Cities & towns

Belgium is blessed with beautiful and historically interesting cities. Gent, Bruges, Brussels, Liege, Antwerp, Mechelen … here are a few posts that recommend places to visit in some of these cities. The “How to Spend a Day in …” series is a good place to start.

Gravensteen Castle, Gent

Dungeons, a torture chamber, displays of swords and guns, and some outstanding views from the top, combine to make a trip to Gravensteen Castle in Gent a great day out for kids.

Walking the Belgian coast

Walking the Belgian coast

Blow away those cobwebs with a walk along the seashore. Start at Oostende and turn right. Walk a couple of hours along the beach until you reach the lovely seaside resort of De Haan where you can stop for lunch. Onwards then to Blankenberge. You can then catch the coastal tram back to Oostende.

How to spend a day in Ghent

How to spend a day in Gent

Explore the lovely city of Gent in Belgium with this walking tour that takes in brunch, lunch, a castle visit, plenty of churches and some of the most beautiful buildings in Belgium

Tongeren: The oldest town in Belgium

When a town promotes itself as the oldest in Belgium, it’s tempting to wonder how much evidence of this claim is still visible. Visit Tongeren, and its credentials are right in front of you: city walls from the first century, and a Roman archaeological site from the fourth. It’s also got an excellent Gallo-Roman Museum

Mechelen chocolates

The tastes – and customer service – of Mechelen

Sense-Sations is an opportunity to sample the delights of Mechelen’s local food and drink specialties. I was invited by Mechelen Tourism to test it out. It was fun, and if you do it, you might be able to “click” with the shop assistants better than I did!