Brussels: 14 Best Spots
1 Galerie Bortier
A book lovers’ paradise! This glass-covered shopping gallery is entirely devoted to rare and second-hand books. Happy browsing!
2 Comic Strip Murals & Comic Strip Centre
Two of the most famous cartoons were born in Brussels, Tintin and The Smurfs! Take yourself on a walking tour of more than 60 life sized street murals of the beloved cartoon characters with this map. Don’t forget to finish your tour at the Comic Strip Centre for amazing exhibits! Blistering barnacles!
3 Grand Palace
You’re going to be blinded when the sunlight hits the gold leaf on this facade! Not one other building can carry off bling as well as this UNESCO Baroque palace.
4 Musical Instrument Museum
9000 musical instruments and 4 staircases later and you can sit in the rooftop restaurant that calls this Art Nouveau beauty home.
5 Royal Greenhouses
One afternoon King Leopold II said “extend my orangery”, 31 years later he finds himself gliding through his 7 heated Art Nouveau greenhouses! Pleased, he added a red 7 storey Chinese pagoda as the cherry on top of his glass cake.
6 Palace of Justice
Ironically this Babylonian Palace of Justice required 3,000 homes, belonging to the poor to be bulldozed. But damn that staircase!
7 Delirium Cafe
All you need on any night out is a bar that holds a Guinness World Record for offering over 2000 types of beer and better yet, feels the need to put the same number of beer mats on every available ceiling and wall space!
8 Rue de la Cigogne
There is nothing I love more than a secret cobbled alleyway covered in vines with a clear map location.
9 Peeing Dog Statue
Did you know Brussel’s mascot of a peeing boy (Manneken Pis) has a pet dog with a permanently cocked leg? How creative will you get with this photo?
10 Royal Gallery of Saint Hubert
If there is an Instagram hub in Brussels this is it, but personally, I like the ceiling. Don’t those clouds look so real 😉
11 Passage Du Nord
The Parisian shopping arcade that after a 16 year renovation looks exactly the same. But that’s the way we like it!
12 Goupil Le Fol Bar
The ‘weirdest bar in Brussels’, and that’s according to the locals who love it! We all know European cellar bars are fantastic, but this one has more underground tunnels than you’ll be able to down drinks.
13 Le Fou Chantant Treehouse
If you’re starting to feel you’re too much of a free spirit for Brussels, then you’re probably right… but why not give it a chance and spend your last night having supper in a treehouse restaurant?!
Antwerp: 13 Beautiful Spots
14 Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library
Coming from Oxford I thought we had a monopoly on Harry Potter locations, but look at this library! I’m sure I can see Hermione’s head behind that pile of books!
15 Beveren Organ Cafe
You know those jukeboxes in American films that always play the right song no matter what scene the character is playing? Well, this isn’t one of those, this is far better. This is a genuine 1930s dance organ! €1 is all you need to get an unrecognisable tune that will have everyone dancing.
16 Nello & Patrasche
Damn I want to join that hug! These cute friends are from the pages of a story called A Dog of Flanders. A story of unconditional friendship that unfortunately ends sadly. Unsurprisingly, the cute duo’s story has become very popular in Japan! I need my dog now!
17 Pelgrimstraat
Probably the best street for unique restaurants in Antwerp. Keep your eyes peeled for the particularly enticing Mistral! It also happens to be the location of the entrance to our next secret passage way.
18 Vlaeykensgang Alley
Possibly the most photogenic street in Antwerp, but also one of the narrowest and oldest. This medieval alley way hides three delicious restaurants, perfect considering Vlaeykensgang means pie.
19 Plantin Moretus Museum Courtyard
I’m a sucker for some climbing ivy, especially when it’s tucked away in the home of the oldest printing presses in the world! Each individual letter had to be selected for each word and line before a page could be printed! Amazing, considering our attention spans today (you even read this bit!).
20 Street Art
Antwerp may not have Tintin painted on every corner like Brussels, but it does have an international street art scene with new murals popping up regularly. Use this map to create your own list of favourites! (Congrats to whoever made that map). One of my favourites is the anatomy of a lego man on Sergeyselsstraat!
