If you are thinking of traveling to Brussels, Belgium, you are in the right place. Brussels is the capital of Belgium, a Western European country. The country has three official languages, Dutch, French and German, and in Brussels, signs are written in two languages, French and Dutch. Brussels is located in the Brussels region, which has the same name and is one of the 3 regions of Belgium. It is also called the European Union and European capital because it houses many institutions related to the European Union and NATO.
In addition, Grand Place, which is the square of the city where art and architecture develops, has also been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List with its atmosphere reflecting different architectural styles from different centuries.
You will see that architecture has an important place not only in this square, but also in the shopping streets and shopping centers of the city. It is a center that attracts the special attention of art lovers with the art festivals held in the city. From an economic point of view, it hosts the centers of economic communities such as the European Economic Community, the European Coal and Steel Community. It is a country with a competitive and well-established economy among European Union countries.
It can be said that Brussels is also a central point in transportation, largely due to the fact that it houses the European Union and NATO centers. Due to the intensity of short-term business and touristic trips, the transportation network in the city is quite developed. Although the population of the city is around 178,000, there are two airports and three train stations in the city. It is connected to the Escaut River and the city of Antwerp by the Willebroek Canal on which it was founded, and to the city of Charleroi by the Charleroi Canal.
It is also the junction of major highways. Brussels, which has visitors from all seasons of the year, is generally preferred for short-term touristic trips from spring to early autumn when the weather is better. Because it is in the interior of Belgium, it is less maritime and the winters are cold.
When to go to Brussels
Let us share with you some of the things you need to know when traveling to Brussels. It is generally preferred from early spring to September, as its autumns and winters are rainy and cold. In August, a huge flower carpet is made on the Grand Place, so tourists’ interest in Brussels increases in August as well.
Where to Stay in Brussels
The streets of the medieval city center of Brussels, the capital of Belgium, all lead to the Grand Place. Grand Place, the square of the city where art and architecture also develop, is a square that has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List with its atmosphere reflecting different architectural styles from different centuries. You will see that architecture has an important place not only in this square, but also in the shopping streets and shopping centers of the city. The city center is full of shops where you can shop, restaurants and cafés where you can eat and have a drink.
Tip: If you book hotels two or three months before your trip, you can find places at much more affordable prices.
Places to Visit in Brussels
Brussels has preserved and repaired many architectural styles that it has hosted throughout history. Brussels, which attracts tourists with its arts and cultural activities, is also known as the European capital as it hosts the European Union centers. The city offers its visitors various tourist attractions.
Grand Place
It is one of the most important and lively squares in Europe. It attracts the attention of Brussels visitors with its historical texture in various architectural styles such as baroque and gothic. Due to these features, it is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. It has social facilities such as cafés, restaurants, and shops where you can spend time day and night. You can both taste Belgian chocolates and waffles and shop. In addition to these, there are many restaurants where you can taste local and world cuisines and bars where you can have a drink. A huge flower carpet festival is held in the square every two years in August. It also hosts many social and cultural events today.
Atomium
It was built for the Expo World Fair held in Brussels in 1953, and today it has become an iconic structure unique to Brussels that both tourists and locals flock to. Atomium is made in the same dimensions as the iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times.
Today, 5 sections of Atomium, which consists of nine sections, are open to visitors. In one of these, there is an exhibition where the history of the building is explained to the visitors, and in the other section, it is possible to visit temporary exhibitions dealing with different themes. A globe is reserved as a children’s section and many trips from schools are organized here. It is possible to see the city 360 degrees on the top sphere, and you can also dine in the restaurant with this view in the evenings, but don’t forget your reservation. Atomium has dedicated the remaining 3 sections to special activities.
Peeing Child Statue (Manneken Pis)
The Peeing Child Statue is a statue that has become the symbol of Brussels. There are many stories about this bronze statue, which is 60-61 centimeters in size and depicts a peeing boy by a small pool, there are those who say that the child was a spy and that it was built for celebration when he was caught, and there are those who say that his family put him to bed with the joy of finding their lost child.
