Belgium Trip Advice

my advice is to talk to @Stevenwings he will set you up

 

Enjoy those loooong July days with 10pm twilight -- what a fun time here. Borrow a guide good, search around in this forum to generate thoughts, and come back here when you have a rough idea what sort of travel, parts of the country etc. for us suggesters and tipsters to work with.

 

Just got back from a Brussels/Antwerp/Ghent/Bruges trip. For traveling around without a car, look into a 10 ride rail pass. €76, can share with people, makes long rides a lot cheaper.

 

The best advice I can give you is to be really careful driving with GPS directions in central Brussels. Both my in-car one and my phone tried to get me killed repeatedly.

 

Know that brewery tours as we know them here in the States aren't typical in Belgium. Most have 'open houses' or something similar but the hours are minimal (like 2-3) hours and usually on Saturday afternoons. That's obviously not an across the board thing, as every place does things a little different, but double check the hours of places you want to go before you lock in destinations. Would be a bummer to plan on going somewhere only to find they're not open.

 

To much advice for Belgium... let me know the cities or region and i bet i can help you with planning....

Sharing a beer when you are here is fine for me ... or go on tour with me

 

thanks for that ... hope we meet in the States

 

you didn't say for how long you'll be in belgium.
for a week in belgium, this is what i'd do:

Brussels x 2 days. Cantillon, 2 x Moeder Lambics. neat city
Antwerp x 1-2 days. Kulminator. nothing else is needed. and antwerp's a great city.
Hit west flanders on the weekend. you'll need a car.
Struise on Saturday, eat/drink at 't Molenhof for dinner. De Dolle for Sunday. go to Westvleteren for shits and giggles while over there.
Go to Bruges for a day. it's so very pretty. some good bars to drink at.

 

^^^ going to Belgium in January for 2 days jam 10-11while I work my way up to amsterdam and plan on stopping by Brussels for a full day and take a night train to Bruges to spend the night there along with a full day the following day , hopefully I can visit and view a good amount of locations seeing that it's 1 full day in each city but for a day trip where should I be going to eat preferably in both cities ? Cantillon is a must for beer but I'm not too worried about finding bottle shops just great places to drink and eat. And I hope Bruges is as magical as Collin Farrell made it seem

 

2 days? best of luck, sir.
food in Bruges has always been disappointing for me.
bottle shop: the Struise bottle shop in Bruges is a must.
food: in brussels, this is an easy choice. http://www.nuetnigenough.be/Home.html

 

Once you're on the pavement (and not having to drive around), I found Brussels to be easily navigable from the Grand Place area. High profile spots like Cantillon, Moeder Lambic, Delirium Cafe, Bier Circus, etc. were all easily reachable on foot. The city is very friendly for wandering. Free Wi-fi is common, so finding restaurant reviews and online maps is no problem.

While I know some people aren't fans of the atmosphere, I still highly, highly recommend the Delirium Cafe. As long as you don't mind crowds of people in front of you ordering full trays of Floris you'll be fine. Grab the large bottle menu and pick 3-4 items you're roughly interested in. From there - point them out and ask for similar recommendations. The bartenders know their stuff and will pull some absolutely crazy bottles from the back. They're also cool about not price gouging. It's not for everyone, but I kept going back.

 

The crows of puking and yelling tourists in front (and inside I guess) were so off-puting last time I was there they I didn't even try to enter the alley they're in.

 

not sure how much traveling you've done, but I recommend fighting the urge to see as much as possible and instead slow down and just enjoy where you are. spending 1 night here, 1 night there will burn you out (all the trains, checking in and out of hotels, the time you lose in transit) - I think you are better to either do 2 days in Bruges or 2 days in Brussels. There are pros and cons to each but I recommend choosing one

 

If you go to Delirium go early, you'll have the place to yourself

 

I never had any issues with rowdiness in or around Delirium. Certainly no more than the multitudes of random bars in that area. The worst part about that area is being accosted by all of those clone restaurant waiters on your way. It's literally like walking past the exact same restaurant and pushy waiter for 1/4 mile.

 

We are going to Belgium in November and I would love to try Westvleteren 12, but don't think that we'll have time to make it to the brewery/cafe. Is it possible to find this beer in any of the cafes throughout the country (Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp)? Thanks for your help!

 

Was just there in September and we saw it all over the place. I was honestly surprised at how seemingly accessible it was. The caveat is, that you're going to pay a premium outside of the Abbey... especially in Brussels.

 

Westvleteren 12 (and even more so #8) is fairly common in the tourist areas of Brussels. There are small beer shops all over the Grand Place area, and probably 1/2 of them have one or more varieties of Westy. The catch is that they are NOT cheap. Bottles of 12 range from 11 Euros to as much as 18 Euros. #8 is a little cheaper and even more common.
The blonde is around, but it's far less common than the other two.

 

De Halve Maan brewery in Brugge is a reasonable tour. The Cambrinus bar is worth a visit. We found Westy there at 12 euros a bottle.