Europe - Belgium travel info

Introduction
The idea behind this thread is is to provide some info for those here on the forums wanting or considering coming to Belgium.
Now, as most of you are aware, Belgium is a small country in the middle of Western Europe.
Beer, chocolate, waffles, etc are the things that usually spring to mind when we think of Belgium, but there is much more to see and do here than just those things. Belgium's 3 biggest cities for instance (Brussels, Antwerp and Gent) have both cultural and linguistical differences.

Best time to go?
From my point of view, the best time to visit would be anywhere from late spring to early autumn. That is usually the period where you'll have the best weather and the least chance of rain, which falls in plentiful quantities here during spring and autumn. Temperature-wise, during the summer we usually see between 30°C and 35°C max. During the winter though, temperatures can go as low as -10°C to -15°C. During the past winter, which was exceptionally cold, -25°C was measured.

Language
Belgium has 3 offical languages: Flemish, French and German. Brussels is 80% French-speaking, so those who speak French are better off speaking French than English. In Flanders on the other hand, you'll be better off speaking English (or Dutch/Flemish if you can). In general though, the level of English in Belgium is very good. Most people have at least a basic knowledge of English and will be able to understand you without much difficulty. Most people are also very helpful and will try to help out when asked for directions.

Language Differences
Now, despite what the media would like us to believe, the simple fact of the matter is that most Flemish people and Walloons get along just fine. It's only a small minority who doesn't get along and that's usually because said minority is from the "Flanders should become independent from Wallonia"-camp. My intent isn't to start a political debate here about why cutting up Belgium would be a good/bad thing, I just wanted to use this paragraph to explain that the language differences between Flanders and Wallonia are usually exaggerated.

Time Zone
Belgium is situated in the Central European Timezone (CET, GMT+1) and observes daylight saving, so from the last weekend of March to the last weekend of October, the clock goes ahead one hour to CEST (Central European Summer Time, GMT+2)

changelog:
-added first batch of restaurants for Gent

Getting here and getting around

By plane

Belgium has 6 airports, 3 of those (BRU, ANR and CRL) have scheduled airline service. Note that due its small size, there are no domnestic flights within Belgium.

Brussels Airport (BRU)

http://www.brusselsairport.be
Arguably the biggest airport in Belgium (chances are high you'll arrive here), which is served by most major internationional airlines (AA, AC, BA, UA, TG, US, LX, 9W, SN, etc). It is also the home base of Brussels Airlines (and Sabena before that). Since 2007 onwards, Indian carrier Jet Airways has its scissor hub in BRU as well for flights to the US east coast and Canada.
The airport consists of 2 terminals: The A-pier which is used for flights within the Schengen area and the B-pier which serves flights to non-Schengen regions. Due to the morning rush hour at the B-gates, BRU now also has the T-gates for non-Schengen flights (usually only used by SN's Africa flights). These are essentially the last few gates of the A-pier which are serperated from the rest of the A-pier by a passport control area. The A-pier will be extended over the coming years to turn it into a fully functional Star-Alliance pier, with the B-pier then being used non-Star carriers.
Lounge-wise, there is an SN lounge in both the A and B-piers, a BA lounge in the B-pier, an SAS lounge in the A-pier and a 9W lounge in the B-pier.
Connecting at BRU is quite easy, just take into account that the A-pier is a 15-20min walk from the B-pier and the main airport building.
Below the airport, there is a train station with regular service to most parts of Belgium (and soon also international high-speed services). The newly constructed Diabolo-link is now finished and is due to open on June 10 2012. Please note that this also means that the diabolo surcharge will rise from €2.15 to €4.3 per journey to/from the airport.

Charleroi/Brussels-South airport (CRL)

http://www.charleroi-airport.com/

CRL (marketed by Ryanair as "Brussels-South", about 56km away from Brussels) is one of many Ryanair hubs. Other than that, the airport is also served by Wizzair (Hungarian LCC) and a couple of tourist charters by the Belgian TUI branch Jetairfly. To get to/from the airport, you can either take the hourly bus from the Brussels-South (or Brussel-Zuid/Bruxelles-Midi, whichever you prefer) train station. Alternatively, you can take the train to the Charleroi-Sud station and take the bus from there onwards. Infrabel (the company responsible for the railway infrastructure) is planning on building a station under the airport, and a link to the Charleroi subway system was also on the tables.