Cinquantenaire Park
It is a park in Brussels with gardens, ponds, waterfalls and valuable works, with a large variety of plants and a very large green area. It means “fiftieth anniversary” and was built in 1880 in honor of the 50th anniversary of Belgium’s freedom. Cinquantenaire Park is also known as Jubelpark. The pentagon-shaped park is built on an area of 30,000 hectares and provides its visitors with the opportunity to jog, walk and have a picnic.
Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula
The most famous religious building in Brussels, the cathedral dates back to the 8th century. It is believed to be a chapel that was first dedicated to St. Michael in the 8th century. Later, in the 11th century, Duke of Brabant II. A church was built here by Lambart. And in the same century, the holy relics of St. Gudula were brought here. For this reason, the church was called the Church of St. Michael and St. Gudula.
Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium
Brussels Museum of Fine Arts is a museum that includes collections from movements such as Rubens, Renaissance, Realism, 17th century, Belgian Impressionism and Symbolism, which reveal the history of visual arts, and therefore, the works of artists from different periods and styles are exhibited. The museum is a collection of museums that describe Western art from the 15th century to the 21st century with paintings, sculptures, prints and a very small number of non-European works. Fine Arts Museum consists of 6 sections. Antique and modern art departments are located in the main building. Other sections were opened later.
Autoworld Car Museum
AutoWorld, where you can see limited edition vehicles such as Laferrari, Lamborghini Veneno, Maserati MC12, as well as classics such as Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborgini and modern vehicles such as real Formula 1, is a museum that will excite car lovers. At AutoWorld, located in the Cinquantenaire garden, you can learn the stories of legendary automobile brands, especially Mercedes and Porsche.
Transportation in Brussels
When you travel to Brussels, you should also know how to get there. Most places in Brussels are within walking distance. Especially the distance between touristic areas varies between 10 minutes and 40 minutes. If you want to use public transport, there are metro, bus and tram depending on the Brussels city transportation line. They all run from 6 am to midnight. It is possible to obtain a map of the metro line free of charge from most metro stations. You can buy tickets for city transport at most metro stations, newsagents and the STIB office, which organizes urban transport.
On the STIB website, you can find the timetable of public transport vehicles, where they are live, and city network maps. In addition, tourists are offered an option called the Brussels Card. With the 24, 48 and 72 hour options of the Brussels Card, you have the right to unlimited use of all public transportation, free entry to more than 30 museums, and discounts at some shopping malls, bars and restaurants.
Cycling is also a fairly common vehicle in Brussels. Bicycle rentals are open from April to January. It costs 7 Euros per hour and 15 Euros per day. On the other hand, the bicycle exchange system in many European cities is also available in Brussels. The name of the system is VILLO, the price starts to increase in 30-minute periods on the first half hour from the stop where you get the bike, as there is no place in the city where you can go with a bike in more than 30 minutes. For this, you need to subscribe with your credit card information, you can easily find more detailed information on the websites.
In addition to cycling, car rental is also possible in Brussels, but it is not a common option. If you want to use a taxi, you can make a reservation in advance. If you do not book in advance, you should pay attention to whether the taxi you will take has the official Brussels taxi sign. Do not forget to get a printed receipt from the taxi driver when your journey is over.
Due to the two water channels on which it is located, the sea bus is also an option for transportation in the city, but it is open for use from the 1st of May to the 31st of January.
Brussels Cuisine
Your trip to Brussels continues, if you can’t decide what to eat, then it’s time to talk about what to eat in Brussels. Belgian cuisine combines the traditions of medieval cuisine with European cuisine, especially the cuisines of its neighbors, the Netherlands, France, and Germany. Especially in restaurants, you can see the inspirations of French cuisine. Eggs and seafood are commonly used in dishes and soups.