21 Park Bridge Spoor Noord
The 170 tonne colossus won footbridge of the year in 2017 and I can’t fault it! Though I can’t shake the feeling of this becoming part of the Instagram trend to hold a metal colander over your light to create a shadow selfie!
22 Het Bootje
Remember when you used to draw your dream house and said you would live in it when you ‘grew up’? This ship builder did exactly that. Not only did he commission 5 Art Nouveau houses to be built (one for each continent), but he demanded one must have a ship coming out of the facade. I love it!
23 Elfde Gebod
The ivy house of Antwerp that alone received the 11th commandment: ‘Thou shalt drink beer and enjoy thy life’! The cosy restaurant may be filled to the brim with more saintly paintings and statues than the cathedral next door but all of them are nodding in agreement of the holiest commandment 😉
24 Central Railway Station
I know many people think New York Grand Central Station is the most beautiful, but they need to get on a train to Antwerp and think again! Why else would its nickname be ‘Railway Cathedral’?
25 Hendrik Conscienceplein
One of the most beautiful squares to contemplate your next photo stop in Antwerp. It also happens to be the first car free square in the city since 1968 when some radical artists decided to use industrial ice to barricade it!
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- Hendrik Conscienceplein by VisitFlanders under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
26 De Grote Markt
It seems every Belgian city square has a variation of the same houses, but not all of them have a water fountain statue of a man throwing a severed hand!
Ghent: 8 Secret Places
27 Serpenstraat
The prettiest back street in Ghent reminds me of Edinburgh (in summer), probably because I’ve never been there.
28 Lightning Bird Tree
If you missed the Ghent Light Festival don’t worry because one of its smaller installations is now a permanent part of the city, The lightening Bird Tree which comes alive every night at midnight.
29 Street Art
Tweebruggenstraat and Werregarenstraatje may be the two most well-known streets for artwork in Gent, but in a city that has over 400 individual murals, you’d be crazy not to use this map to hunt for the best!
30 Dulle Griet Bar
If you want to drink here you must first hand over one of your shoes to be locked in a cage above the bar!
31 ‘T Galgenhuis Bar
I hope you don’t have too many friends as there’s only room for 8 in Ghent’s smallest and most historical bar! This fantastic bar used to be a tripe shop (animal innards) and even a gallows!
32 ‘T Dreupelkot
With more than 200 Jenever gins on the menu, 50 of which are home made any true gin lover will need to prioritise this hidden cafe!
33 Patershol
Gent’s oldest neighbourhood is the medieval heart of the city and guarantees photo opportunities around ever corner and hidden street, especially Kraanlei Street!
Bruges: 7 Gems
34 Le Trappiste Bar
A temple to beer (brewed by monks) in a 13th century crypt underneath the streets of Bruges!
35 Bonifacius bridge
Time your walk across this bridge just right because whoever you see first on the other side is who you marry!
36 Markt Square
Before setting foot in this beautiful square make sure you have watched the film ‘In Bruges’!
37 Groenerei
With more than 80 canals and bridges, it’s no wonder Bruges is called ‘The Venice of the North’. But the greenest part can be found in a village inside the city… Groenerei.
38 Blind Donkey Street
If you suddenly feel the urge for a golden archway then is the best alley way to find yourself in! The strange name comes from a time when they used to blindfold donkeys to prevent them getting dizzy as they turned the wheels in the brewery!
39 Rozenhoedkaai
The most photographed spot in Bruges of all time! No photographer is allowed to come to the city without snapping this famous shot!
40 Durbuy
Pronounced dur-bwee not duh-bye as I have been saying to myself whilst writing this post! The smallest city in the world, or atleast that’s the tourism tagine. Either way its a fairytale stone village!
41 Dinant
Despite the stereotype of no one famous ever being Belgian, Dinant has two claims to fame. One, as the birthplace of the inventor of the saxophone and two, the Leffe beer you drink which was named after Dinant’s Abbey!
42 Leuven
A beautiful gothic city with a dangerous concoction… It’s the home of the Stella Artois brewery and 1 in 4 residents are students!
