I would suggest posting in this forum: http://beeradvocate.com/community/forums/benelux.23/ There are a couple helpful threads in there and a lot of helpful people in there.
Depends on you. Some hits all the big towns, some hit everything! I be this gets moved to Belgium forum though. I say my same speech, buy the book, good beer guide to Belgium (I feel like a broken record). all trips depends on you the poster input. 1. budget 2. time 3. interests, 4 energy level. 5. is it a beer only trip? help me help you, we be there in April btw. you seen this thing on BA called places right? we rate them allot, lol.
Ha, yes! I've rated a couple myself. When I was in VT I posted a similar thread and got GREAT responses, so I thought I'd try it again. Budget isn't a big consideration this time around, thankfully. I'm somewhat willing to run myself ragged, but I'll likely be in the country for five days, seven tops. My chief interest is the beer, but I also love history. My wife isn't as big a beer fan as me, though she does like it, and is more interested in history and art.
ok well Bruges is a must, just because its a great city, touristy yea but great food, beer, history and art. Still I am a planner myself. I am sure your know about the big places to hit, but many go wanting the rare stuff, which is funny because they export 90% of what they make. 5 to 7 days humm. I hate to rush from place to place. If this is a 1 time trip, you figure 1 day westvleteren, with that afternoon free. 1 day in bruges itself 1 day in Antwerpen 1 day in Ghent 2 days in Brussels. So the rest is up to you....you will miss so much on a quick trip. We never go for less than 3 weeks in 1 area, but we are old salts at this and we are old, so we are slow. So we go for a long time planning on spending as little as possible. we never stay less than 3 days ANYWHERE! its just too hard to get resettled. we did the world wind trip once and once only, it sucked. Assuming your going to hub somewhere and make day trips, are you getting a car?
I'm jealous! I made a short trip back in Sept'08. Spent 3 days in Brussels and 2 in Bruges. We were able to line up a tour one day...we originally found the tour guide through Global Beer Network. The tour guide's name is Regnier Demuynck and he was awesome. Tour included stops at De Dolle (incredible!) and St Sixtus (Westvletern). We visited Cantillon in Brussels (obviously!) and enjoyed Delirium (even though it's overly crowded and somewhat commercial). We also liked Biertje in Bruges. Also, for non-beer suggestions...we got a private chocolate-making demonstration with Manon(http://www.chocolatiermanon.com/). The guy is cool and hilarious. He let us try our hand at filling some chocolates...and we probably ate a pound of chocolate each while there. And don't forget the street carts for frites and waffles!