Antwerp-Deurne Intl. Airport (ANR)

http://www.antwerp-airport.be/

ANR is mostly a G/A and business traffic airport, but it also has several daily flights by CityJet (used to be VLM) to LCY. Because of its small size, you only need to check in 20mins in advance for your flight. The airport can be reached by taking the train to the station of Antwerpen-Berchem and then taking bus 14 to the airport. There are plans to extend one of the tram lines in Antwerp to the airport, but so far, nothing concrete has been announced.


Getting around by car

Most airports and major train stations have car rental facilities by most of the well known chains (Hertz, Europcar, Sixt, etc). One thing I will say though is that it may be hard finding an automatic. In Europe, most people prefer to drive stick, so bear this in mind if you want to rent a car.
Generally speaking, the condition of the roads in Belgium is quite good, however some major roads (specifically the E313 between Antwerp and Liège) can be in rough shape, and after a hard winter, the roads are usually not entirely unlike the surface of the moon. The motorway network covers most of Belgium (not literally) and generally isn't that congested (apart from the Brussels ring road and the Antwerp ring road); One thing to note though is that motorway signs are always in the local language, which is especially annoying on the Brussels ring road, since a large part of it is actually in the Flemish region and not the Brussels Capital region, most signs are only in Flemish.
Speed limits in Belgium are 120km/h for motorways, 70km/h or 90km/h outside of towns (depends on signage), 50km/h in towns and 30km/h near schools and certain areas in town.
Unless signs indicate otherwise, always give way to traffic coming from the right.
Just like most of Western-Europe, Belgium drives on the right and has the steering wheel on the left.


Getting around by train

Trains in Belgium are run by the state-owned NMBS/SNCB. The infrastructure on the other hand is managed by Infrabel (though both are daughter companies of the NMBS Holding which is due to dissapear soon), but anyway, we're going offtopic.
Just like most other trains around the world, there's 2 classes of service: 2nd class (4-abreast in a 2-2 seating arrangement, power plugs at the ends of each carriage in the newer trains, no power in the older ones) and 1st class (3-abreast in a 2-1 seating arrangement, power plugs the same as in 2nd class, seats recline on the newer trains). In general though, 1st class is not worth the price difference and on busy lines at rush hour, you will likely have to stand up anyway (tickets are not refunded if you have no seating space).
Now, I won't go into too much detail about the rolling stock, but know that there are still trains from the 1950s running around, with 1950s comfort levels. On the other hand there's also the newer double-decker trains, which are reasonably comfortable.
The NMBS also does not run high-speed trains on the domnestic network. All domnestic stops are part of an international journey (ex: the Thalys Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam also stops in Antwerp).
If you are staying for a few days in Belgium, and plan on using the train a lot, it may be worth buying a rail pass (10 journeys) as it will work out considerably cheaper. Please note that these are not valid on high-speed domnestic sections.
Also, and this is very important, the ticket machines only accept Belgian debit cards. No Meastro, Visa , Mastercard or AMEX, only Belgian debit cards, so if you don't have one, don't bother and just go to the ticket office. If you board the train at a station without a ticket office, find the conductor and explain this to him, and he will sell you a ticket.
Also note that tickets bought at the ticket office for international trains, come with a €7 surcharge, so buy your tickets online if you plan on doing a day trip to say, Paris, Amsterdam or Lille.

International trains

Bruxelles-Midi (or Brussel-Zuid as I call it) is also the Belgian hub for international high-speed (and non high-speed) travel. There is a seperate Eurostar terminal and check-in area (more on that later), also a seperate area for international high-speed lines (platforms 3-6, the only platforms they actually bothered to modernise) and the non-high speed trains stop at the same platforms as the domnestic trains. Note that only Eurostar requires passport control and airport-style security checks, because the UK is not part of Schengen.

