• Belgium Guide

  • Introduction to Belgium
  • Weather
  • Things not to miss
  • Getting around
  • Entry requirements
  • Money
  • Public holidays

• Explore Belgium

  • Brussels
  • Flanders
  • Antwerp and the northeast
  • Hainaut and Wallonian Brabant
  • The Ardennes

• Cities

  • Antwerp
    
  • Bruges
    
  • Brussels
    
  • Ghent
    
  • Liège
    

Belgium Guide

Brussels

• Accommodation
• Eating
• Drinking
• Nightlife
• Shopping

Map

1 of 9

Wherever else you go in Belgium, allow at least a little time for BRUSSELS, which is by any standard one of Europe's premier cities. Certainly, don't let its unjustified reputation as a dull, faceless centre of EU bureaucracy deter you: in postwar years, the city has become a thriving, cosmopolitan metropolis, with top-flight architecture and museums, not to mention a well-preserved late seventeenth-century centre, a superb restaurant scene and an energetic nightlife. Moreover, most of the key attractions are crowded into a centre that is small enough to be absorbed over a few long days, its boundaries largely defined by a ring of boulevards – the "petit ring", or less colloquially, the "petite ceinture".

First-time visitors to Brussels are often surprised by the raw vitality of the city centre. It isn't neat and tidy, and many of the old tenement houses are shabby and ill-used, but there's a buzz about the place that's hard to resist. The city centre is itself divided into two main areas. The larger westerly portion comprises the Lower Town, fanning out from the marvellous Grand-Place, with its exquisite guildhouses and town hall, while up above to the east lies the much smaller Upper Town, home to the finest art collection in the country in the Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts.

Brussels is a wonderful place to eat: its gastronomic reputation rivals that of Paris, and though traditional meals in home-grown restaurants are rarely cheap, there is great-value food to be had in many of the bars. The bars themselves can be sumptuous, basic, traditional or fashionable – and are one of the city's real delights.

The city's specialist shops are another pleasure. Everyone knows about Belgian chocolates, but here in the capital there are also sprawling, open-air markets, contemporary art galleries, and establishments devoted to anything from comic books to costume jewellery. Belgium is such a small country, and the rail network so fast and efficient, that Brussels also makes the perfect base for a wide range of day-trips. An obvious target is the battlefield of Waterloo, one of the region's most visited attractions.