Mother-daughter trip to Belgium - need to narrow down city choices
 

My 19-year-old daughter is accompanying me on a trip to Belgium, and it will be her first time across the pond. We will have a minimum of 8 or maximum of 12 days (inclusive of travel) sometime between 15 Aug and 2 Sept.

I don't want to cram too much into that time, so I need help sifting through the options. I know that we want to spend at least 3 days/2 nights in Bruges (during the week); I'd like to spend 1-2 days in Brussels, and am interested in visiting Antwerp, Ghent, and Amsterdam, probably in that order of interest.

Neither of us is much for nightlife, but we both love walking, biking, flea markets, quirky museums, and peoplewatching. My daughter says museums are okay, but she really just wants to sit in a sidewalk cafe and watch the world go by. I like architecture and history; by agreement with my daughter I've promised not to spend more than 4 hours in an art museum on this trip.

Neither of us has any burning desire to see a lot in Amsterdam, but we both feel like we should take advantage of the fact that we fly in and out of there by staying there at least a day on one end of the trip.

My overall goal is just to have a good, memorable time with my daughter (which I'm sure will happen) but I'd like to provide her with as much variety of experience in these different cities as possible. We're not going to hire a car, but rely on trains for transportation.

So... given the above, what do you think? I'd appreciate suggestions about how long to stay where, whether I can or should streamline or eliminate anything from this rough itinerary, etc. Thank you.

I like your time allotment. Sounds like you'll have up to 10 days without travel time. Depending on where you're coming from and how you react to jet lag, I'd probably head to Brussels that first day and leave time for Amsterdam at the end. [For one thing, we always like to be in departure city a day or so to avoid any last-minute delays]. Maybe:

Brussels - 2 days
Bruges - 3 days
Ghent - 2 days (with day trip to Antwerp) or vice versa
Amsterdam - 3 days

There is much to see in Amsterdam and agree that if it's departure/arrival city, you should take advantage of the opportunity.

Also, your mid-week stay in Bruges is smart. We loved it and it's definitely mosst enjoyable in the evenings and early mornings when the day-trippers aren't there.

Agree with dfr4848 to staying in Amsterdam at the end of your trip. If you want a diverse vaction, I would defenitely incorparate Amsterdam. It is really different form the mentioned Belgium cities.

I am a big fan of Antwerp myself, so I would recommend a stay there also. To me it is just a little bit more a 'real city' opposed to Bruges and Ghent. These last two cities (Bruges especially) are very tourist oriented and a lot smaller.

Beacuse Amsterdam-Antwerp-Brussels are all on the same train-line, it is very easy travelling between the three cities.

I would start in Brussels (with a day trip to Ghent), then head to Bruges and finally Antwerp. From there towards Amsterdam.

In Antwerp the Hilton is on a superb location. So if it is within budget, I would go for it.

If you like architecture, I may suggest adding 1 more day to Brussels, assuming you like Art Nouveau architecture. Just visiting the Horta Museum plus strolling the neighborhood for art nouveau buildings can easily take up an entire day.

3 days in Bruges sounds lovely.

Have you checked Belgian Railway website? Very user-friendly. Depending on how many train trips you and your daughter will take, you may benefit from buying the 10-ride "rail pass" which is a fixed price for 10 rides and can be split among several people. You need to do the math to see if that's cheaper or buying point-to-point.

These are all excellent suggestions and just what I was hoping for, thank you so much! Let me ask a couple of followup questions.

If we have to choose between staying in either Antwerp or Ghent and day-trip to the other, what are the advantages to either place for day trip vs. base?

If we take in the charm of Bruges and the culture of Brussels and Antwerp, what might we "lose" by skipping Ghent altogether? Would we have enough of the variety of flavors of Belgium without it?

Of the cities above - which ones "roll up the sidewalks" around 6 pm? What are some options for things to do in the evening if we don't want to go to a theater or a club? I gather from other posts that Bruges is pretty quiet in the evenings, but what about Ghent?

Thanks again for all the feedback and suggestions, I'm looking forward to reading more!

