Things to Do in Brussels: Grand Place, Atomium & Museums

The Grand Place of Brussels is the obvious starting point: a UNESCO-listed square ringed by gilded guild houses, the Gothic Town Hall and the Brussels City Museum. From there it is a five-minute walk to Manneken Pis, ten to the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert and fifteen uphill to the Royal Palace and Mont des Arts viewpoint. Head north by metro for the Atomium, built for Expo 58 and still the city's best-known landmark.

Brussels museums cover a lot of ground for a city this size. The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium hold the Old Masters and the Magritte Museum, the largest collection of the Belgian surrealist anywhere. The Belgian Comic Strip Center sits in a Victor Horta department store and traces Tintin and the Smurfs back to their origins. Horta's own house, the Musical Instruments Museum and the Parlamentarium fill out a rainy afternoon.

Food in Brussels runs from street stands to Michelin stars. Maison Dandoy has been baking waffles since 1829, Maison Antoine is the reference point for frites with mayonnaise, and Choco-Story explains where Belgian chocolate actually comes from before you spend money on it. Best restaurants in Brussels for traditional cooking cluster around Sainte-Catherine and Rue des Bouchers, where moules-frites, stoemp and carbonnade flamande are on most menus.

Shopping in Brussels splits into three areas. Rue Neuve is the pedestrianised high street and the second busiest shopping street in Belgium. The Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, a glass-roofed arcade from 1847, is where the chocolatiers and the older tea rooms are. Rue Antoine Dansaert covers Belgian designers, and the Place du Jeu de Balle flea market in the Marolles runs every morning. After dark, Saint-Géry has the highest concentration of bars and Flagey draws a more local crowd.

The old core of the city, and where most first-time visitors stay. The Grand Place Brussels sits at the centre, with the Îlot Sacré's narrow lanes fanning out around it towards Manneken Pis, the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert and the restaurant strip on Rue des Bouchers. Almost everything on a first Brussels itinerary is within walking distance, and Brussels-Central station is five minutes away.

Ten minutes north-west of the Grand-Place, on the site of the old fish market. Sainte-Catherine is where locals go for seafood and where the square fills with terraces in summer. Rue Antoine Dansaert next door is the fashion street, lined with Belgian designers and concept stores, and Saint-Géry between the two has the cocktail bars and craft beer pubs that keep going after the centre empties out.

Two adjoining districts on the upper edge of the centre, both built around trading in old things. Place du Grand Sablon has the antique dealers, the art galleries and several of the city's best-known chocolatiers, plus a weekend antiques market. Walk downhill into the Marolles and the tone changes: working-class, still partly Brusseleir-speaking, with the daily Place du Jeu de Balle flea market and the Palace of Justice looming above it.

South of the ring, Ixelles is where Brussels stops feeling like a tourist zone. The streets around the Ixelles Ponds hold some of the city's best Art Nouveau architecture, including Victor Horta's own house. Place Flagey, named after the Art Deco broadcasting building on its edge, has a weekend market, a well-known frites stand and a run of restaurants that locals rate above anything near the Grand-Place.

We recommend: the city-centre loop

We recommend: three days, museum-led

We recommend: two days, eating-led

We recommend: Brussels as a base

The most popular of all the day trips from Brussels, and about an hour by direct train with departures every 20 to 30 minutes. The medieval centre is compact enough to cover on foot: the Markt and its belfry, the canals around the Rozenhoedkaai, the Groeningemuseum and the Church of Our Lady with Michelangelo's Madonna.

Around 36 minutes from Brussels and less crowded than Bruges. Saint Bavo's Cathedral holds the Ghent Altarpiece by the Van Eyck brothers, the Gravensteen is a genuine moated castle in the middle of town, and the Graslei quayside is lined with guild houses from the city's cloth-trading years.

Belgium's second city, 40 to 50 minutes away by Intercity train. The station itself is worth the trip. Beyond it are the Cathedral of Our Lady with four Rubens altarpieces, the Rubens House, the Plantin-Moretus printing museum, the MAS on the docks and the diamond district behind the station.

The shortest trip on this list at about 23 minutes. Leuven has one of the most elaborate late-Gothic town halls in Europe, a university founded in 1425, and the Oude Markt, a single square lined end to end with bars. The Stella Artois brewery runs tours a short walk from the station.

The 1815 battlefield sits under an hour south of the city by train to Braine-l'Alleud and a short bus ride. Climb the 226 steps of the Lion's Mound for the view over the field, then work through the underground Memorial 1815 museum and Wellington's headquarters in the village.

The longest trip here, roughly two hours via Namur, and the one that looks least like the rest of Belgium. A collegiate church with a bulbous spire sits at the foot of a cliff, a citadel reached by cable car or 408 steps sits on top, and the Meuse runs through the middle. Adolphe Sax was born on the main street.