The Best Places to Visit in Belgium

From Renaissance art to world war history and cutting-edge fashion, there’s a lot to love about Belgium. Welcome to our Belgium travel guide.

Brussels

The capital of Brussels is a majestic city, with historic houses and old paved roads. To make the most of it, wander the Sablon area (both the Grand and Petit Sablon), where you can visit antiques dealers and one of the country’s many chocolate factories.

Discover The Atomium, the spectacular structure created for the 1958 World’s Fair and stay for dinner. Enjoy a famous Belgian beer (and accompany it with a Brussels waffle) on the Grand Place.

Bruges

Bruges is one of Belgium’s most beautiful cities, with over 10 kilometres of winding canals, vine-covered cottages, sprawling churches and horse-drawn carriages. It’s easily seen in a day but is most serene when the day-trippers leave and the evenings are still and quiet.

Antwerp

Antwerp first landed on the fashion map back in the ’80s when the so-called ‘Antwerp Six’ featured at London Fashion Week for the first time. The collective of six young designers, who graduated from Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp in 1980-81, soon helped create a reputation for the city (and the art school) for innovative design, fashion and progressiveness.

Since then Antwerp has grown into somewhat of a ‘capital of cool’ in a country firmly rooted in history, medieval art and trade.

Nationalestraat

For the best shopping, head to the Sint-Andries quarter and the streets off Nationalestraat. You’ll find local designers side by side with global fashion houses and even one of the most enduring of the Antwerp Six, Dries Van Noten.

The Western Front

Stretching over 700 kilometres from the Swiss border to the North Sea, the Western Front is inextricably linked to the Australian psyche in a way that Anzac Cove, Kokoda and Tobruk are. But what stands it apart is that the Western Front was the scene of not one or two military campaigns, but the heart of the First World War one for over four years.

The Western Front is both incredibly heartrending and fascinating to visit. However, traversing the whole stretch is unrealistic for most people, so focusing on the main centre of Australian participation in Belgium is a good starting point – the medieval walled city of Ypres (Iepers in Flemish) is a convenient place to base your exploring from.

Nearby are several important battlefields and cemeteries, including the sobering Tyne Cot (the biggest – and most overwhelming – of the Commonwealth cemeteries), Hill 60 and 62 and the battlegrounds of the Ypres Salient (which saw the battles of Passendale, Polygon Wood, Hill 60 and others).

There are also many trench reconstructions, memorials, roadside cemeteries and small museums to be seen. The modern In Flanders Museum is worth a visit to refresh your chronological history of the war and to find out how the war affected the people of Ypres as well.

Hallerbos

Hallerbos, 30 minutes south of Brussels, is a forest famed for its wild bluebell hyacinths that carpet the forest floor in a vivid blue/purple from mid-April. Visitors can get a free walking map at the Halle tourist office and explore the vibrant forest via the marked walking trails.

Best Places to Stay in Belgium

If you’re planning a trip to Belgium, or merely contemplating adding it to your European itinerary, where you stay can often be the thing that takes you from a ‘maybe’ to putting down your credit card. Luckily, you’ll find Belgium is home to some truly stunning hotels – all you need to do is choose one.