Belgium holidays

Belgium's food culture punches massively above its size. Beer is the national obsession — 1,500+ breweries, six Trappist breweries (Westvleteren, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle, Achel — Westvleteren 12 is widely rated the world's best beer), the centuries-old lambic tradition of Cantillon and 3 Fonteinen, plus the modern craft scene at De Garre in Bruges and Delirium Café in Brussels (over 3,000 beers, Guinness-record-holding). Chocolate is the second obsession — Neuhaus invented the praline in 1912, Godiva and Leonidas at the volume end, the boutique brands Pierre Marcolini and Mary at the splurge end. Frites (the original French fries, despite the English name) come with mayonnaise and twenty-plus sauces at every street fritkot. Moules-frites (mussels with chips) is the traditional national dish, classically served with a Belgian beer. Waterzooi is a creamy chicken or fish stew. Speculoos cookies and Liège waffles round out the sweet side.

The art history of Flemish painting is genuinely one of Europe's great cultural offerings. Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece (1432) in Saint Bavo's Cathedral pioneered oil painting techniques that transformed Western art. Hans Memling and Hugo van der Goes followed in Bruges. Pieter Bruegel the Elder in Antwerp painted peasant scenes that influenced realism for centuries. Peter Paul Rubens transformed baroque painting from his Antwerp studio. Anthony van Dyck (Rubens's assistant) went on to become court painter to Charles I. The Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels and the Antwerp Royal Museum hold the densest collections of Flemish masters. The 20th century brought Magritte's surrealism — the dedicated Magritte Museum in Brussels is the only museum in the world to hold the world's largest collection of his work.

Beyond the headline tourist circuit, Belgium offers genuinely under-discovered destinations. The Ardennes (the forested southern region of Wallonia) holds the Han-sur-Lesse caves, the medieval castle-town of Bouillon, the historic World War I battlefields at Bastogne and the Battle of the Bulge memorial, plus hiking and canoeing on the Lesse river. The Belgian coast at Knokke-Heist, Oostende and De Haan offers the North Sea beach experience with the unusual coastal tram (the world's longest tram line at 67 km, running the full length of the coast). Mons is a quietly handsome small city with the UNESCO-listed Belfry and the Doudou folk festival each June.

UK travellers get 90 days visa-free Schengen entry. Belgium uses the Euro. Trains are excellent — Belgian Railways (NMBS/SNCB) connect everything cheaply. The Eurostar runs London-Brussels in 2 hours direct. Within Belgium, day-trips to Bruges from Brussels are 60 minutes by train; Brussels-Antwerp is 35 minutes. French and Dutch are both official depending on region; English is widely spoken everywhere in tourism. The food and beer culture is the trip's organising principle — plan for several memorable meals.

Best for: weekend-break travellers (Brussels-Bruges-Ghent is a classic 4-night), art-history travellers (the Flemish primitives and Rubens are unmatched), beer enthusiasts (the Trappist tour is the connoisseur's pilgrimage), chocolate-and-frites travellers, European Union enthusiasts (the EU Parliament tour in Brussels is genuinely interesting). Often combined with the Netherlands (Bruges-Amsterdam is 3 hours by train), Luxembourg, France or as a UK-Eurostar weekend.