A weekend in Belgium - a travel guide
- rosalindstevenson6
- Dec 18, 2025
- 6 min read
Three cities in one short trip! In October 2023, I spent a weekend in Belgium and visited three of the main cities - Brussels, Bruges and Ghent. A city break (especially if you live in Europe) is the best way to tick off countries on your bucket list as you don't need too much time for travelling or getting around there, and countries, such as Belgium, are great to see various cities in one trip.
We spent three nights and three days in Belgium, arriving in the evening on a Friday and leaving in the evening the following Monday. We stayed in Brussels and travelled to Bruges and Ghent from there for a day. Belgium is a country of many languages, the three main ones are French, Dutch (Flemish) and German but many people there also speak English very well. The currency used in Belgium is euros.
Here are my recommendations for your trip to Belgium.
What to do in Brussels
We stayed right next to the Botanical Gardens in the city centre, which was a very good location to be based - walkable distance to practically everywhere in the centre of Brussels and right next to a subway and train station which was handy, especially for getting to and from the airport. There are certainly more central options but these will charge higher prices, of course.
We got a bus from Brussels South Charleroi Airport to Bruxelles Midi train station where we got a train out to Botanique (the train stop between the Gardens and our hotel). Our hotel was fine but it wasn't my favourite and I feel like it wasn't accurately advertised so I wouldn't recommend it.
Our first dinner was at Fin de Siècle in an area where there are lots of restaurants and bars. We had an amazing meal here and anyone I speak to who is going to Brussels, I always tell them to go here and order the traditional Flemish stew - it was incredible. It is a small restaurant which is first come first serve but it is well worth the (possible) wait in my opinion! Following this, we went for some drinks at The Eight Rooftop bar, the streets around here were really cute and the cocktails and vibe in the bar were great.
On our walk back to the hotel we stumbled upon Grand Place, the main square in Brussels, all lit up beautifully. It was amazing to see. We felt very lucky that we just happened to walk through here at the right time as it sadly wasn't lit up any other evening we were in Brussels, so we certainly lucked out seeing it in all its beauty. However, if you go in the lead up to and during the festive period there are nightly light shows every 30 minutes from around 5pm-10pm.
The next day was our first (and only) full day in Brussels and, boy, did we fill it up and we walked everywhere. We started our day at the Botanical Gardens as it was right next to our hotel. It was a sunny day and it was nice to walk around the gardens but I wouldn't go out of your way to visit them, unless you are really into your botany.
We then headed to Parc du Cinquantenaire a huge urban park with the impressive Cinquantenaire Arch - great for a photo. Walking through the European Quarter, where European Parliament is, we headed to Parc de Bruxelles (also known as the Royal Park) where there was a large art exhibition of Le Chat, a famous Belgian comic strip by Philippe Geluck, when we were there - so there may be something similar when you go.
After that, we stopped off at Mont des Arts, a historic site home to different attractions such as the Royal Library of Belgium and an artistic public garden designed by landscape architect René Pechère, before visiting Manneken Pis. Manneken Pis is a statue of a small boy urinating into a fountain - so the name is pretty literal (and funny). There are many legends about this statue which are worth looking up and the little guy has become a symbol of Brussels.
Before and after dinner (not worth mentioning) we went to some great bars for a drink. Marcelle cocktail bar is a really cool place with great drinks and Le Chapot, just off Grand Place, had some great live music and is on a row of plenty of other bars to choose from. There is a shopping mall, called the Royal Galleries, right next to Grand Place as well including jewellery stores, chocolate shops and boutiques, and it is nicely lit up at night. After our day in Bruges and Ghent (more on that later), we went to Wolf food market for dinner, with a bar and loads of different cuisines on offer there's something for everyone.
A later flight is great to spend another full day in your chosen location until you're stuck with your luggage after checkout. Luckily, there are storage lockers in Bruxelles Midi to leave your cases for the day. There are quite a few but of different sizes so if you want or need a big one, it's best to get there early.
On our last day we headed to the Marollen neighbourhood, I had read it was meant to be an up and coming 'trendy' area but I wasn't really taken with it to be honest, maybe my expectations were too high. There is also a daily flea market in the area named Vieux Marché, again I had high hopes for this due to my previous research but it felt more like a car boot sale than somewhere I was excited to shop at. We also walked by the Palais de Justice and decided to ride Grand Roue Place Poelaert (the big Ferris wheel) right next to it, which gave us a nice view across the city.
Some things I wanted to do and places I wanted to go but either ran out of time or they were closed are: the Atomium and Mini Europe, the Horta Museum, Koekelberg Basilica and Park Tervuren which are all a little outside of the centre of Brussels but should be accessible via public transport. There were also a couple wine bars on my list - La Flaque and Rebel - as well as cocktail bars (Chemistry & Botanic's, Plumette and Vertigo) and The 1040 rooftop bar, which all seemed worthwhile visiting.
What to do in Bruges & Ghent
We booked a day trip from Brussels to Bruges and Ghent via GetYourGuide. Our guide for the day (both on the bus and in the cities) was very informative. The first stop was Bruges (Brugge), a very picturesque city in Belgium with amazing architecture and cute canals and cobbled streets, just over an hour from Brussels. I would love to have spent more time here.
We went on a canal boat trip, of course, it is a must! Seeing the city from the canals is a great way to get around and see it from a different perspective. Bruges is also a really lovely city to walk around in where you will come across different street artists selling their work. I had one of, if not the, best hot chocolates of my life at The Old Chocolate House just off Markt Square accompanied by waffles slathered in chocolate as well - when in Belgium, eh? You can also climb the Belfort tower for a great view across the city, but we didn't have time for this unfortunately.
Our next stop was Ghent (Gent), less than an hour from Bruges. Another historic city in Belgium with canals and impressive architecture throughout. We only had about two hours in Ghent. We did a walking tour with our guide, another stunning city to walk around in to see the sites. There are little squares with markets in them selling different crafts, jewellery, artwork and souvenirs. You can visit Gravensteen Castle, the Castle of the Counts, in Ghent which became a prison and court and is now a museum. We also took a walk along Graffitistraatje (the graffiti street) which is a narrow alleyway with the walls covered in cool street art, there were even people painting as we walked through. There are also canal boat tours available in Ghent which, if we'd had time, I would definitely have liked to do since I enjoyed the one in Bruges so much. To finish our time off in Ghent we went for a pint of Belgian beer at Trollekelder, a really cool 'beer café' with unique interior, indoor and outdoor seating and over 300 beers to choose from.
Out of all three cities, Bruges was my favourite, just because of how cute and pretty everywhere was, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time in each city and would definitely recommend this trip to anyone!
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