In population Brussels is biggest (about 1 mln. inhabitants), Antwerp is around 0,5 mln., Ghent 0,25 mln. and Bruges 0,15 mln. That will give some indication about how lively a city is after 6 PM. Burges is also very tourist oriented and therefore gets more quiet after 6 PM. Brussels and Antwerp remain pretty lively after 6 PM. Ghent also remains levely enough for a fwe days in the evening.

I would personally take Antwerp as a base. Because of its size, being one of the largest ports in Europe, and being the biggest city of Flanders, there are just more things to do/see than in Ghent. It really is a city for many tastes; shopping, culture, fashion etc.

Ghent is a really nice and pretty city, so I would definately visit it, but only as a day-trip. Which is pretty easy from Antwerp, due to excellent rail-connections and the relatively small size of the country.

For the evening; go to a movie (English spoken with Dutch/french subtitles) or enjoy a stroll through the city and sit down at one of the uncountable side-walk-terraces. In each of the mentioned cities you can do this.
Plus there a lots of festivals in the summer (music, art-perfomrnaces etc).

In Brussels you might like to visit the flea market at Place du Jeu de Balle / Vossenpl.) (Metro: Porte de Hal / Hotel des Monnaies) which is on every day from 7 in the morning till 2pm. There is also an antiques market at Place du Grand Sablon on Saturdays (the whole day), and a huge market for new goods and food at Gare du Midi on Sunday mornings. This market is enormous, crowded, and has a definite Middle Eastern flavour (goods sold and visitors too). There is no shade and a lot of concrete so if you are visiting during the peak of summer wear a hat or you will sizzle! There are a bunch of other markets but these are the most accessible.

As for walking and biking, a nice trip is from the seaside town of Knokke (near to Bruges) out to the nature reserve and bird sanctuary Het Zwin. There is also a butterfly farm nearby.

And just to add to TommieG's suggestion about seeing a movie - if you are looking up sessions in a newspaper you might find some sessions are marked "V.O.". This stands for "version originale" and usually means the film is in English (if it's originally English-language). (I might add this is the case in the French-speaking parts; I am not sure about the practise in the Flemish parts but I think you would be looking for O.V. (originale versie)).

Lavandula

Tommie G. and lavandula, thank you both so much! This is just what I needed. I'll keep checking back to see if there are more suggestions. I appreciate your help.

In Antwerp there is the so- called Vogeltjesmarkt (Bird market) every Sunday from 8-13h (8 am -1 pm). There is a small 'bird section', for the rest it is a market with clothes, antique, food etc.

Movies in the Flemish part (this includes Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent) are (as far as I know) always in the original version with subtitles. Exceptions are animation films, these are both in the original version as in Dutch.

Brussels is officially a bi-langual city (French and Dutch), but in practice mostly French-speaking.

TommieG, are there real live birds in the "bird market", or is it just the site of the old poultry market or something?

I'm really starting to look forward to this trip, I know my daughter will be delighted, and I've gotten good suggestions here and from a friend of a friend who grew up in Bruges.

One thing I haven't been able to determine for sure is the range of train fares between Ghent and Antwerp and/or Bruges (the website makes me jump through hoops and choose days, etc.) Does anyone know *roughly* what a day return fare is between those locations?

If you like quirky museums, you'll find many to see in Amsterdam.

I would find 3 days very long.

If you don't mind my saying so, I don't think your 19-year-old daughter should be allowed to limit you to only 4 hours in museum on this trip. She's old enough to sit outside in a cafe and watch the world go by by herself, especially since Belgium is so safe. The Horta Museum is a fascinating, unique home that is really rewarding artistically. I also found the fine arts museum in Antwerpen marvelous, and I hope you will not miss some of the world-famous offerings inside Belgium's churches (Rubens in Antwerp, Michaelangelo in Brugge and Van Eyck's masterpiece in Gent).

Gent is a university town, so I doubt they roll up the sidewalks, but Antwerpen is very forward looking city, with a famous night life, plus a respected fashion industry to go with its important diamond industry. Just in general its a marvelous place, and were it me I would base there for the entire trip, but I would certainly cut time from Brugge to give Antwerp more time, with a day trip from there to Gent.

