Two of my friends and I are planning on stopping somewhere in Belgium for a few days in between Amsterdam and Paris. We are just out of college and are looking for suggestions on the best city to stay that would offer great beer (hopefully brewery tours as well) and a good nightlife atmosphere.

Check out Ghent, Brugge, Antwerp or Brussels.

Belgium is not exactly a cheap place to visit and these are the usual tourist stops. But remembering how poor I (and most college graduates) were/are, you might want to consider some of the lesser known cities such as Tournai, Mons, or Liege. Lodging in particular will be less. The high speed Thalys train from Paris to A'dam stops in Mons and Brussels. No matter where you end up, Belgium has excellent train service and you can get just about anywhere within an hour or two.

Every little village in Belgium has great beer, that will be no probelm. As for nightlife, I am one of those over-50 guys and cannot advise. Bon voyage.

Antwerp would meet your requirements best I think.

I agree with hetismij, Antwerp is the place to go. Another good place might be Leuven, which is our main university city. During the academic year (October thru June) there's a very good and lively atmosphere and the city has lots of cafés! Leuven is not on the Amsterdam - Paris high speed line, but it's only 20 min. from Brussels or 45 min. from Antwerp.

A buddy and I stopped in Brussels for two days last August on our way from Paris to Amsterdam. We are both 26, right out of college and American's who don't speak a lick of a foreign language. We thought Amsterdam was going to be our favorite city, but Brussels ended up being out favorite.

We bid $75 a night on priceline.com and got NH Brussels City Centre hotel. I called an made sure we got two beds. They had the beds pushed together and you could fit 3 people in there. Just tell them you only have two The hotel was in a great part of town. Close to a lot of shopping and a quick subway ride to the Grand Place. Loved the Grand Place.

There was a cool irish pub close to the Grand Place that we liked. I did quite a bit of research for good places to drink beer, but every place there has a fabulous beer selection. It was awesome. We would ask the locals while eating lunch or dinner, where they would go for a local's bar and had great luck. We didn't really find any dance clubs, but we weren't looking for those. We didn't take any brewery tours, but loved Brussels because of the beer and laid back atmosphere. All the waiters were really helpful in recommending beers. Just ask them or the locals.

Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you have any additional questions about our trip

Brussels is fun - we found a fair amount going on at night in the city center. Lots of bars and we just wandered around until we found live music - and things stay lively late into the night. Fri and Sat nights there were plenty of bars with bands playing. The other nights, not so much - things were more quiet. I think we went to the same irish pub that hoppock went to - it was a cool place and they had a guy playing guitar and singing. My husband and I are in our 30s, so quite a bit out of college, but we still like to hang out in cool bars, drink good beer, dance, and listen to bands. The bars that appealed to us might not be the same ones that appeal to you, but the nightlife scene looked to be pretty varied.

For brewery tours, Brussels has the Cantillion brewery that offers tours.

As part of our stay in Belgium, we also went to Bruges, which was great, but it is pretty quiet. Not much nightlife to speak of, so probably not the best choice for what you are looking for. They do have a neat brewery tour at the Halve Maan Brewery though.