Tips for visiting Brussels

Parent Cafe
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<p>We’re planning a few days of family vacation before our daugther returns to school in Germany and were thinking about visiting Brussels. In our typical fashion, we just starting looking at this a few days ago (we’d be travelling in 2 weeks). Our family of 4 (2 teens) usually tries to stay in a serviced apartment as it gives us more space. </p>

<p>Any tips on must see things in Brussels? How is the European Quarter in terms of staying there (we were looking at the Marriott Executive Apartments). Is it walking distance to the city center/grand palace. Is touring the palace worth it? </p>

<p>So far some of the ideas we have are the Chocolate Museum, Atomium, and the Palace. I’m not sure if visiting the EU is worth it given neither of my children are all that interested in politics.</p>

<p>We’re also planning to drive from Brussels to Northern Germany. If anyone has any ideas for sites along the way, we’re open to that as well.</p>

2

<p>The Atomium is fun! I went there once and I really liked it, except the escalators were broken so we had to march up those…not fun.</p>

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<p>Chocolate.
Chocolate.
More chocolate. Try to bring some home, too.</p>

4

<p>For short term apartments, the area around the Avenue Louise and the EU should offer the best balance. The location of the Marriott apartments is very good and should be convenient to walking and using public transportation. Although a car would be helpful to visit different cities, parking a rental car is not a sinecure, and not cheap. Unless you have the car as a cheaper long term rental, you might be better off combining walks, metro, trains, and taxis. </p>

<p>I have stayed in one of the apartments offered by this company:</p>

<p>[Apartment</a> Brussels. Aedifica offers you a spectacular choice of luxurious furnished apartments in Brussels](<a href=“http://www.aedifica-furnished-apartments.com/en/accueil.php]Apartment”>http://www.aedifica-furnished-apartments.com/en/accueil.php)</p>

<p>They were very professional. This said, I am sure there are several comparable services. I believe that the rates will vary considerably depending on your dates of arrival and departure. August should be much lower than September. There is little business conducted in August and the business accomodations will be discounted. Not so much the typical hotels that live from tourism.</p>

<p>As usual, I would recommend grabbing a couple of tourist guides for general directions. Most zones worth visiting will be hard to miss: the Grand Place, the place du Sablon, the area around Place Royale, the EU, and a number of museums to the south. Shopping will be better in the area you plan to reside than in the downtown area. Think uptown versus downtown. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Brussels is quite compact and easy to navigate. Restaurants will deliver very good food, but at a price as Belgium is quite expensive in that domain. A good bet is to look for the daily menus at lunch time. Street fare will be excellent and reasonable. Think french bread sandwiches, waffles, french fries, and even chocolates. You will see a Leonidas at every corner … or so it seems! </p>

<p>Outside Brussels, most people rave about Bruges, which is about one hour away. If you go by car, make sure to drive another 15 miles past Bruges and check out the coastal scene at Knokke.</p>

<p>For you trip to Northern Germany, you might consider traveling to Holland and make a stop in Amsterdam.</p>

5

<p>It has been many years, but the one thing our kids remembered was when we wondered into the house of courts (can’t think of the formal name) and all they lawyers were wondering around the lobby area in their white wigs and long robes. </p>

<p>We bought some fabulous (and spendy) steak knives from the Knife maker of the King. The label on the box reads:</p>

<p>A. Jamart
7, rue de l’H</p>

6

<p>Not far from Brussels (35 miles or so), but not on the way to Germany, is Gent, which is an interesting town to see, and a bit further (about another 30 miles or so) is Brugge, which is a very interesting town to see (plus it has some windmills).</p>

<p>If you haven’t been to Brugge or Gent I recommend you see them since you’ll be so close.</p>

<p>Edit: Crossed with Xiggi and Kajon on Brugge (Bruges).</p>

7

<p>The Marriott where you are thinking of staying is quite a walk from Grand Place. And it is Grand Place (a huge square), not a palace.</p>

<p>Atomium - yes
Basilica of the Sacred Heart - 5th largest in the world - very nice, great view from the dome- required a subway trip
chocolate, of course
Belgian lace
Belgian waffles
take a day trip to Ghent or Bruges
subway is great, so that could work well, if your hotel is near a stop
Parc de Bruxelles is supposed to be nice. We were in Brussels in December so we didn’t go there.
Manneken Pis - smaller than you would expect, but a tourist must see
St Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral - near Grand Place</p>

<p>We stayed at The Dominican on Rue Leopold. Great location, beautifully remodeled hotel. May not be in the budget for 4 of you.</p>

8

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<p>It is more than a few minutes but hopping on the public transportation is a cinch. There are plenty of options between the Luxemburg area and the Central Station area.</p>

9

<p>These are all great ideas. We’ll be headed to Bremen after our stay so we were looking at traveling either up through Essen on the German side or over to Utrecht on the Dutch side. We’ve been to Amsterdam when the kids were little and it’s a popular weekend trip from the kids at my daughter’s school (probably not to see the Anne Frank house but I don’t ask these sorts of questions when I don’t wish to know the answers !!)</p>

<p>I’ll definitely look into Bruges and/or Ghent. I do always chuckle a little about Bruges after seeing the film “In Bruges”.</p>

<p>I’m glad to hear good stuff about the Atomium. My husband is looking forward to this.</p>

<p>We were originally going to fly into Frankfurt (long story) but will now likely fly straight to Brussels so perhaps leaving the pickup of the car until we need it might be a good idea.</p>

<p>Our family doesn’t move that fast so trundling along eating street food and taking our time to travel up to north suits us well. We’ll definitely check out Knokke as well. Sounds like a good place to grab lunch.</p>

10

<p>The Atomium is worth seeing, but I am not sure it will be that exciting. However, if you decide to go, check this out:</p>

<p>[Mini</a> Europa](<a href=“http://www.minieurope.be/en/index.html]Mini”>http://www.minieurope.be/en/index.html)</p>

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11

<p>I love Belgium! And I’m surprised no one mentioned the best (not french) fries on the planet. But everything there is good. </p>

<p>I have a soft spot for Leuven, about a half-hour outside of Brussels going toward Germany. It’s a sweet student town and has the Stella Artois brewery, if that’s your kind of thing. They have little festivals with some regularity and they are just the right size to be entertaining without being overwhelming. Our family just did a trip and visited five countries, and while it was all amazing, Leuven was our favorite place.</p>

12

<p>^^ You beat me to it on the fries - definitely try the fries but you can skip the mayo if the concept of mayo on fries is disturbing to you (as it is to me). The various hole in the wall little trailers selling the fries have been very good IMO.</p>

13

<p>“Although a car would be helpful to visit different cities, parking a rental car is not a sinecure, and not cheap. Unless you have the car as a cheaper long term rental, you might be better off combining walks, metro, trains, and taxis.”</p>

<p>I wouldn’t recommend driving a car in Belgium for safety reasons. I’ve lived in the Brussels area in the 90’s (and another couple of years in another part of Belgium). The number of (fatal) accidents used to be enormous (only Portugal’s statistics were worse in Europe). Maybe things have improved, but I did not notice this when driving through the country last year.</p>