Brussels layover
 

We arrive in Brussels at 5:30pm on a Saturday and depart the next morning at 10:00 am. ANy suggestion for a hotel to stay in? Too long to just stay in the airport. Family of 4 (2 teenagers).

You have time to take the train into the city, to the Central station, and pick a hotel nearby.

In Brussels the stations Nord/Noord (North) and Midi/Zuid (South) are the big important ones. Central is not the main principal station (unlike in many other cities), but it is the one that's close to the historic core of Brussels, maybe a ten-minute walk if that, with the narrow old streets full of restaurants and hotels around the amazing historic square called Grand' Place.

At night, the city tries to keep the neon and such illuminations to a minimum in the Grand' Place, and so the square has the feel like it might have had hundreds of years ago. Quite something.

During the day (and sometimes at night) it is the place for all kinds of fun activities, markets, beer festivals, flower festivals, you name it.

By staying somewhere in the vicinity of the Central station and the Grand' Place and going out for a stroll and dinner and more strolling, you'll get a good flavor of that aspect of Brussels, even if only for a Saturday night.

Some of the streets there get very lively, especially on weekends, people come and go to bars and restaurants until very late, and if the weather allows, they hang around and sit outside and talk loudly, and if your hotel room is right above, you may not like it.

We stayed at one such hotel, Hotel Mozart, it was good value (it was being renovated at the time, they since added an adjacent building), the street noise didn't bother us but it could bother someone who goes to bed early... So if you decide you want to give this hotel a try, insist on a room towards the back.

Others might have other hotels to recommend, I can only mention this one from my own experience:

www.hotel-mozart.be
Kaasmarkt 23
1000 Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
+32 2 502 66 61

The train connection directly from the airport to central Brussels is only about 25 minutes so I think your best bet would be to stay at an airport hotel and simply take the train in as soon as you get settled - no luggage hauling into town. This makes more sense the closer the hotel is to the airport - like if it is in the airport and you can walk to it. Even if it is a short shuttle bus or cab ride from the airport, you can have a nice evening with no big worries about getting back to your hotel later in the evening either. And you really do want to be at an airport hotel for a 10:00 a.m. flight out.

Most hotel search sites make it easy to find out, or select the airport area to find hotels - sorry but I am not familiar with BRU hotels.

I'd stay at one of the airport hotels in nearby Diegem or the Sheraton at the airport itself. There are many hotel options.
Alternatively you could stay half way between the airport and the city, say somewhere like Montgomery (have stayed at B-Aparthotel in this area) and take a taxi in the morning to the airport, it shouldn't take more than 20 minutes since it is a Sunday.

From Montgomery you can take the metro (Schuman) to Gare Centrale and have dinner somewhere nice like Aux Armes des Bruxelles or in Avenue Tervuren - Les Jardins de Nicolas. It's a very nice area and near to the Parc du Cinquantenaire.

You can definitely stay city centre or at the airport as you choose.

I've recommended Hotel Welcome a number of times.

They will take you to the airport in time for your checkin, and you will be 2 minutes walk from the Grand place. OK, 5.