I suggest you re-consult with your daughter and read up more on the places you are going.

Sorry for my dropped words:

I meant to type: I would find 3 days in Brugge very long, and "quiet" does not begin to describe how quiet it is in the evenings.

It is hard to know how much you and your daughter will enjoy the well-preserved antique atmosphere of Brugge. But there is almost no contemporary life in the town. It is an area preserved for tourists. Because the architecture all hearkens back to another time, many people would love to stay there forever. So you both might like 3 days there. Something to talk over with your daughter. If she sits in a cafe, she's going to be watching swans, tourists and tourist pony carts go by. Not much else.

Zeppole, thank you for your thoughts. Three days in Bruges may indeed be too long; I'm still working out the itinerary.

Of Antwerp or Ghent, which do you think has the more remarkable architecture and general ambience?

Hello tld,

Just back from Brugges. We stayed 2 nts/3 days, But it is really only 2 days, since we arrived at 2pm on the first day and checked into the hotel and left at noon the third day. It was very nice. The town is very quiet at night, but the days were very busy, looking at the sights and the people.
I would think of booking the "Quasimondo" bike tour, the 10am one is nice because the streets are still very empty. It was one of my favorite parts of our trip. I was nervous at first, not having been on bike in 20 years, but it was simple and not at all intimidating. We had a great time, learned alot and covered a great deal of Brugge.Check out there website. Type in "Quasimundo Bike Tours Brugge" and it should pop up.

In my opinion, it is very different than the other places you mentioned and therefore will be a nice contrast. We stayed at a beautiful "Hotel Alegria", that included a scrumptious breakfast. 90 euro a night for 2. Our cab fare from the train was 8 euro.
There is a flea market on Weds. and Sundays, great fun.

Enjoy,
Tina

tid,

by chance, I was just perusing the national geographic travel website yesterday, which touted Ghent as being a model of retaining its authenticity while being amenable to tourism.

I happen to like both cities a great deal, but Gent is a purely enjoyable place, with a great mix of beautiful well preserved architecture and one knock-out masterpiece painting in its main cathedral, plus quite a thriving, lively student-filled town, so lots of opportunities for cheap great eats, cafes, bookstore browsing, and clothes shopping (although be aware that Antwerpen gets high marks for being fashion forward in Europe, with lots of designers who show in Paris and Milan, etc.)

Antwerpen has urban buzz and it's historic core is imposing with its towering cathedral, with almost no tourist kitsch. Gent is just a joy, but it is smaller and people do come for the fairy-tale architecture. But it is nowhere near as small as Brugge or filled with touristy stuff (or as many foreign tourists).

Here's a short list of things to do in Amsterdam: rijksmuseum, van gogh museum, diamond cutting/museum, gin factories/tours, dutch resistance museum, anne frank house, our lord in the attic church, oldekuirk, newkuirk, canal cruise, vondelpark, flower market(truly amazing), brown cafes, bejuinhof(spelling is off but I'm going by memory), bike tour of canals, willet house, etc. its very walkable and you'll end up having to pick and choose what to see or do. If you are in Brugge and have a day, I would recommend the quasimodo tour of the western front/Ypres. yes, it takes a day but offers views and insights into the 'great war' which is quickly fading into memory.

I agree with zeppole on his description of Gent. We made Gent our homebase for 5 nights and we loved being there (even during the height of Festen). We spent the day in Brugge and truthfully were wondering what we were missing as everyone speaks so highly of it.

Spend at least a day in Gent. You won't be disappointed.

I'm so happy to be receiving such great feedback and advice - I am truly grateful to you all.

I now have a packing-related question I hadn't thought of before; actually, two packing-related questions:

1. Will my small wheelie bag be any use at all on this trip? We're not renting a car, just walking and using public transport, and I wonder about the cobblestones. Will I have to carry the bag?

2. Should I bring sandals or stick to closed shoes?

I'd rather drag my bag over cobblestones than carry it, especially through airports.

Closed shoes. It rains. A lot.

Really a lot.

That's what the beer, chocolate, and frites is for.