Things to Do in Belgium

From Paris’ Eiffel Tower and London’s Big Ben to the canals of Venice, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Acropolis of ancient Athens, the Mini-Europe theme park in Brussels presents all of the major sights and famous buildings of the European Union countries—in miniature.

Visitors can opt for a standard entrance ticket to the Mini-Europe park, choose a combination ticket including access to the neighboring Atomium museum and observation deck, or enjoy discounted entry with a Brussels Card. Brussels hop-on hop-off bus tours also stop close to the miniature village. 

The Mini-Europe park is located in the Bruparck in northwest Brussels between the Atomium, Brussels Planetarium, and Oceade Water Park. The closest metro stop is Heysel, a 5-minute walk from the park. 

Mini-Europe is open throughout the year, but the busiest time is in July and August when it’s best to visit early in the morning to avoid the crowds. In summer, the park also hosts a number of night events when it stays open until midnight, including firework displays and illuminated exhibitions.

A visit to the miniature model park offers an entertaining way for kids (and adults) to discover Europe and learn about significant moments from European history. Each of the 350 models were painstakingly recreated in miniature form (at a scale of 1:25) and are accompanied by details of their architectural features and historic importance. Interactive displays at each model include sound effects and animations, with trains chugging around tracks, bells chiming, and national anthems playing.

The In Flanders Field Museum is a World War I museum is located in a famous cloth hall in the center of Ypres, Belgium. The major theme of the museum is the consequences of war. Mirrors are used to inspire visitors to examine how we look at the past, how and why we remember, and how we view the nations involved in World War I. The museum encourages visitors to reflect on the major historical events as well as the personal stories of individuals. Visitors will learn about how the war affected the lives of thousands of people of different nationalities who were involved in the war. The museum also has a heavy focus on how the war affected West Flanders and the city of Ypres. 

Visitors receive a poppy bracelet for a one euro deposit when they enter the museum. The bracelet has a microchip in it which tells the stories of four individuals, in the language you choose, as you walk through the exhibits in the museum. You can also climb 231 steps to the top of the bell tower for views of the city and the Ypres Salient battlefields. 

Located just a 10-minute walk from Brussel’s bustling Grand Place, Place du Grand Sablon is a historic square at the heart of the Sablon quarter. It feels a world away from the busy city center, with striking medieval townhouses, stylish restaurants, terrace cafés, and a lively antiques market. 

The Sablon District of Brussels is an ideal spot for dining, shopping, or enjoying a peaceful glass of Belgian beer after a day of sightseeing. Visit on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour to explore the area’s maze of cobbled streets, or opt for a private city tour to learn about the square’s history and visit other Brussels highlights such as St. Michael’s Cathedral and the Royal Palace. 

While the star attraction is the weekend antiques market, the area around Place du Grand Sablon is also a popular stop on chocolate tours of Brussels, with Belgian chocolate shops such as Marcolini, Godiva, Neuhaus, Wittamer, and Leonidas located on and around the square. Place du Grand Sablon is also a good jumping-off point for visiting nearby attractions such as the Manneken Pis, the Mont des Arts gardens, and Brussels Park (Parc de Bruxelles). 

Place du Grand Sablon is a 10-minute walk from the Grand Place in central Brussels. The closest metro station is Louise, and trams 92 and 93 also stop nearby. 

Summer (especially July and August) is the most popular time to visit Place du Grand Sablon, when the weather is typically warm and sunny. Be sure to visit on a weekend to catch the famous antique and book markets, which are held all day Saturday and on Sunday mornings. 

The picturesque lanes of the Sablon District are ideal for strolling and the whole area is packed with art galleries, antique shops, and cafés. After browsing the market stalls on Place du Grand Sablon, make the short walk uphill to the Place du Petit Sablon, home to the beautiful late-Gothic church of Notre-Dame du Sablon. Close by, the Mont des Arts District is home to museums including the Magritte Museum, the Museum of Musical Instruments, and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

The Manneken Pis—sculptor Jerome Duquesnoy’s small bronze statue of a little boy urinating into a Brussels fountain—is one of Belgium’s most beloved landmarks. Built in 1619, the boy is hailed as the capital’s oldest resident and remains a favorite of both locals and tourists, with a host of myths and legends to his name.

No Brussels sightseeing tour is complete without a photo of this cheeky little statue, and most Brussels tours make a stop at the Manneken Pis. While a Brussels city tour is the easiest way to visit, travelers can also take a hop-on hop-off tour to the Grand Place and walk a few blocks to see the statue. Themed tours such as food tasting excursions and Belgian beer walking tours often make a quick detour to snap a selfie with the city mascot as well.

