I will be travelling to Brussels the 8/20-9/2 for work and I'm wondering what people who have been there can recommend to do and see on my free time (at night and on weekends). I am not sure what hotel I will be staying at yet as that is still being worked on. Also, I don't envision renting a car, figure walking and taxis will work well enough, or if going to another country take the train most likely.

any thoughts/help would be great

8/9/2011 1:22:57 PM

If you can swing by Bruges. Love that little city. Do a tour of De Halve Maan brewery while you're there. Their beer is tasty and the tour is really interesting.

http://www.halvemaan.be/index.php?id=13&L=2

There's also some fantastic tiny art museums in the city that I felt were better than some of the super huge museums in Europe because they were easy to do in an afternoon or day.

8/9/2011 1:45:32 PM

Eh, I wouldn't plan too much in advance. When you get to Brussels, just wait and see what sprouts up.


hahaha I'm here all week folks.

8/9/2011 2:22:33 PM

^^ i will def check that out, that looks like something i would enjoy.

^ HAH nice

8/9/2011 2:30:40 PM

eat all the chocolate and pastries and desserts you can afford and not afford!

8/9/2011 3:04:23 PM

and after that, hit up the Delirium Cafe and choose a few of the 2000+ beers

8/9/2011 3:18:04 PM

I want to go to Brussels, Belgium!

8/9/2011 3:21:59 PM

^^ great suggestion; putting that on the list

8/9/2011 3:42:48 PM

Quote :

"eat all the chocolate and pastries and desserts you can afford and not afford! "

aha yeah I'm pretty sure my diet consisted of chocolate, beer, and mussels while I was in Belgium.

8/9/2011 3:44:58 PM

wolfpackgrrr any chocolate places you recommend?

8/9/2011 3:58:10 PM

You know, it's been so long I don't recall the names of any of them, but they were ALL good. I wouldn't even bother with Godiva. Go to the little mom and pop places. I found this one that's across the way from one of the art museums of Bruges that their signature truffle was molded to look like two rabbits having sex

8/9/2011 3:59:45 PM

chocolate bunny sex -- check.. lol

8/9/2011 5:11:28 PM

so i got the hotel i will be staying at: The Gresham Belson hotel. looks really nice from the pictures

but anyway, who else has ideas/suggestions?

8/10/2011 10:56:16 AM

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go to the delirium bar and ignore the smoke - pay the deposit for one of the ridiculously large glasses and post the pic on FB - then go to their liquor bars next door

eat a waffle on the street

i was in Mons for a bit and it was fun but only got a single night out in brussels

8/10/2011 6:41:29 PM

Ooooooh yes I had forgotten about the waffle carts! And the French fry carts are ridiculously good. And I love that they have 20 bajillion sauces for the fries.

8/10/2011 9:45:41 PM

-http://www.use-it.be/ Brussels' unofficial tourist info office. They are full of very friendly, english-speaking staff that will be more than happy to talk to you and even personally show you around the city on foot if they have time for free. Free maps and coffee. It's a shame every European city doesn't have one of these places.

-The 'chocolatier artisinal' Corne (near the Use-it office) was suggested to me as one of the grand ol' dames of Brussels chocolate makers and I thought it was some of the best chocolate I've ever had

-The downtown square, to me, was one of the loveliest I encountered in Europe

-Get your obligatory picture with mannekin pis and make a note of what he's wearing, it changes daily

-The world's premier comic book museum is there on Sables Zand straat, check it out. The building itself is a piece of art. I had no idea the Smurfs were Belgian (Schtroumpferies)

-Snap a picture of a Delhaize supermarket and see what if you recognize the icon

-They still have ChiChi's Mexican Restaurants there, a total blast from the past

-There's a bar right by the Delirium Cafe that has real absinthe, don't underestimate its strength, they'll kick you out after like 3 or 4 drinks

-The subway and bus system is pretty good. Don't bother buying a transit pass for the subway, nobody checks for it. For the most part they don't really check on the buses either.

-Catch a quick and easy bus/train to Amsterdam

-jet4you flies out of the smaller Brussels Charleroi airport and has dirt cheap flights direct to several cities in Morocco (Casablanca yuck, Marrakech yay)

-Brush up on your basic French phrases before going

8/10/2011 11:59:37 PM

So my wife and I (and maybe a few friends) are thinking of making our next vacation be Belgium with some surrounding areas tacked on. We had kind of talked about it several times before but we might make this trip happen this coming spring. Based on the proximity, we are thinking of flying into Paris, spending a few days there, then taking the train to Brussels.

From there the plan is to spend a couple days in Brussels but then a few small trips to smaller towns with the intent of seeing a couple specific breweries where possible. Several are not open to the public for touring unfortunately but a couple of the towns they are in seem kind of cool in a quaint way regardless.

Finally we are thinking of taking another train to Amsterdam to finish our trip with a few days there.

Just a rough outline right now, maybe 10-14 days (including the arrival/departure flights though). Figured I'd bump this thread instead of start a new one.

