The Museum of Chocolate on the Grand Place is well worth a visit, complete with free samples!

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Recommend all visitors to check out the Théâtre de Toone - an atmospheric and authentic puppet theatre that transcends language and uplifts any visit to the city

www.toone.be/

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A unique museum, ten minutes walk from Brussels Midi, is the Cantillon Brewery, which is a museum dedicated to Brussels' unique beer style of gueze. There are self-guided tours and the chance to try the products. But the highlight is the public brewings in November and March - a must for all beer lovers and fans of the Belgian way of life.

www.cantillon.be/

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Brussels Tram Museum (www.trammuseumbrussels.be) runs a historic tram ride through the city on Sunday mornings. It's a great way to see an unusual side of the city - and at €12 per person, it's cheap too.

www.trammuseumbrussels.be/

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Make the effort and head out to the Musee van Buuren on Avenue Leo Errera. This delightful art deco residence was owned by a prominent banker and is full of art treasures from around the world. The gardens are breathtaking and you can claim to have visited half of the Belgian mazes open to the public ... not sure where the other one is!

www.museumvanbuuren.com/

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Don't miss the wonderful Art Nouveau architecture. Apart from the Musee Horta, check out the Marie Louise and Ambiorix squares and also Maison de Paul Cauchie in Rue de Francs, just outside the Parc du Cinquantenaire.

www.hortamuseum.be/

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The Atomium, built as part of Belgium's Expo 1958, is a must visit for anyone interested in 1950s technology. You can travel by lift and on elevators running through 18-metre aluminium tubes rising 102 metres in the air for a city-wide view from this oversize iron crystal atom!

www.atomium.be/

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Take tram 81 or 92 to the Horta Museum at 25 rue Americaine. Not only does it house the world's finest collection of Art Nouveau design, but it is in a very quiet and elegant residential district with neighbourhood bars and restaurants.

www.hortamuseum.be/

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Visit the Atomium, an amazing piece of architecture shaped like an atom and affording beautiful views over the city of Brussels!

www.atomium.be/

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For all lovers of ale and beer, a visit to Le Musée de la Bière à Schaerbeek (33-35 Avenue Louis Bertrand: 1000) is a must. Here you can see beer being treated with true reverence and sample some of the specialities of the area.

www.fredjobars.be/fjbdossiers/fjbbeerbxl/fjbbeerbxl6.html

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We went specifically to see art nouveau architecture, but it proved rather elusive until we bought a 'Five Art Nouveau tours around Bruxelles' walking map at the Horta museum. This made everything accessible, and gave excellent summaries of art-nouveau style, museums, and brief notes on hundreds of buildings.

Visit Brussels on the first weekend in the month, when the wonderful Cauchie house is open, but be prepared for an enthusiastic and lengthy address in French!

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All the the main -isms of 20th century art.

Opening hours: daily, 10:00 - 13:00, 14:00 - 17:00
Admission fee: 5 EUR

Koningsplein 1-2, Place Royale, 1000 Brussels.

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It's a private townhouse designed in 1893 by Brussels' art nouveau architect Victor Horta. It has recently been renovated by cult cartoonist duo Schuiten & Pieters and opened to the public. It's situated in the Schaerbeek area, which is off most tourist maps (being just north/north east of Rogier station) but well worth visiting for the beautiful buildings alone, many of which have been built in art nouveau style and kept in excellent condition (or recently restored). What's more, there's hardly a tourist in sight!

The entrance fee for Maison Autrique is 5€. Closed on Mondays, Tuesdays and bank holidays.

266 Chaussée de Haecht, Schaerbeek, 1030 Brussels;
tel: 02 215 6600;
Accessible by tram: 92 & 93 (Saint-Servais), 90 (Robiano), or if the weather's nice, take the metro to Rogier and walk for 20-30 mins along Chaussée de Haecht;
www.autrique.be

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For 30 euros this is an essential piece of kit if you want to get a good feel for the city's culture. You can buy it from the tourism office on the Grand Place and it offers free entry to a number of museums, as well as discounts from restaurants (including Chez Leon) and shops.

