If you had a place to stay in Brussells...

[Deleted]

...and could stay for 2 weeks, when would you go? What would you see while you were there?

[chiver78]

when I was working over there (in the fall), I found my way to the Six Flags in Wavre. if Brussels is the spindle on a clock mechanism, Wavre is somewhere between 4-5 o'clock. I have no clue if it's open this time of year....but as an-English/French speaking Canadian/American, it was nice to escape the Flemish-speaking northern side of Belgium.

[Deleted]

Did you go to Paris or London when you were in the area?

[chiver78]

on my Belgian trips, no. for all I've traveled through Heathrow, I've never actually left the airport and seen London. I got to see Paris when I was traveling to Bordeaux, strangely enough.

if you're in Brussels, you're about an hour from Holland, Luxembourg, and Germany. don't worry too much about Paris and London. if you do feel the pull, wait until you're there and book a Ryan Air flight for 10euro or so.

[Deleted]

Oh man! I could make it a great trip!!!! What about the rail passes you always hear about? How much do they cost and how do I find them online?

[chiver78]

well, Eurostar is probably your best bet for trains. unless I was in France, I always rented a car (I was on business...) so I can't speak to train service too much. if you do head toward Paris, you want the TGV (le train-grand-vite). honestly, driving over there isn't really that bad if you can swing the rental car. Belgium is bilingual, so the signs have French (you're Canadian, I think...?) and they drive on the right like we do over here.

[Deleted]

Yes, I am Canadian. I would be paying my own way so I want to be frugal. Mostly I would do day trips to the different countries. I think. I know nothing about the area. I have some research to do.

[chiver78]

yup, definitely check stuff out on your own. my limited experience is nothing to rely on, for sure. in a quick search, I just found the website for the Belgian Tourism Office, Tourism Wallonia(French-speaking Belgium), a travel guide. the reason I mentioned you being Canadian is that I'd guess that even if you weren't French-speaking, you could probably hold your own with traffic signs in French if you'd grown up with them.

[Deleted]

Thanks chiver. I can understand some french. Traffic signs should be no problem. I might even be able to ask where the washroom is

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Is Brussels where Brussels Sprouts comes from?

[Becks]

Sometimes the best things you see on trips in Europe are not planned. I've found that to be the case in Paris, London, and Rome. I have over planned a few times, and those areas that I nearly passed by were far more interesting than the original itinerary.

The trains can be fairly simple to understand and it's easy enough to get tickets at the rail stations. But be sure you have your time tables figured out or you can find yourself scrambling to get the last train back to your point of origin. You should really have little problem as often times there is someone around who speaks English.

[desertmover]

I would go back in a heartbeat. See Mannequin Piss. There are great museums in Belgium. Eat waffles, drink wine and beer. Order mussels and french fries. See the fish market...

If you go in May, you could get ove to the Netherlands to see the tulips!

[formerexpat]

Ghent, Brugge and Antwerp are great places to visit in Belgium and are all pretty close [about an hour].

London, Paris, Amsterdam and Cologne are all within a couple hours away of Brussels. All are accessible using the Eurail.

Here is a site: www.eurail.com/eurail-passes

2 week pass for 3, 4 or 5 countries for a few hundred. Or some others for you to look at and pick and choose.

This would seem like a pretty good bet for you considering your limited amount of time and desire to do day trips from Brussels. You'll need to stay approx 2 hours away so with 4 hours of travel, you can spend enough time in each location.

A lot of travelers from other countries stay at hostel's. Wasn't anything that my wife and I did, but we had many Aussie, British and Kiwi friends that traveled like this on numerous occasions. This could be helpful if you want to stay over night in London and/or Paris, for example.

I'd recommend you breaking your the number of hours you travel up so you're not traveling far every day.

