Suggestions for scenic day trip from Brussels
 

My daughter (25 years) and I are going to be spending time in Belgium. We have our itinerary pretty well baked with the exception of a day trip from Brussels. During our trip, we will be in Bruges, Ghent, Luxembourg and Brussels. Brussels will be our home base and we would like to venture into the countryside for some beautiful scenery (maybe a walk and a castle viewing). We will not have a car and we will only have one day before we have to make our way back to Brussels.

I've just gotten through my third guidebook, but would love some help from fellow Fodorites. Where would you go?

Thanks in advance,
Lisa

I thought Leuven was really nice - an easy, quick train ride from Brussels. I did it as a day trip from Antwerp, which I didn't care much for, but I would recommend a day trip to Antwerp to anyone who likes museums.

But these are cities. Not sure that's what you wanted. I'm more familiar with the smaller, quaint towns in Luxembourg (e.g. Vianden).

Thanks Andrew. I read about Vianden. Would love to get your suggestions for Luxembourg towns that don't require a car.

Actually, I wasn't in Luxembourg long. I visited only Vianden and Diekirch, by train and bus (train from Luxembourg City to Diekirch, bus from there to Vianden). Luxembourg has a decent bus system - and a day pass as I recall is only (as of 2013) four Euros for unlimited transit all over the (tiny) country, on buses and trains. I thought the Luxembourg countryside was beautiful and that someday I'd love to come back with a car and drive through it, but just getting to the towns by bus seemed pretty easy.

Many people seem interested in seeing Trier just across the border in Germany - also fairly easy to get to from Luxembourg City by bus - but I didn't go.

I will check out the bus and train details. Appreciate the info!

Waterloo is interesting if you do not want to go far.

Learn how Napoleon got what he was always looking for,. :)

Thanks Percy. I will check out the scenic quotient ��

There is a lot of lovely scenery is far east Belgium and Luxembourg including a number of small hill top towns and a plethora of castles - some open to the public and with fairly extensive information (often on printed cards in each room). We spent a couple of days looking at these. But we were traveling by car and essentially wandering so I can't give a LOT of info on what you can do without a car.

You might google Belgium castles and see which are easily available by public transit.

One place you might want to check out is Namur which has a bunch of ancient fortifications - but is not the countryside.

Thanks. Our first priority is beautiful nature and scenery and some nice walks. Maybe there are some train routes where we can see the scenery and castles in the distance and then stop in a quaint town. Any other ideas?

I really like Leuven too, though the scenery isn't spectacular training around there. Namur is a little gem of a small city, and the train from Namur up to Liege to Leuven covers some nice riverside territory part of the way. You might go to Namur from Brussels (~1 hr) mid-day then Leuven via Liege (~1 hr; cool train station for the change of trains) for an evening meal/stroll.

Thanks dfourh. I had considered Namur, but hadn't thought about Liege and Leuven. Appreciate the suggestion.

From Brussels: Jardins d'Annevoie.
http://www.annevoie.be/
By train: line Brussels-Dinant - Stop in Godinne
Shuttle «Proxibus» on Saturdays and Sundays of July and August
Departure from Godinne station at 10.22 am - Return to Godinne station at 2.22 pm

Thanks Myriam C!