The most famous elements of Brussels cuisine are chocolate, mussels, waffles and french fries. Chocolate is one of the most famous things about Belgium and Brussels. Places where you can eat chocolates in various flavors and shapes and buy them as gifts are everywhere. Waffles are a preferred dessert for breakfast and at other times of the day. It can be preferred with extras such as powdered sugar, jam, chocolate, fruit.
Mussels are a widely consumed food made with a wide variety of fillers between September and February. French fries are a snack that you can find in every café and restaurant, especially consumed with alcohol and served with various sauces. Beer variety in Belgium is quite high. Beers are diversified according to their color, taste, aroma, alcohol content and sometimes even the shape of the glass in which they are drunk. Another food that is famous in Brussels is cheese. Cheeses, which have more than 150 varieties, are also an alternative that adds color to the tables and can be popular in your shopping.
In addition, some local dishes unique to Brussels and Belgium can be experienced. Eels is an eel dish, served in many ways of cooking and with different ingredients, sauces. Stoemp is a dish made with mashed potatoes and various vegetables. Speculoos is a kind of crispy cookie that is originally made for St. Nicholas’ Day but is consumed as a dessert at all times of the year. Waterzooi is a creamy soup made with fish or chicken, infused with eggs and various vegetables. Paling in’t Groen (Anguilles au Vert) is a soup-like, juicy fish dish with a green sauce made specifically with eel.
Shopping in Brussels
Wouldn’t you like to beautify your Brussels trip with shopping? One of the first things that come to mind when Brussels and Belgium are mentioned will be chocolate. When you want to shop in Brussels, chocolate will be in the first place. Apart from chocolate, other products that are famous in Brussels and to be bought as gifts or souvenirs are lace, biscuits, crystal objects, beer, antiques. Lace may surprise tourists from Turkey, but Belgium is considered one of the best in the world when it comes to lace. You can buy Tintin-figured objects on Tintin comics, T-shirts or similar souvenirs from Brussels, which is also famous for its comics and even has a comics’ museum. You can find t-shirts, fridge decorations, mugs everywhere and buy them as souvenirs.
What you need to pay attention to is that many stores where you will shop are closed on Sundays, so it would be healthier not to coincide with the shopping part of your trip on Sunday. Another point is that 21 percent VAT is included in all prices you will see while shopping in Brussels, non-EU citizens can be exempt from this VAT amount after they have taken the necessary actions.
The most central area where you can shop is the Grand Place square, which is the busiest touristically. You can find shops selling all kinds of touristic items and food in the Grand Place square. Boulevard de Waterloo is one of the largest shopping streets in Brussels. You can find world famous brands here. Avenue Louise is a street near Boulevard de Waterloo. Here you can find Brussels-Belgium branded designers. You can find designer products mainly for women’s wear, men’s wear and shoes.
Rue Neuve is one of the longest shopping streets in Brussels. It is possible to find many famous brands of Europe on this street, and there are also stores where you can find electronic products. Reu Antoine Dansaert is a very stylish shopping street with different architectural structures around it. On this street, you can find the most fashionable and latest design pieces by designers. Reu de Namur is a street at the end of Boulevard de Waterloo, where you can find a selection of clothing and shoes, as well as a variety of shops for bags and accessories.
There are also many options for those who prefer shopping malls. Gallery St. Hubert is Europe’s first shopping centre. The size of a street, Galeries St. Hubert is also a place frequented by tourists with the different architecture of its building and its all-glass roof. It is located near the Grand Place and contains cafés, clothing stores, theater and chocolate shops. Galeries Agora, Galeries St. It is located opposite Hubert, there are shops especially notable for leather goods, and it is more economical.
Galeries Louise and Toison d’Or are the centers preferred by fashion lovers in Brussels, although they have a modern structure, they are closed like typical Brussels shopping malls with roofs, you can also prefer the cafés on the ground floor of the multi-storey building.