[Edited on December 22, 2014 at 3:41 PM. Reason : ]

12/22/2014 3:37:04 PM

There are a lot of good suggestions already posted that will give you a great jumping off point.

A few additional suggestions:

If you want fries, check out either Maison Antoine on Place Jourdan or Frites Flagey on Place Flagey. You will not find better anywhere in the city.

For chocolate, you may want to check out the Neuhaus outlet. You walk around the store sampling everything they have to offer for free, make sure to bring water. The prices are better than you will find at their stores downtown.

Cantillon Brewery is worth checking out, even if you're not a big fan of Belgian Sours. It is in a shitty neighborhood though.

For outdoor areas, Bois de la Cambre and Parc Cinquantenaire are worth strolling through. Chalet Robinson is a good restaurant on the island in the middle of the lake in Bois de la Cambre.

Place Flagey is worth checking out and is off the beaten tourist path. Lots of great little bars and a good mix of Eurocrats, students, and art scene folks.

If you are around on a Thursday and the weather is nice, consider going to Place Luxemburg just in front of the EU Parliament. All of the Eurocrats pour into the Place and all the bars for a giant happy hour.

I have plenty more but I'm sure you are bored by now.

12/22/2014 4:15:53 PM

Appreciate the additional input

12/22/2014 4:24:44 PM

Brussels isn't worth more than three-four days max of activities on a two week trip, though there is a good bar scene at night.

^^^thats a good looking schedule though it may be cheaper (if it matters) to fly in and out of Brussels and then high speed train to Paris and amsterdam

12/23/2014 12:07:07 AM

The bus to amsterdam is cheaper than the train and either way it isn't a long trip.

It looks like since I last posted jet4you has been swallowed up by jetairfly, which flies a lot of places very cheap out of Charleroi-Brussles (in addition to the main airport). Consider a cheap flight to Marrakech for a few days, it will give you a nice change of pace from the predictability of traveling Western Europe.

12/23/2014 12:28:52 PM

I've read Europeans say that Brussels is the worst capital city in Europe you can go to.

12/27/2014 7:41:10 AM

^THIS

Two weeks in Brussels sounds like a really big waste of a European trip. I haven't been personally, but unless you have family or some intimate local connection to the place, I don't see why anyone would spend that much time there. Why not Paris? Copenhagen? There are dozens of more interesting places, and I've heard Brussels is rather boring and really just a place to stop over.

12/27/2014 12:27:13 PM

Sorry guys, this is a really old thread. I simply bumped it instead of starting a new thread. We are not planning anywhere near two weeks in Brussels. The original thread was someone going to Brussels for 2 weeks for work and asking or things to do while they were there and I was much less familiar on what to do in Brussels than Paris or Amsterdam. I don't think anyone in here is or was planning to go to Brussels for 2 weeks purely for vacation. don't worry

We are using Brussels as a place to stop over on part of this trip. Our plan is Paris -> Belgium -> Amsterdam over the course of what looks like ~10 days at this point (we may be able to swing longer - my wife and I have an insane amount of vacation saved but my current project will be hard to get away from for longer than 10 days). While in Belgium we are planning to hit a few areas with some breweries and use Brussels as a home base since it is centralized in Belgium (and explore it a little during the time we are using it as a home base). Cumulative we will probably only spend a couple days in Brussels and there were some good suggestions in this thread for things to do in the area so I bumped this thread.

Plus, neither of us has ever been to Europe yet, so there are certainly other places we'd like to go but we'll plan another trip within the next couple years to hit completely different places. We haven't booked anything yet but we're thinking maybe 3ish days in Paris to various places in Belgium for 3ish days and then Amsterdam for 3ish days (plus travel time on each end).

[Edited on December 27, 2014 at 12:49 PM. Reason : ]

12/27/2014 12:43:49 PM

I clicked on this thread to make a brussel sprouts joke. I see my work here is done.

12/27/2014 6:52:30 PM

I have never been to Brussels, but the people that I know who have traveled there enjoy the beer and bar culture and say that it is a nice city. I definitely would recommend it if you are a beer person. The problem with Belgium, as far as I can tell, is that it is the only country in Western Europe that has parts of it which resemble the Soviet Eastern Block, and Europeans are generally pretty snobby about that.

I must say, I made a bunch of mistakes on my Paris trip and it really was a disaster for me. It is a very grand city, and my wife wanted to go on serious museum and artifacts tour, where as I was more geared towards spending time on the rivers, bridges, or Montmarte, just soaking up the city. Oh as a little warning, I think that Americans have this conception that people in France and Germany are happy to speak in English with Americans. I found this to be very difficult at times and people would frequently get annoyed and skip me in lines at the bakery. The French and Germans can in general speak English, but they resist a little bit and have a clear preference for their mother tongue. However, go to Holland or Scandinavia, and people communicate with you in English like you are back at home basically.

Amsterdam is my favorite city in Europe. Lots of great things to do as the city is built like an onion and very densely layered. You can cheaply rent a bike a go through the amazing and beautiful canal system there and take some really nice photos.

[Edited on December 28, 2014 at 5:16 AM. Reason : as ]

12/28/2014 5:15:45 AM