I visited Belgium in the spring of 2019 with my best friend Amy, we decided to book a reunion trip (she is from Yorkshire and I’m near London) after one of our trips with Where’s Mollie. We booked a trip to visit 4 cities across Belgium in 4 days. Brussels was our base and we travelled to the other cities by train hitting Brugge, Antwerp and Ghent.
The weather was absolutely beautiful and really made the trip with spring bulbs and daffodils decorating the city centres. Belgian architecture is so interesting and very photogenic and if you love chocolate, waffles or beer you will be in your element.
Intro & Culture
Belgium, a country in Western Europe, is known for medieval towns, Renaissance architecture and has headquarters of the European Union and NATO. The country has distinctive regions including Dutch-speaking Flanders to the north, French-speaking Wallonia to the south and a German-speaking community to the east. The bilingual capital, Brussels, has ornate guildhalls at Grand-Place and elegant art-nouveau buildings.
CURRENCY
In Belgium, the main currency is Euros. I didn’t get any Euros out before I went and instead I used my Monzo card when purchasing things. I use Monzo which is an app based bank account and contactless card (there are lots of similar ones to choose from though). It also alerts you once you’ve used the card and gives you the current exchange rate on purchases too.
One thing that did annoy me with most places we ate out at is they don’t split the bills. So me and Amy took it in turns to buy lunch/dinner and paid each other back. We kept the receipts to make sure we paid each other back equally and kept track of our payments.
Download the app “Currency Plus” to get currency conversions on the go. It updates daily and when connected to WiFi or Network to give you the latest conversion and you can have multiple currencies shown in one go.
Download here: Apple App Store // Google Play Store
LANGUAGE
In Belgium, they speak English, Dutch and Flemish but they mainly speak French. If you know a little French, it really does go a long way. Even knowing Hello, Thank you and Please – it really does help. Below are some phrases to help you get by and to remember. In Belgium they mainly speak French so it will happy to know a couple of phrases.
- Hello/Good Morning – Bonjour
- Goodbye – Au revoir
- Good Afternoon – Bon soir
- Good Night – Bon nuit
- Thank you – Merci
- Thank you so much – Merci beaucoup
- Have a good day – Bon journee
- Yes – Oui
- No – Non
TIMEZONE
Belgium are in the Central European Summer Time (GMT+02:00) timezone.
CUISINE
Food and eating out in Belgium is amazing. There are so many different restaurants across Belgium which cater for different cuisines and tastes everything from Indian, Italian and American etc. The delicacies from Belgium that you need to try are waffles, fries, chocolate and beer!
READ MORE: 5 Places To Eat In Belgium
Budget Tips
Suggested Daily Budget – 68-71 EUR / 59-62 GBP (Note: This is a suggested budget assuming you’re staying in a hostel, eating out a little, cooking most of your meals, and using local transportation. Using the budget tips below, you can always lower this number. However, if you stay in fancier accommodation or eat out more often, expect this to be higher!) During the 4 days I had in Belgium, I spent around £236. This includes food, train tickets and a few souvenirs
01. Buy breakfast snacks at a supermarket instead of a full breakfast – One way I saved money in Belgium was buying breakfast snacks in a supermarket rather than going to a restaurant for breakfast. I found it much cheaper buying danishes and snacks to eat quickly for breakfast better when catching trains to different cities.
02. Do not buy train tickets through Trainline – When I first arrived in Belgium, I bought my train ticket through Trainline to get to Brugge and then I realised it was so much more expensive than buying it through a desk or a ticket machine. If you check out my Transport In Belgium post you will see the difference between buying a ticket through Trainline and the ticket desk.
03. Search around for cheaper places to try Belgian delicacies – When Amy and I wanted to get waffles, we searched around the different shops and stalls to find the cheapest and best place to get them. Each stall and shop will vary in price and quality so make sure you are getting the best for your money. Sometimes the stalls will be cheaper than the shops.
04. Share an apartment with a friend – I shared an apartment in Brussels with my friend Amy whilst in Belgium and it saved us so much money. We could have stayed in a hostel but we wanted a comfier and cleaner place to stay whilst travelling around the different cities. Our AirBnB hosted apartment was such a good price and we split the price between the two of us.
Travel tips
VISAS
You do not need a visa to visit Belgium no matter where you are travelling from but you may need to fill in an immigration card.