High speed

First of all, there's Thalys, which is a joint venture between the NMBS, SNCF, DB and NS. Thalys links Brussels to Paris, Amsterdam and Cologne (with stops inbetween usually). Like most trains, Thalys has 2 classes of sevice: Comfort 2 and Comfort 1. At the time of this posting, I have only travelled in Comfort 2 (which was yesterday by the way) and I can say that it is miles ahead of anything the NMBS offers on their trains (ie: the regular ones) and also a bit better than Standard class on the Eurostar. Comfort 2 has a 4-abreast 2-2 seating arrangement, with power ports at every seat and reclining seats. One complaint I do have is that the leg room is a bit sparse. I am by no means a long person (roughly 1.75m), but I was struggeling not to hit my legs against the seat in front of me (which was not reclined). That said, at €55 return for Brussels-Rotterdam, it was quite good value for money and I'd definitely use Thalys again.
Comfort 1 On the other hand has 3-abreast seating in a 2-1 seating arrangement and I believe additional perks include lounge access and a meal while on the train.
Like most other high-speed trains, Thalys has a bar carriage, usually located in carriage 14.

To and from Holland there's also the Beneluxtrein (Benelux train in English), it runs hourly for most of the day, doing Brussels South-Brussels Central-Mechelen-Antwerp Central-Roosendaal-Dordrecht-Rotterdam CS-Den Haag HS-AMS-Amsterdam CS. Now, I don't want to sound like a train anorak (which I am not, or maybe slightly), but the train in question usually consists of 1 Bombardier Traxx locomotive (borrowed from NMBS logistics) and 5 carriages from the Austrian railways (leased). The reason for this is that in 2008, it was planned that the new Fyra trains with a top speed of 250km/h would replace the old train (at that time run by NMBS locomotives and NS carriages). However, EIS was delayed and delayed again, and as of the writing of this post they are still not in service (planned EIS is fall 2012 at the moment). Another thing to note is that there is an increased chance of police controls on this train because of the drug tourism (I have been searched a few times myself, being a student). My recommendation would be though that if your destination (or origin) is Rotterdam or Amsterdam, to not bother with the regular train and just take the Thalys. Yes, it's a bit more expensive, but it's more than an hour faster, more comfortable and you're guaranteed to have seats, whereas on the Benelux train, unless you get on in Brussels or Amsterdam, you're pretty much guaranteed to have standing space.

-ICE, Eurostar and TGV coming soon

also, my apologies for taking so long, but I am a student and I have exams coming up, so I hope you guys can understand I have different priorities now.

Brussels

I'm glad you recommended late Spring. That means more hopscheuten for me. :D

Antwerp

Gent

So, Gent (Gand in French and Ghent in English). Belgium's 3rd biggest city after Brussels and Antwerp, yet it still is horribly overlooked by tourists, which is both a good thing and a bad thing really. It's good in the sense that it's nowhere near as touristy as Bruges (more on Bruges later on), bad in the sense that nearly nobody has heard of it. It's also my home town (and has been for the past 18 years) and I love it here.
First of all though, a bit of history. The name Gent comes from the Latin word "Ganda", which means "confluence" in English. This is because the rivers Scheldt and Lys (Schelde and Leie in Flemish) flow into eachother in the centre of town.
Fast forward slightly to the Middle Ages. Back then, Gent was the biggest city in the whole of Europe after Paris. The city thrived on the textile industry. In 1500, Charles V was born in Gent. In 1539, there was a big revolt against him for the high taxes he imposed. Afterwards, the city's noblemen were forced to walk through town barefoot with a noose around their neck. This is how the people who live in Gent ("Gentenaars" in Flemish) earned the nickname of "noose bearers" (stroppendragers).The nickname is however something the people of Gent are very proud of.
(to be continued)

Eat

Budget-friendly

- Pane & Vino (Nederkouter 9 9000 Gent, http://goo.gl/maps/Nm9DL, no website, tel: +3292243554, open every day from 11:30am to 2:30pm and 6pm to 10:30pm closed on sunday). Simple Italian food: pizzas and pastas, but very good and cooked by real Italians. Reasonably priced too (around €8 for a pizza and pastas). Can be crowded during the evening as it's very popular with the students (for obvious reasons), so be prepared to wait or try to book a table in advance. Take-away available.

