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This small B&B is only a few minutes’ walk from the heart of UNESCO World Heritage town of Bruges. It has three simple but stylishly decorated rooms with ensuite bathrooms on the second floor of a character town house complete with mosaic flooring. The host is friendly and helpful with numerous insider tips on where to eat and drink, and the breakfast - served in the separate breakfast room - is everything you would expect from a continental breakfast and more! Clean crisp bed linen, fresh pastries at breakfast, a warm host and cosy rooms - it’s everything you’d want from a city B&B so we keep going back to romantic Bruges to stay at this lovely place. Prices very reasonable too from £55 (single) - £105 (family room) - recommended for anyone looking for bags of chocolate box charm in Belgium’s self proclaimed ‘chocolate city’!
Cars can be left at the conveniently located long-term car park served by frequent free buses into the town centre, or if you’re brave enough just get the Eurostar into Bruges.
BED AND BREAKFAST
LUT EN BRUNO SETOLA
SINT-WALBURGASTRAAT 12
8000 BRUGGE
BELGIUM
TEL. +32 50 33 49 77
FAX +32 50 33 25 51
E-MAIL SETOLA@BEDANDBREAKFAST-BRUGES.COM
www.bedandbreakfast-bruges.com/index.html
Google map: tinyurl.com/y9ggxup
An old style house, close enough to walk to Antwerp city centre, visit museums and eat Belgian chocolates, while being the sort of place where you don't feel the need to go out. Each room is individually furnished so it feels your own - a terrace, a luxury bathroom with particular style. There are DVDs to enjoy and little touches of luxury; special bath salts, complimentary liquors and a fridge with champagne and wines. It feels private but welcoming. Breakfast is champagne on the house with varying home made treats which make it extra special. The hotelier is warm and friendly without being intrusive. It feels a mile away from home while being easy to get to, in a city unimpacted by tourists and where you can be yourself. Don't forget to enjoy moule frites, see Ruben's house, browse the old quarter, eat plenty of chocolates and go to Cafe Jazz for some live music with Belgium beer. Perfect!
Mozartstraat 19, B-2018 Antwerpen
Phone: 0032 476 67 68 69
e-mail: info@camesina.be
Google map: tinyurl.com/ybpgbkz
Nearest Station: Antwerp Central
Taxi ride from the airport.
Lovely small B&B in the heart of Flanders (and next door to the St Bernardus brewery). Very comforatable rooms and spacious shared living room and conservatory. Ideal for a quiet break away from it all. Cycles can be hired (and older bikes are free) and this is great cycling and walking counrty with cafes dotted everywhere. Rooms start from €90 for one night or €75 if staying for more than 1 night. The local Belbus stop is right outside.
Contact is (English spoken):-
www.brouwershuis.com/
Mevr. Jacky Cockheyt
Trappistenweg 23A
8978 Watou (Poperinge)
TEL: 057/38.88.60
Google map: tinyurl.com/yb5z3co
Say Roger, the cyclist from London, recommended you.
Last month I visited Bruges. A rather small yet romantic city in the Flemish region of Belgium. While the restaurant we visited turned out to be a disappointment (microwaved food, rude people, unreasonable prices) I really enjoyed the place where we stayed.
In Bruges we stayed in a small cosy hotel called Prinsenhof, it’s actually an example of old 13th century Flemish housing. It had a clean, comfy luxurious room, a welcoming atmosphere, and the breakfast (while not really cheap) proved to be unforgettable!
Make sure you park your car in the city as the hotel charges for parking.
Ontvangersstraat 9, 8000 Bruges, Belgium
www.prinsenhof.co.uk
0032 50 342 690
Google map: tinyurl.com/yazxdlj
To discover Ghent you can find a lot of information on this website. It also has a practical event calendar. You can save all the info you want and print it out in a personal brochure.
I would like to recommend an Art Nouveau bus tour operated by ARAU (Atelier de Recherche et d'Action Urbaines), a non-profit local resident's group of architects, designers and interested citizens. The tour takes you to the most extravangant houses of the time around 1900, explaining not only who built it, but also who lived in it and what happened to the building throughout the century. The tour includes visits to the interiors of some Art Nouveau buildings, some of which are not open to the public.
