that time, the village was called Bolingen or Balinghe. Its founding and first mention are not the same thing: the medieval founding places its origins in time, while 1383 is the year of its first mention. At De Pol, the place name “pol” refers to the difference in elevation and the elevated location.

Mepscheren was once part of an old connecting route from Westerbork via Balinge to Meppen. This former connection is part of the historical context and should be distinguished from the named 7.5-kilometre walking route. Together with the historical names, this distinction helps you tell the history of former routes apart from the specifically named walking trail when considering local features for your stay.

Discover more destinations: Witteveen, Orvelte, Beilen, Hoogersmilde, Wijster, Mantinge, Smilde, Spier

For the broader travel overview: Midden-Drenthe.