- Frituur de Frietketel (Papegaaistraat 89 9000 Gent, http://goo.gl/maps/v8zf1, no website, tel: +3293294022; open every weekday from 11:45am to 2:15pm and 5:15pm to 11pm closed during the weekend) By far the best frituur in Gent, tons of things are home made (most notably the cheese croquettes and shrimp croquettes) fries are the best you'll find short of home made ones. Large choice of vegetarian things too, which is quite unusual. I should note for those not aware that a frituur is a fast food joint, but not like your average McDonalds. This is much more refined, mainly because most frituurs make their fries themselves.

- Martino (Vlaanderenstraat 125 9000 Gent, http://goo.gl/maps/jfLtV, no website, tel: +3292250104, closed monday and tuesday open all other days from 6pm to 1am) A Gent institution. this place serves simple Belgian cuisine. Honest food for fair prices and open until late in the evening which is useful if you want to go for food after having seen a show at the nearby Capitole (more on that later)

- Amadeus (Plotersgracht 8/10 9000 Gent, http://goo.gl/maps/GLLP, http://www.amadeus.be, tel: +3292251385, open mo-thu from 6:30pm to 11pm and fri-su from 6pm to 11:30pm) VERY popular restaurant, if you want to go you'll do good to book your tables well in advance. it is by far the most popular place to go to in Gent for ribs (all you can eat on the ribs by the way). Priced reasonably for the fact that it's all you can eat, service does their job but that's about it.

Mid-range

TBD

Drink

- Limonada (Heilige-Geeststraat 7 9000 Gent, http://goo.gl/maps/tyR4z, tel: +3292337885, no website, open every day from 8pm closed on sunday) Cocktail bar with a trendy, lounge-like interior. Large choice of cocktails (I reckon 50+), reasonably priced (€6 for normal cocktails, up to €9 for special things). quiet if you go early, busy later at night. Quatily of the cocktails is generally very good, don't bother with the jello shots though.

-

Bruges

Liège

other interesting parts of the country

Looks like a good thread. I'm in Brussels come July, so I look forward to reading what you have to say about it :)

Thank you for the information already posted. I've got a return visit planned for August.

What happened to all of the posts other than Gent?

Thank you for posting OP. Great info. Heading there next week.

I would also recommend visiting Leuven, its a beautiful town with some great buldings, and is also the home of Stella Artois (you can smell the hops)

... and is also the home of Stella Artois (you can smell the hops)

Most Belgians don't really care much for Stella actually, especially since there are much better beers on offer here that are not brewed by AB Inbev ;)


What happened to all of the posts other than Gent?

It's still a work in progress. I mean, most things I know from the top of my head, but some things require me to research as well. Also bear in mind that I am a student, and I have exams coming up, so yeah. Once my exams are over, there will be a lot more added.

[/QUOTE]Connecting at BRU is quite easy, just take into account that the A-pier is a 15-20min walk from the B-pier and the main airport building.[/QUOTE]

Connecting at BRU is anything but easy. You must 1st enter the Schengen zone, where there have been delays this summer. Then, you must pass through another security scan to enter Terminal B.

This summer, I had a one hour connection at BRU and the delay was so long I almost missed my connecting flight. I wrote to the airport authority. Their reply (reproduced below) suggests its due to unannounced EU security regulations!

Anyone know what these are? Also, note they sent in extra security from G4S - the same outfit which dropped the ball during the Olympics in London!

Dear Mr. XXXX,

As airport operator we strive to guarantee the best possible service to our passengers. We thank you for taking the time to write to us. Customer feedback allows us to permanently improve the quality of the services at the airport.

Your e-mail concerning the waiting time at the security screening of Brussels Airport has received our careful attention and has been registered. We strongly regret you have had a negative experience at Brussels Airport and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience(s) you have encountered.

The waiting times at the security screening are due to a number of unannounced, additional security measures imposed by the EU inspection. These measures implicate that a high amount of hand luggage need to be screened manually.

These measures lead to a less swift process of the security screening. We understand that the extra, unexpected security rules, imposed to Brussels Airport, lead to a very unpleasant experience however we assure you that Brussels Airport did and does everything in its possibility to improve the situation.

As from the moment of the implementation of these new regulations, extra personnel of G4S were set in and have already showed results. The situation is continuously monitored by our security staff and management. Our operational department has also put together a team that is investigating the several possibilities to speed up the process and to see how we can make the security screening more comfortable for the passengers.


