my sister, mother and i will be in belgium for 7 days (including the day of our 8am arrival). we range in age from 38-68yo. we're excited to see a variety of sites, but don't anticipate us overdoing it. i'd love to receive some recommendations on an itinerary.

sister and mother have not been to europe before, so would love to give them a side trip outside of belgium too. perhaps 2 of the days. suggestions? we will be using public transit, and not renting a car.

thanks much!

addition: trip is the first week of may.

Wells two obvious choices would be Amsterdam and Paris. Either would make a very nice 2-day break. My personal vote would be for Paris - but either would be great.

My other suggestion is to re-post w/ a better title. "7 day itinerary? side trip?" could be asking about London, Rome, Turkey or anywhere in Europe . . . . .

Brussels, Brugge, Gent, Antwerpen. That's at least four full days.
For a complete change of scenery you might want to visit Liège, Namur or another city in the Belgian Ardennes.
So ... what side trips do you mean if you don't want to 'overdo' it?

That's the same week I will be there and I am pondering a similar question. I'll be spending five nights in Amsterdam and three nights in Brugge. I've another four nights in question in the middle, and I think I will head to Paris. From Brussels it is a short train ride to Paris.

If you have never been to Brugge, I strongly recommend you go there, even if it is a day trip from Brussels...just avoid Brugge on the weekend when it at its most crowded.

You just say "Belgium" - where will you be staying/touring? Agree there's plenty to see just in Belgium in that time (unless you're going to ignore the esat - which can be fascinating).

If you want to take just 2 days I would spend them in Amsterdam - but really in so few days you won;t get to see even that much of Belgium.