The Mannekin Pis is tucked away at the corner of rue de l'Étuve and rue du Chêne, in the Ilôt Sacré area. From the Grand Place, take the street to the left of Town Hall and walk for three blocks—the statue will be on your left.

Crowds can form around the Mannekin Pis in the busy summer months, making it tricky to get a good photo. Visit early in the morning or late at night to avoid the crowds.

So adored is the Manneken Pis that it’s become a long-standing local tradition to dress up the little boy in a variety of costumes. It’s estimated that the statue has worn more than 800 different costumes over the years, and he often dons the national dress of visiting dignitaries. You might otherwise see him dressed in football colors, as a plumber, or even as Elvis, while his most glamorous outfit was a gold-embroidered suit gifted by Louis XV of France. His costume is changed around 30 times a year, and these occasions are marked with brass-band music and an unveiling of the newly adorned statue. On special occasions, the Manneken Pis even produces beer instead of water to celebrate with the people of Brussels.

Bastogne is a Walloon town in southern Belgium and it was scene of one of the most notorious struggles of World War II: the Battle of the Bulge took place in winter 1944–45 between the retreating Nazis and US troops during the final, ill-fated German offensive against the Allies. Most of the town’s attractions relate to this landmark battle, including the star-shaped Mardasson American War Memorial, which pays homage to the 80,000 US soldiers killed or wounded between December 1944 and the end of January 1945 in the closing days of the war. 

Inaugurated in 1950, the white marble mausoleum was designed by Belgian modernist architect Georges Dedoyard to represent the five-pointed stars on the US flag, supported by slender columns and with a memorial garden at its heart. Inscriptions on the walls of the monument depict the insignia of the American battalions involved in the fighting and the names of the (then) 48 states of the USA. A subterranean crypt has three altars for multi-denominational prayers and is decorated with glittering mosaics by French artist Fernand Léger. Accessible by spiral 

staircase, views from atop the memorial take in the rolling Ardennes countryside and the Wood of Peace, planted in 1994 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge; plaques on the roof terrace indicate the layout of the battlegrounds. 

The medieval-style Markt (Market Square) is the setting for Bruges’ most photogenic landmarks, including the belfry (Belfort) and the Provinciaal Hof. At its center stands a statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck, who played leading roles in the Flemish resistance against the French in the 1302 Battle of the Golden Spurs.

This pedestrianized square is at the center of historical Bruges, and almost every visitor to the city passes through here at some point. Attractions on the Markt include the Historium Bruges interactive experience and the 12th-century belfry, which can be climbed for views over the city. Almost all sightseeing tours of the city, including day tours from Paris, London, and the Belgian capital of Brussels, stop at the Markt.

The Markt is situated right in the heart of medieval Bruges, about a 20-minute walk from Bruges train station. Local buses services (2, 3, 4, 13, 14, and 90) stop nearby. 

Come on Wednesday mornings to browse the traditional market, when vendors sell local produce, flowers, and crafts. Another good time to visit is during December, when the square houses a festive Christmas market. 

While in Bruges, be sure to stop by the city’s other main square: Burg Square. Just a 2-minute walk east of the Markt, Burg Square is equally photogenic, with several notable examples of historical architecture. Look for the Gothic-style Stadhuis (City Hall), which dates back to the 14th century, and the gold-adorned facade of the Palace of the Liberty of Bruges. Formerly a city courthouse, the palace is now the seat of Bruges’ city council. 

Between the late 19th century and World War II, the historic Red Star Line carried more than two million passengers across the Atlantic Ocean to start new lives in the United States, and this compelling museum was opened in September 2013 to tell the story of the migrants and showcase the backstory of the shipping company. Housed in the red-brick former company sheds, washrooms and waiting rooms in Eilandje, north of the city center, the museum buildings themselves are protected monuments. Here medical examinations took place, luggage was disinfected and would-be emigrants were assessed for suitability to enter the US.  The museum’s permanent collections include a touching number of letters, faded photos and multimedia presentations of personal interviews, all displayed cleverly against a colorful, well-curated selection of posters, model ships and Red Star Line souvenirs; individuals seeking out family histories can do so in the Warehouse, where the shipping line’s records are computerized and available to all. The newly built lookout tower replaced an earlier chimney that was pulled down in 1936; it has panoramic views across the waters of the River Scheldt and surrounding quays.