Looking forward to welcoming you back at our airport soon, we remain,

Yours faithfully,




Complaints Handling
Brussels Airport

Most Belgians don't really care much for Stella actually, especially since there are much better beers on offer here that are not brewed by AB Inbev ;)




It's still a work in progress. I mean, most things I know from the top of my head, but some things require me to research as well. Also bear in mind that I am a student, and I have exams coming up, so yeah. Once my exams are over, there will be a lot more added.

Every time i go to Belgium, I see everyone drinking Stella Artois. I thought it was a national pastime!

Very well written, looking forward to the rest of the info, especially of Antwerp.

Heel mooi geschreven!

Antwerp-Deurne Intl. Airport (ANR)

http://www.antwerp-airport.be/

ANR is mostly a G/A and business traffic airport, but it also has several daily flights by CityJet (used to be VLM) to LCY and MAN.

City Jet seem to be suspending the MAN route :(

City Jet seem to be suspending the MAN route :(

Indeed, I'll update the OP, thanks for pointing it out.

Mooie samenvatting//nice summary ;)

And for the beer lovers: next time you visit Belgium, try these beers: Karmeliet, La Chouffe, Corsendonk Agnus, Duvel, Leffe,.. to start with ;)

Every time i go to Belgium, I see everyone drinking Stella Artois. I thought it was a national pastime!

Maybe they are all tourists? :p

I liked Jupiler although I'm not sure whether it is considered one of their better ones. The only one I didn't care for was a Cherry beer.

I'm not sure how much work is still going on this thread but if anyone is reading this I have a few questions.

I had a brief visit to Brussels and a day trip a few years ago during the spring. This year (barring some last minute work issues) I will be doing a 10 night trip covering Paris, Brussels and Colgne in early December.

Someone suggested visiting the Winter Festival at Hasselt. Any other suggestions comments for visiting during the winter? I've done winter trips to Germany/Switzerland/Austria before so I'm not concerned with the weather but just sights to see or ones to avoid (since they are closed).

I'm probably going to stay at the Sheraton in Brussels for two nights and make a day trip to Brugges.

Thanks.

Work is still going on on this thread, yes. I've just been extremely busy lately (exams and just returned this afternoon from a 3 day trip to Rome).
As for your question, definitely take a trip to Brugge/Bruges. It's a genuinely beautiful city. I can also wholeheartedly recommend my home town of Gent (roughly halfway between Brussels and Bruges). It's less touristy compared Bruges but just as nice.

More updates coming soon...

Work is still going on on this thread, yes. I've just been extremely busy lately (exams and just returned this afternoon from a 3 day trip to Rome).
As for your question, definitely take a trip to Brugge/Bruges. It's a genuinely beautiful city. I can also wholeheartedly recommend my home town of Gent (roughly halfway between Brussels and Bruges). It's less touristy compared Bruges but just as nice.

More updates coming soon...


I want to 2nd Gent as a suggestion. I am an American living in Belgium, and every time I have family or friends visit, I take them to Gent and Brugge and all have preferred Gent (as do I).

Mooie samenvatting//nice summary ;)

And for the beer lovers: next time you visit Belgium, try these beers: Karmeliet, La Chouffe, Corsendonk Agnus, Duvel, Leffe,.. to start with ;)

Amen to all the above (with the exception of Leffe;))... also add in any Trappist beer... I'd go back to Belgium just for the beer... Germany gets a lot of hype, however Belgium is right there with Germany imo....

I tried jupiler, duvel, la morte subite, leffe, kwak. So far duvel has been my all time favorite (especially since it contains my nick in Flemish :)) . Hoegaarden is ok. Stella is crap to me. Can you provide more details on liege? Wish i had found this thread sooner. You start the thread 2 weeks after i arrived in liege. I will return there next week.. Lots of memories for me there. My main concern is making train connections by myself. I have the time table saved and printed out as back up but im nervous something will happen, especially another train strike.

(especially since it contains my nick in french :)) .

Actually it's not in French. "Duvel" is devil in one of the Flemish dialects.

Actually it's not in French. "Duvel" is devil in one of the Flemish dialects.

Oops. Sorry! My mistake! Edited post.