[1] It is located in the municipality of Hulst, about 5 km east of Kloosterzande on the dyke of the Westerschelde.

[2] The name of the hamlet refers to an old pier to the north, "Ten Ballen", used by a ferry.

When the village of Hontenisse disappeared in a flood in 1509, this pier and some of the remaining dykes formed a corner ("hoek"), named "Ballenhouck".

van der Aa, Baalhoek (or "Balhoek") was the only settlement in the Kruispolder, a polder that was reclaimed from the sea in 1616.

Baalhoek is mostly associated with the "Baalhoekkanaal" (Baalhoek Canal), a plan for a shortcut to the harbour of Antwerp to bypass the narrows of Bath that was proposed in 1967, but finally rejected in 1998 due to the resistance of a coalition of environmentalists and farmers.