For example:

Day 1 - Brussels
Day 2/3 - Paris
Day 4 - Ghent - less than hour away from Brussels
Day 5 - Amsterdam
Day 6/7 - London
Day 8 - Day in Brussels to see what you didn't on day 1
Day 9 - Brugge - just over an hour away
Day 10 - Antwerp - just under an hour away
Day 11/12 - Cologne

This breaks up the longer travel that you will do in between some of the shorter trips. I might even recommend making London day 5/6, your second day in Brussels to day 7 and moving Amsterdam to day 8. You're going to be on a travelers rush in the first week, so it might be best to get your bigger trips [including the 4 hour travel round trip] out of the way in the first 6 days because traveling a lot over a 2 week period does take a lot out of you.

My wife and I were spent the last few days of our honeymoon when we arrived in Venice because we spent the previous 11 days jam packed with activities in Florence and Rome. We both want to go back because we don't think we got everything out of it that we could have [still had a good time there though].

My point was that you're going to be spent that second week, so use your natural energy to get you through the longer distances you have to travel to get to some of the places you want to see.

So excited for you, I hope you have a great time!! Feel free to PM me if you have questions or want some recommendations. My wife and I traveled extensively while living over there. I might be able to dig up some useful websites that help a planning traveler. Athena also travels a lot, so you might want to PM her - I'm sure she'd also have a number of good recommendations!

[formerexpat]

On the "when" question, I'd say May to September should be good but avoid August. Most of Europe goes on "holiday" then and some things just aren't available, in France most notably, for example.

[debtheaven]

Hi Later
I second what Expat said except to add that if you avoid July AND August it's even better. So April, May, June or September. There are fewer tourists, and you'll pay less for airfare.

I don't know you but Expat's itinerary would be too ambitious for me ... I'd probably zap at least two of those cities because I wouldn't want to explore a new city every day. But I'm somebody who needs "down" time, you may not be.

And I ditto that if you go to Paris and / or London, you really should stay overnight. There is just too much to see in both for a day trip. Hotels in London are notoriously expensive but you can find reasonably-priced small hotels in Paris.

For hotels in London check out Londontown and for Paris I'd just go with lastminute. Feel free to PM me to check out the area ... you'll want to stay somewhere central.

You can also get package deals with Eurostar / TGV + hotels.

I would definitely go!

[misspt]

Go in April/May to avoid the crowds. Do Expat's intenerary, but don't worry about London, just stick to the continent and the Eurail pass is wornderful and cost-effective, plus I met lot's of wonderful, chatty europeans, traveling college students, etc on the trains. Eat chocolate. The best chocolate I ever put in my mouth came from a chocolaterie near the Mannekin Pis. Have fun!!!! I'm a little jealous. :-)

[Deleted]

Thanks guys!!!! This is exactly the suggestions I am looking for!!!

[debtheaven]

Later, another thought. I don't know who you are staying with, but if it's a friend, he / she'd probably be happy to take you to at least a couple of those places, and then you would go by car (I'm assuming he / she drives) and treat her to lunch or dinner / groceries instead. There are things I refuse to do because I've done them 10 million times already, but others that I'm happy to do.

Also although my initial reaction (like misspt's) would be to zap London because it's both further and more expensive, everybody has certain places they dream about, so you need to make that decision for yourself.

PM or email me if you decide to come to Paris!

[Deleted]

When I get to Brussels I am definately going to Paris!

[debtheaven]

When I get to Brussels I am definately going to Paris!

Please try not to come on a Thursday though lol!

[Becks]

Ah Paris in April, or is it April in Paris? Well it was all good until the volcano erupted, lol. I take that back... after that happened the weather was considerably better! I am now a bit jealous and want to do it again.

[Deleted]

Just thought I add to the OP comments. Belgium has great train service and you could do day trips to Luxembourg, Ghent, Antwerp. I visited there a few years back because I found a cheap flight. My reasoning was that a country known for beer and chocolate has to be fun. It was. I spent one or two days just exporing Brussels and the remains of my trip were day trips.
Have fun and enjoy yourself.

[chiver78]

I've been told that Liege is pretty as well, it's up near Antwerp.

[Clever Username]

En Bruges.
A great place to take in the medieval atmosphere.
Meet racist dwarfs, actresses/conwoman and her drug dealing thief boyfriend.
And hopefully work through your guilt issues.