Street markets are also very famous in Brussels, you can find fruits, vegetables, flowers, antiques and accessories from the weekly or daily street markets. You can note a few of them: Gare du Midi, Marolles, Grand Sablon, Grand Place
Nightlife in Brussels
Due to its cosmopolitan structure and touristic capacity, Brussels hosts many different options for nightlife: Irish bars, jazz clubs, nightclubs where you can dance, places playing nostalgic music. You can also chat with music.
Brussels has more than 50 nightclubs. In these clubs, it is possible to have fun with a wide variety of music genres such as techno, electro, house music, R&B, salsa, accompanied by international DJs. Nightclubs usually open at 23.00 and close towards the morning hours. It is recommended to make a reservation for most before you go.
A few of the most popular nightclubs: Le Nostalgia Club, Fuse, YOU, Bazaar, Bloody Louis. Located in the city center, Le Nostalgia includes music concepts from the 60s/70s/80s/90s. You must go here with stylish clothes, it is not possible to enter with a T-shirt or sneakers. There is no entrance fee for Nostalgia. Fuse is Belgium’s first nightclub that plays techno music and works with international DJs for the first time.
YOU nightclub is located in the city center and sets a different musical style for each night. In addition, parties are organized for LGBT individuals on Sundays. Bazaar is a nightclub that plays deep house music and is preferred by locals. Boody Louis is very famous for its armchairs, foosball tables, and its original decor created with neon lights. He has a hip hop and house music style.
The historical A La Mort Subite, which has remained unchanged for a century, is a very interesting bar with its design. It appeals to all walks of life, from students to businessmen. Also known as the “Quiet Bar”, Greenwich does not offer special beers to its guests, but what makes it unique is the fact that chess is played in this bar. The tables are designed like a chess table. In addition, only Friday nights are designated as tango night.
Le Corbeau, a place preferred by serious drinkers, offers many options from exotic flavored beers to local beers with their own glasses. Another bar, Poechenellekelder, located opposite the Peeing Child Statue, gives its customers the impression of a surreal museum with its very exotic decoration. Apart from its usual beers, it is also a very famous and preferred place with its traditional special beers and snacks.
There are also many alternatives for Brussels visitors who want to listen to jazz. One of them is Sounds Jazz Club, where there is live music every day except Sunday. Jazz Station, on the other hand, aims to present its guests with a decoration that reflects the spirit of jazz music, and is a venue where both famous people and new young talents take the stage.
In addition to these, if your foreign language allows, you can go to theaters, cinemas, and visit some shopping centers in Brussels at night. In addition, places where you can do fun activities such as bowling will also be open at night. When you travel to Brussels, do not leave without tasting the nightlife!
Festivals in Brussels
- Brussels Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (January)
- Animated Film Festival (February)
- International Fantastic Film Festival (April)
- Arts Festival (May)
- Ommegang Medieval History Festival (July)
- Pukkelpop Music & Dance Festival (August)
- Brussels Summer Festival (August)
- Brussels Flower Carpet Festival (August)
- F1 Belgian Grand Prix (September)
- Brussels Design September
- Pink Screen Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (October)
- BRXL Bravo Arts Festival (October)
- Belgian Cinema Festival (December)
Brussels Public Holidays
- New Year: January 1
- Easter (Easter Sunday): The first Sunday after the 14th day of March
- Easter Monday: The day after Easter
- Labor Day: May 1
- Ancension Day: 40 days after Easter
- Whitmonday: 7 Mondays after Easter
- Belgian National Independence Day: 21 July
- Assumption Day of the Virgin Mary: 15 August
- All Saints’Day: November 1
- Armistice Day: 11 November
- Christmas Day: December 25
Useful Information for Brussels
- Police 110,
- Other Emergencies 112
- Belgium dialing code +32
Brussels Official Language
What languages do you need to know when traveling to Brussels? Belgium’s official languages are French, Dutch, and German. English is at a level where everyone can communicate everywhere.
