A year and a half of not traveling during covid really made me starve for travel and this year we’ve been traveling as if on a mission! Normally for teachers’ convention (if you are lucky enough to live in New Jersey, you know what I am talking about – two days off second week of November!) we stay local but this year we decided to go somewhere fun and after a good amount of deliberation, Belgium emerged as a winner.

Even with kids missing one day of school we only had 4 days for this trip and I had buyers remorse pretty much as soon as I hit the ‘buy’ button on those airplane tickets – taking a 7.5 hour flight and suffering through jet-lag for just 4 nights did not seem to be worth it. But I should’ve had more faith because we had the best time!

We split our time between Bruges and Brussels, which worked out great because these cities are so different from each other.

We walked narrow cobble stone streets in Bruges and took a canal tour, made and ate lots of chocolates, checked out beautiful churches and cool windmills, enjoyed a VR ride and birds eye view of the city.

And in Brussels were in absolute awe of The Grand Place (we’ve seen a lot of main squares but I think this is is the fairest of them all!), churches (one of them Mia Dubbed the Notre Dame of Brussels as it looked very similar to the one in Paris), took in some culture at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts and cool architecture.

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We got our fill of mussels, chocolates and Liege waffles (well, maybe not Liege waffles as I can eat them all day every day). It was a great trip!

And if you are planning your own trip to this beautiful country here is practical info that should be helpful.

PRACTICAL INFO

Bruges

Getting There

We were going to take a cab from the airport to Bruges but every travel forum I asked about getting to Bruges recommended taking a train. I am glad we did – it was SUPER easy – we took it directly from the airport and less than 1.5 hour later we were in Bruges! From there it was a 5 minute cab ride to our hotel – easy peasy!

Hotel

We stayed at Hotel De Castillion and absolutely LOVED it! It was right in the old center but tucked away from all the hustle and bustle so it was nice and quite in the room. We stayed in a family suite, which was a duplex and it worked out great – highly recommend for families.

Restaurants

House of Waffles – despite a very touristy founding name, this place (recommended by the hotel) was AWESOME! The decor was very funky, great location (not far from the main square) and most importantly – the waffles were SO GOOD! We got savory and sweet and I don’t even know which ones were better – I am getting hungry just thinking about them!

St Paulus Bakery – we were in a rush to get to start sight seeing so one morning we got a breakfast on the go from this place and it was wonderful – so many delicious morning pastries and breads!

Jet ‘Joe restaurant – if you are looking for a Michelin star experience this is the place to go to. You definitely need reservations way in advance (and them you need to confirm and reconfirm them) but it was worth the hassle – the food was great, the decor was inviting and the service was wonderful.

Pur Chocolate – when in Belgium one must buy chocolate.. There are lots of places there – literally tens of chocolate stores on each block.. this place is a bit different – it’s off the beaten track – we found it during our meanderings .. and it is not touristy . Highly recommend!

Things to Do

Canal Tour – when in Bruges you gotta do a canal tour. There are plenty options available – we did the first one we saw and it was fine:)

Belgium Chocolate Workshop – another must-do when in Belgium is a chocolate workshop. I picked this one based on good tripadvisor reviews and it did not disappoint – it was 2 hours of delicious fun! And we were sent home with lots and lots of chocolates that we made – and that I’ve been eating for last few days:)

Historium – this was a super fun place where we did a VR ride through Medieval Bruges (it sounds a bit cheesey but was so fun!) and climbed a tower for super cool views of the city – definitely check it out!

Brussels

Hotel

I did a lot of research on places to stay and eventually decided on Juliana Hotel – so glad that I did. It’s the newest boutique hotel in Brussels – after a 3 year renovation (Covid did not help!) they finally opened in September of 2021. The place is stunning – beautiful decor, funky (but not too funky) rooms with high ceilings and a great location. I would stay there again and again!

Restaurants

Wolf Market – if you love food markets you gotta check out this place! It’s a scaled down version of Chelsea Market in the city or Time Out in Lisbon. There are about 20 vendors – from Vietnamese and India street food to truffle pastas, poke bowls and dim sum. It’s a covered place with plenty of tables – a perfect spot for a quick meal.

Les Petits Oignons – this place came up a lot in my reviews and the concierge said it was on his list as well so of course we had to check it out. We ended up going there for lunch and it was lovely!

Nuetnigenough – this restaurant was rated very highly and was another one that the concierge recommended so naturally we had to check it out. Be warned – you NEED to make reservations way in advance (you can only do that via email) – this place is tiny and they get booked up. When we went there for dinner there was a sign that they were booked up for the night – as Mia noted, if there was a sign it meant that being booked up for dinner was a common occurrence for them. The food was SO GOOD – I think it was my favorite meal of the trip – even better than an outrageously expensive Michelin restaurant we visited in Bruges. So long story short – go check it out!

I don’t really have many recommendations for things to do because all we did was just walk all over place – stopping anywhere that tickled our fancy – beautiful cathedrals, a giant ferris wheel, Museum of Fine Arts (definitely worth a visit). We even walked all the way to Horta Museum, which apparently gets sold out – we learnt it the hard way. There is definitely lots of see an explore in Brussels!