BELGIUM · HEART OF EUROPE
Medieval cities, canals, chocolate and beer.
Bruges canal cruises, Brussels chocolate walks, Ghent by boat and the Flanders Fields battlefields. Belgian beer halls, waffle workshops, and the day trips that link them all.
Only here
Three things Belgium does better than anywhere.
Cathedrals and old squares turn up across Europe. Trappist beer brewed by monks, the praline that was invented here, and the nightly Last Post over Flanders Fields belong to this country alone.
Brewed by monks
Trappist & Lambic Beer
Belgium turned beer into a UNESCO-listed craft. Six Trappist abbeys still brew inside the monastery walls, and in the Senne valley around Brussels, lambic is left open to a wild yeast that lives nowhere else. A guided tasting is the quickest way to tell a dubbel from a gueuze.
- 1 Bruges: Walking Tour, Canal Boat Trip w/Beer Tasting Option
- 2 Hungry Mary’s Famous Beer and Chocolate Tour in Brussels
- 3 Belgian Beer Tasting in Brussels
Born in Brussels
The Belgian Praline
The filled chocolate praline was invented in a Brussels shop in 1912, and the country has set the standard ever since. A chocolate walk or workshop takes you behind the marble counters of the old houses to temper, fill and taste straight from the maker.
- 1 Choco-Story Brussels: Chocolate Museum Entrance with Tasting
- 2 Hungry Mary’s Famous Beer and Chocolate Tour in Brussels
- 3 Brussels: Belgian Chocolate Making Workshop with Tastings
Lest we forget
Flanders Fields
The Western Front ran straight through these fields, and the poppies of the poem grew here. At the Menin Gate in Ypres the Last Post has sounded under the arch every single night since 1928. A battlefield tour from Ypres or Bruges is a quietly unforgettable day.
- 1 From Bruges: Great War Flanders Fields Minibus Tour w/ Lunch
- 2 Flanders Fields Remembrance Tour from Brussels
- 3 Flanders Fields Remembrance Tour from Bruges
Start here
The one experience travellers book first.
More visitors build a Belgium trip around this than anything else on the list.
The classics
Belgium's Most Popular Tours
Bruges by canal, the Grand-Place, a Ghent day trip and a chocolate tasting. The days most people come to Belgium for.
Where to begin
The days a Belgium trip is built around.
Bruges and its canals, the Grand-Place in Brussels, the Ghent waterfront, a long Belgian lunch, a cruise through the old towns and a guided city walk. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
Where to stay
Pick your Belgian base.
The country is tiny and the trains are fast, so you can settle into one city and reach the rest in under an hour. Which one you wake up in sets the tone for the whole trip.
Frites to fine dining
A small country that takes food seriously.
Belgium punches far above its size at the table: more Michelin stars per head than almost anywhere, the frite it invented and still does best, and the waffle and the praline raised to national icons. A food tour walks you between the chocolatiers, the friteries and the old brown cafes, tasting as you go.
Read the guide: the best food tours in Belgium →Belgium's second city
Diamonds, Rubens and a fashion crowd.
An hour north of Brussels, Antwerp wears its wealth lightly. The world’s diamond trade runs from a few streets by the station, Rubens painted and lived here, and the fashion academy turned it into a design capital. The cathedral and the river quays anchor a city that feels nothing like Bruges.
See the best of Antwerp →Venice of the North
Bruges, once the day-trippers leave.
Bruges spent four centuries too poor to modernise, which is exactly why it survived whole: a medieval town of stepped gables, swans and bridges, ringed by canals you drift through by boat. Come for the day with the crowds, or stay the night and have the empty squares almost to yourself.
Bruges canal cruises →Day trips
Two fairytale cities in a single day.
Belgium is compact enough that the classic outing bags Bruges and Ghent together: out of Brussels after breakfast, back by dinner. A guide drives, tells the stories and handles the trains and tickets, so the day is spent on the cobbles rather than the logistics.
- 1 From Brussels: Guided Day Trip to Bruges and Ghent
- 2 From Brussels: Bruges & Ghent Day Tour – 2 Fairytale Cities
- 3 Bruges and Ghent – Belgium’s Fairytale Cities – from Brussels
After dark
The old towns tell darker stories at night.
Once the day groups thin out, Belgium’s medieval centres turn atmospheric. Guides lead lantern-lit walks through Bruges, Ghent and Brussels past plague houses, execution squares and the legends behind the gargoyles, the history the daytime tours skip. A short, gently spooky evening on the cobbles.
See all 18 evening & ghost tours →By city
Six cities, one small country.
Brussels for the chocolate and the comics. Bruges for the canals. Ghent for the medieval skyline. Antwerp for diamonds and fashion. Ypres for Flanders Fields. Mechelen for the quiet in between.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
A canal cruise if you want the city slow. A walking tour if you want the stories. Chocolate, beer or a waffle workshop if you came to taste it. A bike if you want to cover ground.
Plan it
A long weekend, three cities.
First time in Belgium? Here is a three-day run that hits the essentials without a wasted hour, all of it by train.
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