Just outside the Belgian border with France stands a First World War cemetery built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission containing the graves of 250 British and Australian soldiers who died on July 19, 1916, in the Battle of Fromelles - a diversionary battle, which only occured in order to draw the attention of the Germans away from the larger attacks elsewhere in Somme. It involved units of the Australian 5th Division and the British 61st Division, but alas, the Germans were well-prepared and the British Empire troops suffered great losses.

Dating back from just 2009, Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery was the first new Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery to be built in commemoration of World War I in over 50 years; the last such cemeteries having mostly been in remembrance of the Second World War. The reason for this somewhat unusual delay is that analysis of historical aerial photographs showed the presence of mass graves on the edge of Pheasant Wood, which were confirmed after excavation works in 2008. Over 250 British and Australian bodies from five mass graves and some 6,200 individual artifacts have since been successfully identified using DNA analysis.

The Battle of Passchendaele in summer and fall 1917 was one of the bloodiest and most futile of World War I; in just over 100 days more than half a million soldiers were killed and in that time Allied troops advanced on the Germans by a mere five miles (eight km) amid the trenches of the Ypres Salient in Flanders.

The museum dedicated to the fallen victims of the battle is found in a small chateau in the village of Zonnebeke, the scene of heavy fighting south of Bruges. It was opened in 2004 and the main exhibition follows the sorry story of the battle; a new display entitled ‘Remembrance’ focuses on the aftermath of the war for the soldiers, local civilians and the beleaguered Flanders landscape. Along with black-and-white images, weaponry, uniforms and heart-rending personal letters, the museum has a reconstructed dug out and a replica line of trenches constructed in the chateau grounds in 2013, where a series of lakeside memorial gardens are dedicated to all the nations who fought at Passchendaele.

Many people combine a visit to the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 with visiting Tyn Cot, the biggest Commonwealth cemetery in the world with 12,000 graves, and attending the ‘Last Post’ ceremony in nearby Ypres, which was left in ruins after the Battle of Passchendaele. The ceremony takes place daily at 8pm at the Menin Gate memorial.

The Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, Belgium is one of four Commonwealth memorials honoring missing soldiers of World War I. The remains of over 90,000 soldiers who fought in the Ypres Salient area have never been found or identified. The memorial holds the names of more than 54,000 Commonwealth soldiers who lost their lives in the Ypres Salient battlefields in Flanders and and who have no known grave. Throughout the war, nearly every British and Commonwealth regiment passed through the area where the memorial now sits, many of them never to return. 

Every night at 8pm a ceremony is held under the gate. Most days, people start gathering around 7pm, traffic is stopped at 7:30pm for one hour, and buglers from the local volunteer fire department arrive a few minutes before 8pm. The buglers sound the “Last Post” bugle call which is followed by one minute of silence. On days when there is no extended ceremony, the buglers then play “Réveille” to end the ceremony. The tradition started on July 1, 1928, lasted for four months, and was reinstated in the spring of 1929 as a permanent ritual. The only exception was during the four years of German occupation during World War II. The daily tribute to the soldiers who lost their lives defending Ypres has become a part of life for those who live there. 

As befits a city committed to the pursuit of high fashion, sophisticated Antwerp has a museum dedicated to the study of designer clothing. Affectionately known as MoMu, the collections of the ModeMuseum are housed in a former 19th-century department store that has been gutted and renovated with light-filled galleries on several floors. Right in the heart of the city’s high-end shopping district, the museum has a repository of more than 25,000 pieces of fashion history from which to draw and stages two major exhibitions each year, which see garments, hats and shoes all artfully displayed behind glass. Recent temporary exhibitions have included retrospectives of Antwerp designer Dries van Noten, and ‘FootPrint’, an homage to the changing shape of shoes down the centuries. The museum is run in conjunction with Antwerp’s prestigious fashion school and combines with a fashion library, bookshop and public reading room, as well as hosting a series of workshops and lectures on Belgian fashion.

In the 16th century Antwerp – along with Paris – was one of the leading lights of the Northern Renaissance; among the brightest stars on the city’s stage at that time was Christophe Plantin, who established a printing workshop in his imposing townhouse in 1555. As well as contributing one of the most popular fonts still in use today, Plantin developed one of the busiest and most advanced publishing houses in northern Europe, now a UNESCO World Heritage-listed museum of print and early book publishing. 

After Plantin’s death in 1589, his son-in-law Jan Moretus took over the printing empire and it remained active until 1867. Today the museum is laid out as if the compositors had just downed tools; the period workshops and rooms showcase printing presses dating back to the 16th century, graphic anatomical drawings featuring dissections, a vast collection of prints by Antwerp masters dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, and a library of 30,000 rare volumes. The artist Peter Paul Rubens, another local boy made good, illustrated many of the books published by the Plantin workshop and painted some of the family portraits displayed in the museum but the masterpiece of the collection is undoubtedly the priceless 36-line Gutenberg Bible dating from 1455.