Check if you need a Visa or other documentation here…
With iVisa, all of your travel document requirements are all in one place. They help give you that piece of mind when checking you have everything you need to enter a country without any hassle.
You can apply for everything from visas, tourist cards, invitation letters and health declaration forms for COVID-19 differently from their website. It’s very quick and easy to use and they are very fast at processing your applications, some things can even be FREE for whichever travel document you need. You can even pay for speedy processing and delivery if you are in a rush.
INJECTIONS
You do not need any injections to visit Belgium.
READ MORE: A Guide to Vaccinations And Visas Around The World
CAPITAL/CITY
The capital of Belgium is Brussels. It has lots of smaller cities being the most popular ones are Brugge, Antwerp and Ghent. I highly recommend checking out the smaller cities over Brussels. I really didn’t like the vibe of Brussels at all. It didn’t feel very touristy and everything seems to be miles away from each other.
ACCOMMODATION
There are so many hotels and accomodation across Belgium depending on where you are planning to stay. These can vary from major hotel chains, AirBnB’s, homestays or hostels. Make sure you check out AirBnB and also TripAdvisor for booking your hotel or hostel. Me and Amy booked our apartment via AirBnB and made our base Brussels to travel to and from the other cities around and so we were close to the airport.
ACCOMMODATION I’VE STAYED IN
• Apartment Stephanie, Brussels
READ MORE: Our Cute Apartment In Brussels
EXPLORE BELGIUM
Antwerp | Brugge | Brussels | Ghent
DRIVING
It will be quite easy to drive in Belgium and Europe in general. The roads are all similar across Europe so it will be really easy to adjust to driving. We didn’t drive but there are plenty of car hire offices around, especially at the airport. We mainly used the trains, metro and walked to places we wanted to get to. I will have a seperate post on how to get around Belgium coming soon.
READ MORE: Transport In Belgium | How To Get Around
FLIGHTS
Flights to Belgium can be from any major city across the world or from having a stopover in a major city if you are coming from somewhere smaller. Be sure to search Skyscanner to find your best time to fly to Belgium or any other airport you are flying to. I flew with Brussels Airlines to and from London Heathrow via Brussels Zaventem Airport.
Make sure you are using a VPN set to Belgium when booking your flights, this way you might get cheaper flights than if you were browsing “in the UK”.
READ MORE: How To Book Cheap Flights
Travel Guides
You can read my travel guides to parts of Belgium for more information on how I travelled around and the things I saw and did. In my The Ultimate Beginners Guide To Brussels and my beginners guides to Ghent, Antwerp and Brugge. I have broken down everything I did day by day including my recommendations and favourite places to visit and eat at.
Packing Tips
WHAT TO WEAR
You can wear pretty much anything in Belgium, of course depending on the weather. We were so lucky with the weather we had in Belgium as I was so worried it would be raining and cold. Instead we had gorgeous sunny weather all weekend with high 20s.
WEATHER
The weather in Belgium can be a mixed bag but they can also get some stunning weather during the Spring and Summer.
Activities
THINGS TO SEE & DO
There is so much to do in Belgium from exploring the cities to trying all of the yummy food. I definitely recommend visiting the various museums across Belgium, try traditional delicacies, explore the sights and many more.
HIGHLIGHTS OF BELGIUM
- • Minnewater Lake, Brugge
- • Eating waffles, Brugge
- • Boat trip up the canal, Brugge
- • Mannekin Pis, Brussels
- • Congress Column, Brussels
- • Port of Antwerp, Antwerp
- • MAS Viewpoint, Antwerp
- • Gravesteen Castle, Ghent
READ MORE: Want to spend 4 days exploring 4 different cities in Belgium? A Guide To Exploring 4 Cities In 4 Days In Belgium.
SAVE THIS TRAVEL GUIDE FOR FUTURE USE…
Solo Travel / Small Budget / 
It really does look like a lovely place to visit! 🙂
Sarah ???? || Boxnip || Latest Post
It really is, it’s so full of culture x
This was a really handy guide to read Shannon! Thank you for sharing! I didn’t know about the Macro card and I will certainly think of going to Belgium one day soon!
Isobel x
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Glad you found it helpful! The Monzo card is great for travelling and it makes it so easy to track your payments 🙂