The best bit, though, is the free 72-hour travelcard and route map that comes with it, which is invaluable, letting you travel on metro, tram and bus. The metro is fantastic - clean, airy, easy to follow and very quick, but the trams are best if you want to watch the way the landscape and architecture change as you travel through the different areas of the city.

Tourist Office, Grand Place; www.visitbelgium.com

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When in Brussels, this place is not to be missed for three reasons:
1.The museum is located in one of the most stunning art nouveau buildings in Europe, built by master architect Paul Santenoy.
2. It houses one of the best collections of musical instruments you will ever see, with over 6000 pieces.

3. The top-floor bar and restaurant offer good food in a very stylish décor, where you can relax for a few hours or entertain friends.

Bonus: the stunning views over central Brussels. There is an open-air roof terrace in summer.

2, Rue Montagne de la Cour
1000, Brussel
Tel: 02 545 01 30
Fax: 02 545 01 79

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A unique museum in beautiful surroundings. Remarkable collections of ethnographic objects, zoology. One of the best museums of the country.

Leuvensesteenweg 13
3080 Tervuren;
www.africamuseum.be

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The last remaining Lambic brewery in Brussels, Cantillon produces some of the most distinctive examples of this beer style. The brewery is open to visitors every day except Sunday. There are no fixed times for tours, you just turn up and they give you a leaflet describing what you'll see then leave you to it. The EUR 3.50 price includes a couple of beers at the end. No matter how many breweries you've visited, you'll never have seen anything like Cantillon. The beer is produced using malted barley, a large amount of malted wheat and prodigious quantities of hops which have been stored for several years so they have lost nearly all of their bitterness. After boiling up the ingredients in water, the wort is pumped into a large flat vessel (known as a koelschip) directly under the roof of the brewery. The roof has many gaps in it to allow micro-organisms (wild yeasts, bacteria, etc.) to land in the wort. It is these micro-organisms which actually ferment the beer, in the way that beer was brewed for thousands of years before Louis Pasteur, working in Lille, discovered yeast. The mix of micro-organisms is unique to the valley of the River Zenne, which is why Lambic is only brewed in and around Brussels. After the wort has been innoculated, it's pumped into huge oak barrels, where it initially ferments vigorously. Then, when the fermentation has slowed down, the barrels are sealed. The beer is left in the barrels for anything up to five years to mature, then it's expertly blended with some younger brews and either sent to a few select bars to sell on draught (as Lambic) or bottled (as Gueuze.) The beer is intensely sour and can come as a shock to first time tasters, but once you get the taste, like I have, you just want more.

56 rue Gheude, Brussels (10 minutes from the Eurostar terminal) Tel: 02 521.49.28 Web: www.cantillon.be/

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This combines the Musée d'Art Ancien and the Musée d'Art Moderne. Roll over the Louvre in Paris, this will keep you going for days with paintings by Bruegel the Elder through to Magritte. Follow in the footsteps of W H Auden, who wrote about Bruegel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus after visiting the museum in 1938. His poem opens: "About suffering they were never wrong,/The Old Masters; how well, they understood/Its human position."

3 rue de la Regence; Tel: 02 508 3211; Metro: Gare Centrale; Tram: 92, 93, 94; Open: 10am-5pm, Tue-Sun; www.fine-arts-museum.be/

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This is a museum with the broadest collection of plastic objects in the world. It contains all types objects related to the art, decoration and design of plastic. The biggest artists from new realism, pop and op art all feature. The objects date from the 60s up to the present day.

Rue de Locquenghien 35, 1000 Brussels;
Tel: 2 344 98 21 (only on reservation); It is near the Metro-Station St-Catherine

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Tervuren Park is a tram ride from the city centre. Walk around the lakes or wander along the trails in the woods. You can get to the Africa museum and its formal grounds from the park or go into Tervuren centre and sample the patisseries and shops.

Take the No 44 'Tervuren' tram from Montgomery metro. The park and museum are just opposite the tram stop

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