The tour guide we were lucky to join was a very entertaining man, who also told us a lot about city developement and the way Brussels deals with its historical monuments.
The tour takes 3 hours, price is 17 Euro, online reservation possible. For details see: www.arau.org
Google map: tinyurl.com/nmfoha
The Cantillon Brewery is the last of what were once plentiful Gueuze Breweries in Belgium. The family brewery makes Gueuze, a unique beer that depends entirely on windborn yeast to complete the beermaking process, introducing an element of luck that most brewmasters wouldn't dream of accepting. To use the wild yeast the brewery has a number of unique features that cannot be found in any other brewery.
The location is also ideal. Just a fifteen minute walk from Brussels' Grand Place, there is no problem with imbibing as much of this wonderful beer as you would like and then wondering how to get home. The metro public transport system makes this a wonderfully tasty and safe experience.
Gheudestraat 56
1070 Anderlecht, Anderlecht
02 521 49 28
www.cantillon.be
Google map: tinyurl.com/l6jal2
Only 10 minutes walk from the Gare du Midi, down a (frankly rather unprepossessing) street, is the Cantillon Brewery. This is an independent family-owned brewery producing lambic, one of Belgium's most authentic and original beers. You get a short and enthusiastic introduction, and can then follow the brewing process on your own.
What makes lambic beer unique is that it ferments spontaneously. The wort cools down in a shallow copper tray in the attic where it comes into contact with airborne wild yeasts.
You can wander through the barrel store, with its heady and musty aromas, where it will ferment for up to three years. Tasting is an education. You will be offered the slightly tart Gueuze, a blend of old and new lambics, and the sweeter Kriek beers, blended with fruit.
This is a fascinating and evocative museum, offering a rare insight into traditional brewing methods.
Gheudestraat 56
1070 Anderlecht, Anderlecht
02 521 49 28
www.cantillon.be
Google map: tinyurl.com/l6jal2
A really fun - and tasty - tour of a unique brewery can be found in the gritty working class Brussels district of Anderlecht, where some of Brussels' best kept secrets are also hidden!
The Musee Bruxellois de la Geuze offers a great tour around the Cantillon Brewery, the last working brewer of Lambic, a strange spontaneously-fermenting beer, that has to be tasted to be believed and once tasted will be craved ever after! It takes Lambic brews from three different years to make a Geuze beer, so it's something pretty special and well worth waiting for!
The Cantillon Brewery opened in 1900 and little has changed since then. It is a great retreat from the modern world to an age when people had more time to sit back and enjoy a glass of beer.
We loved the tour but got a little confused, after tasting and sampling, about all the processes and spontaneous fermentation, so we might have to go again to refresh the memory - hic.
Musee Bruxellois de la Geuze
Cantillon Brewery
Admission: 5euros (includes a cold glass of beer)
Cantillon Brewery
56 rue Gheude
Anderlecht
1070 Brussels
Metro: Gare du Midi or Clemenceau
Tel: +32 (0)2 521 4928
www.cantillon.be
Open Mon-Fri 08.30--17.00, Sat 10.00--17.00
Google map: tinyurl.com/l6jal2
I recommend that you avoid this cafe at all costs. The cafe lured us in with a budget meal that was not available. Drink costs weren't in the menu - the reason being that they were extortionate. A steak at the price of 24 euros had additional costs of sauce (5 euros) and chips (4.50 euros).
When speaking to the staff about my displeasure they were rude and I can only describe them to be vultures. The meal was substandard and expensive. If the food and service was good then they wouldn't have to lower themselves to sneaky tricks like this to get customers. Very poor - spoiled our trip to Bruges.
Markt 24, B-8000 Brugge.
Located on the market square opposite the Belfry.
Google map: tinyurl.com/ktqgd7
Near Dinant in the Ardennes region of Belgium there is a great place to canoe downstream and then follow up your exertion with a big bowl of frites.
From Dinant, make your way to Anseremme, where a little mountain train takes you to the town of Houyet. Here the five-hour, 21km kayak trip sets off. It’s also possible to alight earlier at Gendron and take a shorter, 2.5-hour and 12km, trip back.
Prices are the same for the 21km and 12km circuit.
