Nieuwpoort's main attractions are split between its Great War heritage and its harbour-and-beach life. The towering King Albert I monument at the IJzer locks, the Westfront museum dug into its base, and the British Nieuport Memorial to the missing make the town one of the more compact and rewarding stops on the Flanders Fields circuit.
For a smaller place the contrast with the harbour is striking — a half-hour walk takes you from war memorials to Belgium's biggest pleasure marina, with its forest of masts and the famous Folon sea-turtle sculpture Searching for Utopia gazing out across the dunes.