Travel guide Bruxelles - Brussel
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What to see what to do à BRUXELLES - BRUSSEL?
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Featured articles de BRUXELLES - BRUSSEL
Where to eat the best fries in Brussels? Our favorite spots in 2025
Published on 12/09/2025 Activities and experiences
French fries or Belgian fries, ketchup or mayo: on many subjects the French fry divides. And yet, it's Brussels and Belgium that are renowned for their (many) friteries. At Petit Futé, to get everyone...
Where to go for a weekend less than 2 hours from Lille? 10 destination ideas
Published on 11/09/2025 Ideas for holidays & weekend
We've already strolled through Old Lille, admired the Grand'Place and enjoyed a waffle on our way out of the Palais des Beaux-Arts. In short, Lille has won us over! But let's face it, once we've explored...
Where can you go in Europe without flying if you have children in 2025?
Published on 16/06/2025 Activities and experiences
Want to organize a family trip without adding to your carbon footprint? It's easier than you might think to travel with children without taking a plane, especially in Europe. More and more routes...
How to travel à BRUXELLES - BRUSSEL
How to go alone
Nothing could be easier. Brussels is only 1h30 from Paris by Thalys and 40 mIn from Lille by Eurostar or TGV. Brussels Airlines, the Belgian national airline, operates daily flights from Paris-CDG, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Strasbourg and Toulouse to Brussels Airport in Zaventem. You will not have any language barrier, nor cultural gap. You will be able to enjoy your stay to the fullest, without any questions asked.
How to go on a tour
An organized trip to Brussels will offer the classic tours, Atomium, Grand-Place and Marolles, as well as excursions to Bruges and Antwerp. Going with a tour operator will allow you to get prices on accommodations and transportation.
How to get around
Brussels is above all a city that can be visited on foot. The distances between the main tourist attractions are not great. However, the city is very well served by public transport. The center is well served by a network of subways (four lines) and streetcars running in tunnels, known as "pre-metros". To get to areas outside the Pentagon, you can often choose between streetcars and buses.
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The capital of Belgium, but also of Europe, is inevitably cosmopolitan and polyglot. A city that's always lively and welcoming. It's a patchwork of cultures that coexist in all their diversity, with French and Flemish speakers in almost equal measure, and English spoken in its offices. The city is also the capital of the zwanze, a relentless, unpretentious sense of humor that is uniquely its own. The extent of its former suburbs, born with the 19th century, has created urban cores outside the historic center, which we detail in dedicated chapters in this guide. With over 125 museums and monuments to visit, the city abounds in cultural and historical attractions, restaurants, bars and cafés. But Brussels is also a truly green capital, with numerous parks. What's more, it organizes a host of festivals that are well worth discovering.
The 12 keywords à BRUXELLES - BRUSSEL
#Art nouveau
From 1890 to 1910, Art Nouveau refused the academic rules. It favors lines and curves. This conception close to nature (motifs from fauna or flora) makes art accessible to all. Wood, stone, steel or glass allow this democratization. Brussels is full of buildings signed by Horta, Hankar or Van de Velde.
#Atomium
The Atomium was built for the 1958 World Fair. Its structure is an iron crystal enlarged 165 billion times. Inside, thematic exhibitions about Belgium and digital arts. Dominating the capital on the Heysel plateau, the Atomium reaches 102 meters. It offers a breathtaking panoramic view of the entire city.
#Comics
Belgian comics were born in 1926 with the first adventure of Tintin. In 1946, Hergé and his collaborators (Jacobs, Tibet, Cuvelier...) laid the foundations of the Brussels school: clean and legible lines, refined and vivid colors. A comic book museum and frescoes in various places in the city center brilliantly commemorate the 9th art!
#Beers
Brussels and its region are home to some categories of beer that cannot be found elsewhere. Like the lambic, of spontaneous fermentation and matrix of the gueuze and other krieks. Gueuze is the result of a blend of lambics, fermented in barrels before refermentation in the bottle. The kriek is born from the addition of northern cherries to young lambic.
#European Capital
The European Commission, the Council and the Parliament are based in Brussels. The Leopold and Schuman districts, transformed for the occasion over the last 3 decades, house several institutions in buildings with contemporary architecture. The former Luxembourg train station serves as an information point for visitors.
#Chocolates
Belgium is famous all over the world for its chocolate, and Brussels is its most beautiful showcase. All brands, from the most common to the most prestigious, are represented in the vicinity of the Grand-Place and other strategic locations. The taste of the Belgians remains mostly classical. The praline and its ballotin were invented in Brussels.
#Silk Forest
Hardwood forest of 4,383 ha located in the three regions of the country. Mainly made up of old beech trees with long boles, earning it the name of cathedral forest. Superb in all seasons. With its urban extension, the Bois de la Cambre, it is nicknamed the "lung of Brussels". It is one of the largest peri-urban forests in Europe.
#Grand-Place
The ancients built the heart of the city away from the traffic routes. Seven streets lead from the square to the gates of the first wall. The Grand-Place groups the houses of the guilds around the town hall. Victor Hugo spoke very highly of it. It is often called "the most beautiful square in the world".
#Magritte
The brilliant painter, author of so many beautiful paintings, is put to all the sauces undoubtedly to justify the innate or acquired surrealism of the Belgians. His famous "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (This is not a pipe) is known to everyone and sounds almost like a national motto. For some years now, even the awards for Belgian cinema (their Césars) are Magrittes.
#Manneken Pis
Called the ketje of Brussels, this impertinent kid who embodies the carefree and resilient spirit of Brussels, with which the authentic Brusseleirs have often identified. Manneken Pis is also a babeleir (talker), a zwanzeur (party animal) and a stoefer (show-off). He owns more than 1,000 costumes that can be seen in the museum named after him.
#Museums
Although Brussels is not Paris, London or Amsterdam, the Belgian capital does have some major museums for which people travel from abroad. The Magritte Museum is the most visited in the Kingdom (with 3.2 million visitors). It is part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, which were founded in 1801 by Consul Bonaparte.
#Zinneke
In the popular language, a zinneke is a mongrel. This is the word with which the inhabitants of Brussels characterize their dog if it is not purebred. But isn't the authentic Brussels citizen also a zinneke? So many migrants have stopped or taken root here for centuries that crossbreeding is certainly their true nature.
You are from here, if...
You can't stand being compared to a French or Dutch person.
You no longer try to imitate the Brussels accent. You have acquired it... or not.
You go to at least one festival or folklore event every summer.
You like and practice the zwanze.
You can't resist the temptation of a cone of French fries to eat in the street or in a bistro.
You know that "No, maybe!" simply means "Yes, of course!"
You happily mock the royal family, but can't stand it too much when a stranger takes it on.
You don't believe it if a foreigner tells you after half an hour of explanations that he has understood how Belgium works.
You know the difference between a Brussels waffle and a Liege waffle.
You smile when someone claims to have had a beer when it was a Heineken.
You know at least one song by Grand Jojo, Stromae or Annie Cordy by heart.
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