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Of course, it's no surprise that Manneken Pis is among the top 10 sights in Brussels. But the list of most popular sights in Brussels also holds plenty of surprises. Discover them now via the link below.

To the most popular top places in Brussels Center

Botanist Kathy Willis asked herself why walking through or being in certain landscapes feels so good and whether there is scientific evidence for this.

Ms Willis is not badly placed to investigate: she was scientific director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London and is currently professor of biodiversity at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford.

In an interview in the NewScientist she explains some striking findings that you may have experienced yourself for a long time, but which she scientifically underlines and confirms:

1. " We can measure that our physical or mental well-being responds positively when we see or walk through specific landscapes. Our bodies respond best to an open landscape with a few scattered trees and woodland (parklands and heathlands) . This makes us physiologically and psychologically calmer…These landscapes result in a specific brainwave response – increased alpha and beta frequencies and decreased delta frequencies – which research has shown to be linked to increased focus and a sense of calm."
2. “After gallbladder surgery, people who could see a green scene (landscape) from their hospital window recovered three times faster and needed much less pain medication than those who only looked out over a brick wall”
3. “…when we look at nature…our heart rate and blood pressure drop, stress hormones like adrenaline decrease, and our brainwave activity increases in areas that show we are calmer and clearer in mind”
4. “For example, scientists in Japan have shown that people who heard nature sounds during surgery with epidural anesthesia had lower levels of a stress-related enzyme that indicates pain than others who listened to no sound.”
5. "Areas with a lot of variation in nature lead to greater biodiversity and a diverse microbiome. Research has indeed shown that toddlers, after playing for fourteen days in a playground with soil from a boreal forest, had effectively adopted the signature of the soil microbiome on their skin and in their intestines. And they had fewer inflammatory markers in their blood, which indicates an improved immune system. The same has been found in adults."

Simply put, walking in nature is good for you. She also recommends the following for optimal effect:

• at least 20 minutes at a time and at least 120 minutes in total per week in that nature
• preferably in landscapes with variation (forests, shrubs, meadows, ...)
• preferably with places that smell wonderful (the smell of cedars and plants of the juniper family are excellent for relaxing us, and you can find them in heathland areas ).

Experience all this for yourself and put on your walking shoes. Select a walk via the button below that takes about two hours and that guides you through nature.

To nature walks of +/- 120 minutes

The recreational cycle route Avenue Verte London-Paris - UK part is the favourite of Pascal Brackman. The route was selected as favourite of the week. 

To the recreational cycle route

The walking route Snickelways in York is the favourite of Jan. The route was selected as favourite of the week. 

To the walking route

Did you know that the visual Turn-by-Turn messages will show you not only the next node but also the subsequent node?

This makes navigating much smoother. After all, you want to know which is the subsequent node you need to orient yourself to before reaching a node rather than when you have reached or passed the initial node.

More about turn-by-turn navigation

13 September is International Chocolate Day, which is why we are highlighting all the places with a link to chocolate. 

And for each of these places, you can find great routes via the search icon . It's a question of combining the pleasurable with the pleasant. 

Go to the places linked to chocolate

The recreational walking route Old Town (2019) is the favourite of P. The route was selected as favourite of the week. 

To the recreational walking route

The city bike route Cycling London: Clapham Common, Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park and the Thames villages is the favourite of Wilbert Joosten. The route was selected as favourite of the week. 

To the city bike route

Would you like to highlight one or more places in particular? Then from a RouteYou Premium, you can adjust the visualization of places of interest so that they stand out cartographically. Not only along your own routes but also along those of others. How you do that and where you can see the effect, you can discover via the button below.

How to customize the visualization of a POI?

Big update! We’ve just added 7,426 routes to our ‘Sur la route en France’ account using the latest data from OpenStreetMap! These are all signposted routes across France — perfect whether you love hiking, cycling, mountain biking, running, or more.

Here’s the breakdown:

• 🚶‍♀️ Hiking: 5,381 routes
• 🚵‍♀️ Mountain bike: 842 routes
• 🚴‍♀️ Recreational cycling: 536 routes
• 🏃‍♂️ Running: 146 routes
• 🎿 Cross-country ski: 139 routes
• 🐎 Horse riding: 22 routes
• ➕ And a few other routes

Each route comes with an informative intro plus details about the signage, references, and operator info (when available). We also cleaned things up by removing some outdated routes.
 

Explore the new French routes now

👉 A quick heads-up: 40+ routes from OpenStreetMap weren’t added because they’re already available on RouteYou through our PRO and ENTERPRISE partners.

💡Did you know that together with our data team, we actively contribute to improving OpenStreetMap? As a proud corporate member of OpenStreetMap Belgium, we’re committed to sharing high-quality open data with the community. 

Visualizing your route without a background map, what's the point of that?

It may seem pretty useless to have a map layer option "none", but a lot of our users requested it. And provide a lot of creative uses:
 

• Combining your route with photos or other background images.
  If you take a screenshot of the route without a background map, you can quite easily use a drawing program to make the plain background transparent. 
   
• Navigating with just the route
  Some users prefer to visualize only the route when navigating to better focus on the route.
   
• Clearer view of the additional map layers
  RouteYou has numerous additional map layers that you can visualize on top of the chosen background map: node networks, MTB networks, GR networks, road properties, .... By switching off a 'busy' background map you get a clearer picture of the information that is contained in those additional map layers.
   

About the RouteYou map layers

The recreational cycle route Bourton-on-the-Water and the picturesque villages of the Cotswolds is the favourite of Marnix. The route was selected as favourite of the week. 

To the recreational cycle route

The walking route London Thames is the favourite of Jurgen Van Daele. The route was selected as favourite of the week. 

To the walking route

Did you know that people who keep on cycling into their later years have a lower risk of falling. That was announced by the NewScientist in the arcticle "Keep riding for a surer-footed future."

Check out great cycling routes in your area

The city bike route Cycling London: Clapham Common, Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park and the Thames villages is the favourite of Wilbert Joosten. The route was selected as favourite of the week. 

To the city bike route

The recreational walking route Wokingham Walk 10 mile is the favourite of NicolaW. The route was selected as favourite of the week. 

To the recreational walking route

We wondered what the most popular Luxembourg regions on RouteYou were this season. We counted how many times a specific region was searched for in the last 90 days. We didn't differentiate between the type of region, which could be large or small, a village or a town. This is the top 15 list . Click through each region to discover the most beautiful and popular routes in that region:

1. Mullerthal
2. Esch-sur-Sûre
3. Berdorf
4. Larochette
5. Bourscheid
6. Clervaux
7. Reisdorf
8. Vianden
9. Echternach
10. Ettelbruck
11. Kautenbach
12. Consdorf
13. Weiswampach
14. Diekirch
15. Numbers

Did you know that RouteYou also offers a lot of attractive equestrian routes? Ideal for a cool summer morning or balmy summer evening....

Rely on the terrain knowledge of others and explore new places.

Search for horseback riding routes

The walking route Snickelways in York is the favourite of Jan. The route was selected as favourite of the week. 

To the walking route

The recreational cycle route Grand Union Canal Cycling Route: Leicester - London is the favourite of Ting X. The route was selected as favourite of the week. 

To the recreational cycle route