8 Best Hotels in Brussels, Belgium

This little bed-and-breakfast was a shell when owner Laurent took it on—he rebuilt the workshop at the end of the garden and then turned it into two rooms, installed a glass corridor leading to them, and huge patio doors in the breakfast room and the result is a light, airy, modern-looking B&B with an owner who usually finds a solution to whatever problem you have. Snacks decorate the communal area (if you're peckish) and the buffet breakfast makes the most of local producers. Best of all, you're just a street away from Parc du Cinquantenaire.

There aren't too many options for stays in this thin sliver of the city, between Mont des Arts and the Sablon, particularly toward Cirque Royale, but this stylish offering is the exception, and a good one given it's a low-budget chain. It's certainly in a different league to the average Ibis. And for little more than €100 a night, you get a central, stylish stay in a lively area. Rooms are comfortable and simple, the bar is rather slick considering, and there's even private parking. The breakfast can be taken in the inner courtyard.

A business hotel that wants to be just that little bit cooler than the rest; granted its design is a little industrial in places, but this slick offering has large, loft-like rooms, a fun bar area, a fitness center, and a small café area clearly geared to tempt those whose business meetings ran over. You can play foosball or pool in the lobby, and a general air of professionalism runs throughout. An always reliable stay.

This family-run hotel is, in truth, more like a grand B&B: owner Carmen still rents the building, which used to be a rectory, from the church (Sint-Michelskerk) across the road. It's a charming location, with an attractive interior walled garden where you can take breakfast on sunny mornings. You can even pick its apples and strawberries when in season. Rooms have been recently renovated, and the "Michel Suite" in particular is gigantic—practically a flat in itself. It's the kind of quirky stay where there's nothing else quite like it in the city, and it's all the better for it.

A great little budget stay, though buried among the residential weeds. This hyper-colorful hotel has the feel of an upmarket hostel minus the dorms, though each room is en suite and lockable. There are books to read, games to play, and the staff are uber helpful and have good local knowledge. It just has the friendliness of a good backpacker joint. Best of all: your door key is essentially an old Nokia mobile phone that allows you to make local calls within Belgium.

A relative newcomer, nestled on the edge of the botanical gardens, the stylish Hoxton towers over its leafy setting. Set within a rather stern-looking office-block originally built as IBM's HQ in Brussels in the 1970s, it has been transformed inside. The rooms are fashionable in a way that wants you to know it but doesn't set your retinas ablaze, mixing bare concrete, polished wood, and a modern take on '70s-era design. Downstairs, it has the feel of a bustling workspace (all laptops and lattes), reflecting the business clientele, but the rooftop bar and eatery (Tope) is a welcome perk, as is the hotel's unexpectedly accomplished Peruvian-style restaurant.

Occupying the building of what was formerly one of the city's more eccentric stays, there is little that is quirky about this polished, family-owned boutique hotel. But that's rather the point. It's all light wood, sleek lines, creams, and beamed ceilings, like something out of an upmarket French furniture catalogue, and not dissimilar to its excellent sister hotel in the Louise area. The bar-café downstairs is very much of the lounging-with-a-newspaper variety, and also doubles as the breakfast area, while the rooms are large for the size of the building. It's a surprisingly quiet area too, despite the bars and restaurants of place Sainte-Catherine being just a short walk away.   

Near the northern end of the Galeries St-Hubert shopping arcade, this hotel has an Art Deco facade and is decorated in a variety of styles, including "Maritime" rooms with blue-and-yellow walls and wood floors. The greenery-filled atrium incorporates a 10-foot-high section of the 12th-century city wall and serves excellent Scandinavian-style open sandwiches. Its Michelin-starred restaurant, Sea Grill, is among the best dining spots in the city.