Place Baudouin Ier, 2 5500 Anseremme-Dinant
More info at www.lessekayaks.be
Google map: tinyurl.com/mnsjtm
If you’re looking for a Festival without the mud and with all the best bands then why not go to Belgium? Travel is easier and just as quick as getting to most of the UK festivals. Book the Eurostar (it only cost me £70 last year) and you can relax until you get into Brussels. The rest of the travel is free with your festival ticket. So no worries about your carbon footprint!
It seems all the decent bands split between the UK festivals meet up in Belgium for one big event. Rock Werchter has won the ILMC Arthur Award for the four times in the last five years demonstrating that things are much more organized and as a bonus there is better chance of avoiding the rain.
Give it a go and you will be going back year after year.
Werchter, Belgium
Quiet bar (well, it was when I was there) about 10 minutes walk southeast of the centre. The food menu is not extensive, but does the job. The beer menu definitely is extensive, and runs to 150 or more, listed by category and alphabetically to make it all nice and simple.
Vlaanderenstraat 128 9000 GENT
www.brasseriedeus.be
Google map: tinyurl.com/lhpj5o
This is a website which lists availability on all the B&Bs in Gent (or if not all, then certainly most of them).
Just click on the date you require and it can show you availability across the city. From there, you can deal directly with the establishment by email (and, as it's Belgium, you can do that in English!).
Great snack and coffee house.
Very cosy with lots of vegetarian snacks and organic and fairtrade products. Plus the capuccino is great!
Minderbroedersrui 47, 2000 ANTWERP
www.madretierra.be/
Google map: tinyurl.com/mp34wp
I love modern art so was stunned to find this amazing artist studio gallery in a side street just off the main shopping street. This artist's work is abstract - very contemporary. Svein made time to show us his extensive range of work and his studio. He also exhibits local sculplture artist Kristof Donkels and ceramic artist Jan Duytschaever. The visit to the studio was a highlight of my time in this amazing town. If you're into contemporary art, a visit to the 'Studio Gallery' is a must.
www.koningen.net
Korte Vuldersstraat 17 Brugge. +32 50 33 09 88
station is only 10 minute walk and the Cathedral is around the corner - well almost in the same street.
A great concept: fast soup!
Join the queue and choose from four soups of the day and ask for all the trimmings (cheese, chicken meatballs, herbs) and you get two rolls and an apple on your tray too.
Pull up a stool and warm yourself up - it's cheap too, despite the weak exchange rate.
www.souplounge.be/main.htm
Zuivelbrugstraat 6, 9000 Gent
09 223 62 03
Google map: tinyurl.com/nlddbu
A most charming bed and breakfast on a quiet street away from the town centre, but near an efficient bus line. For nine years, the owners have been perfecting the art of discrete care with attention to detail being their USP. The house (over 100 years old) is fascinating and the rooms decorated with antiques, bric a brac and souveniers. Breakfast is on a long table with an open kitchen, providing good coffee, breads, cheeses, meats and fruit salad. The crockery and cutlery are part of an extensive collection of Victoriana, so you can dream of a golden age as you sip your morning caffeine. The owners also provide hints and tips on what to see and do and where to eat. They also speak good English, being regular visitors to the UK, to buy the antiques!
www.chambresdamies.be/index.html
Schoolstraat 14
9040 Gent-Sint-Amandsberg
tel. 00 32 (0)9 238 43 47
Google map: tinyurl.com/m34we4
Belgium Beer Tour is a tour operator specializing in tours of Belgium breweries. It offers a great way for beer lovers to visit their favorite breweries and discover new ones. The tours cover a wide range of beers and appeals to connoisseurs and amateurs alike.
Logos is completely surreal, a metal pyramid that houses an entire orchestra of robots. The founders of the centre, Godfried-Willem Raes and Moniek Darge, host weekly concerts of new/experimental music and the robot orchestra usually plays once a month. (You can find their schedule on the website, usually a couple of months in advance.)
Logos is in the centre of Ghent, about 10 minutes' walk from the Graslei but light years away from the clichéd weekend break / beer and chocolates thing.
www.logosfoundation.org/
Bomastraat 26-28
9000 GENT
phone: +32 92 23 80 89
Google map: tinyurl.com/nt9ghh
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