Just a short drive outside of Brussels, this village offers some of the area’s best luxury shopping with access to 95 designer shops. The area’s traditional Limburg style of architecture is reflected in the form of the buildings, and the location in the quiet countryside carries over into the village. Conceived as a historical mining village, it is now filled with high-end boutiques containing both local Belgian brands such as Essentiel, Olivier Strelli, and Sarah Pacini, and internationally known labels such as Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana. Prices are often significantly lower than similar nearby shops.

Of course it is important to refuel after a long day of shopping, and the village has both traditional Belgian treats such as waffles and moules frites in addition to Italian cuisine at the center’s outdoor Gastronomia Cellini. Just be sure to bring enough strength to carry multiple shopping bags.

The Porte de Hal, or Halle Gate, is what remains of the city’s second fortified wall, making it one of the most historic structures in Brussels. Built to defend the capital city in 1381, it guarded the interior with a medieval drawbridge and moat. Though many of the other structures from this time period have since been destroyed, the Porte de Hal was used as a prison, thereby still standing and recalling an earlier age. The stonework and style of the gate’s tower still looks like it was lifted straight from the Middle Ages.

The museum goes into detail about the city’s fortification, history, and folklore. Various weapons and armor are on display, including the parade armor of the Archduke Albert of Austria. Here visitors can learn in depth about the trade guilds and battles that make up the history of Brussels. Three stories up a winding staircase take you to the Battlement, with panoramic views of the city. 

The Lion’s Mound is an artificial hill commemorating the location where Prince William II of the Netherlands was wounded during the infamous battle of Waterloo against the Napoleonic armies. The prince’s father, King William I of the Netherlands, ordered construction in 1820; workers used earth taken straight from the historic battlefield, a symbol of the Allied victory and a tribute to Prince William’s sacrifice. The hill was later on surmounted by an imposing 31 tons, 15 feet high and 15 feet wide Medici-like lion statue (standing male lion with ball under one paw looking to the side), which stands upon a stone-block pedestal. The lion was not picked by coincidence; not only does it symbolizes courage, it is also the heraldic beast on the personal coat of arms of the Netherlands monarchs. The sphere under the lion’s right front paw signifies victory of global European peace. For a long time visitors were led to believe that the lion was cast from brass melted down from cannons abandoned on the battlefield; this was, however, inaccurate, as the lion is cast out of nine different pieces iron. The view from atop the hill offers splendid panoramas of the battlefield, and gives visitors a better idea of how the battle was carried and how the cavalry and infantry were deployed. The mound’s shape and lion sculpture became such an icon of Waterloo that they are now represented on the municipality’s coat of arms. 

The Royal Saint Hubert Galleries are a series of shops and restaurants in Brussels that are covered by panes of glass. They were designed by the architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer in 1847 and are often referred to as the umbrella of Brussels. The galleries are divided into three different sections: the Galerie de la Reine, the Galerie du Roi and the Galerie des Princes. The glass roof helps protect visitors from rain or cold weather. In the past, visitors had to pay 25 cents on Thursdays and Sundays and 10 cents on other days just to access the galleries. Of course today it is free to visit, and over 6 million people visit each year. 

The galleries have something for everyone. There are boutiques selling the latest fashions as well as more classic clothing. Accessories shops sell gloves, hats, umbrellas and more. Several jewelry stores are located here along with book stores, chocolate shops, and other specialty shops. There are plenty of restaurants and cafes for when you get hungry. The galleries even have a cinema and a theater in case you're looking for entertainment. Even if you're not interested in shopping, the Royal Galleries are a nice place for a stroll while taking in a bit of the city's history.

Located in the buzzing district of Zuid south of Antwerp city center, the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp opened in 1987, leading the rejuvenation of the once dilapidated district. Its gleaming white home is a former grain silo and warehouse, transformed by architect Michel Grandsard into a funky gallery in which some extremely avant‐garde artwork is displayed. The permanent collections encompass installations, videos and photographs plus paintings from some of Flanders’ foremost contemporary artists and the museum holds all manner of innovative temporary exhibitions showcasing the very best of international artists. It is also home to the art house Cinema Zuid, where classic and international movies are shown, and the top‐floor restaurant has wonderful views over the River Scheldt, plus a vibrant mural by US graffiti artist Keith Haring.