Brussels Travel Guide

Brussels rewards anyone willing to look past its grey-suited reputation. Its heart is the Grand Place, a gilded Baroque square that Victor Hugo called the most beautiful in the world — and at night, lit gold, it makes the case. From there the city unfolds in layers: comic-strip murals on gable ends (this is the home of Tintin), the absurd little Manneken-Pis, and some of the finest Art Nouveau architecture anywhere, much of it by Victor Horta, whose townhouses are UNESCO-listed.

It is also, quietly, a food city — the frites are a national religion, the chocolate and beer need no introduction, and the dining runs from Michelin tables to brown cafés unchanged in a century. Bilingual, surreal (Magritte has his own museum here), and far more characterful than its EU-capital image suggests, Brussels is best treated not as a layover but as a city in its own right — and the natural hub for reaching Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp.