klava

I'll be in brussels next week and found a great deal through priceline.com. Since this kind of reservation has some restrictions I can not find out wich of given locations is the best for me. I'll be staying in Royal Windsor Hotel , rue Duquesnoy in Brussel and I have three adresses:1. 281 rue St.Denis; 2. 538 Chaussee de Waterloo; 3. Leuvensesteenweg 400.
question #2 Where should we park our car overnight?
Question #3 General question. We'll be in all the tourist places in Belgium and parking in all of the places is the unknown domain. Please help me

Jen253

Hi--sorry I don't have specific answers for you but I'm wondering why you want to drive in Brussels. We were visited Brussels and Brugge last year (Oct) and I noticed the traffic was pretty bad. It seemed like a very difficult city in which to drive (we have experience driving in Germany, Austria and other countries). The old town area (the touristy part) is a literal maze of streets and it's tough enough to find your way on foot. Plus the inter-city train system is very good (to get to Brugge or Antwerp) and you should be able to navigate Brussels easily on the subway.

Cowboy1968

Q1: Brussels is not a fun city to drive.
Your hotel is in walking distance from the Grand Place and any historic downtown sights, and also just a few yards from the Central Stations, from where you will access the subway system and long distance trains that can take you everywhere.

All the pick-up locations you mentioned are not in the city center of Brussels. Location at Chaussee de Waterloo may be easier to find for the cab driver, as it is a major thoroughfare.
You should also dbl check the information you got from the rental car company if, besides the street name and number, it also has some information about the city, as I doubt that those are within the city limits of Brussels, and should rather mention suburbs like Ixelles, Elsene, Waterloo, or other.

Q2: I guess you ask because your hotel has no parking of its own. The easiest to access are the covered parkings at the inner city ring (which is roughly speaking near Place de l'Albertine, a few yards southeast of your hotel). If you park there, you will not have to deal with the maze of one-way streets of the historic downtown area which your hotel is in.

Q3 is , from my point of view, hard to answer. As the historic parts of towns are also their city centers, just follow directions to "Binnenstaad, Centrum, Centre Ville,..", and once it looks historic enough for you, and you maybe spot the beginning of pedestrian zones, you will look for signs for parkings (white P on blue background), and find a garage. Most cities also have a city map posted at its city limits where you can park for a moment to get some basic orientation.

luvtotravel

Driving in Brussels was very difficult, and I've driven in Manhattan and San Francisco with no problem. Be sure you have a good map.

hetismij

Can't help with the pick up point question, but all towns have parking garages clearly marked with a blue P sign. Often you will see a P route signposted which will take you around the various carparks available. Brugge has a big underground carpark near the centre. At the coast if it is warm parking can be a problem, but there are loads of places to park. In smaller places in the Ardennes, or at Waterloo there are designated car parks, or sometimes you can park on the street, either on meters or in a "blue zone" in which case you may need a parking clock. The hire car may have one but otherwise you can buy one for about a euro.
Brussels is hectic at rush hours but otherwise is ok. A good map is essential. Check with your hotel to see where you can park the car.

Lawchick

There is a public car park right under the windsor hotel. Parking is not that expensive in Brussels (not like London anyhow).

Lawchick

Here is an offer for another car park near by

http://www.gcb.be/_pdf/AlbertineParking.pdf

and here is a map - not very interactive - of all the parking in the area.

http://mobiris.irisnet.be/parking/parking_fr.html

klava

Thank you all!!!! Great advice and much of useful information.

fall06

Just ditto, ditto and ditto on never wanting to drive in Brussels, and I live in Manhattan and garage a car midtown, plus happily drive over most of Europe. Brussels is a thoroughly hacked up city with many, many underground tunnels that make it exceptionally difficult to understand to newcomers. As previously mentioned, the historic centre is best for wheelbarrows, not cars.