2 Days in Brussels: Best Guide for Arts Lovers
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If you’re looking for museums featuring world-class art, stunning architecture, and chocolate, Brussels is the city for you.
I didn’t have high expectations the first time I visited, which I soon discovered was a mistake.
Brussels is the city that produced René Magritte, sheltered Victor Hugo, and built the Grand Place, which Hugo called the most beautiful square in the world.
I haven’t been to every square in the world (and neither had Hugo, come to think of it), but the Grand Place is certainly grand and well worth a visit.
I first visited Brussels several years ago with Gregg and three dear family members who have since passed. Every time to go back, I remember the two days we spent wandering the old city, eating the world’s best fries, and discovering the incredible René Magritte Museum, which in itself is worth a trip for the artsy traveler.
Stay two days and you’ll leave knowing exactly why you should visit Brussels.
Table of Contents
Brussels Highlights
- Touring some of the most iconic works from the Flemish period in the Oldmasters Museum
- The Magritte Museum, entirely devoted to one of the 20th century’s most extraordinary artists
- Standing in the Grand Place at the golden hour as the crowds thin and the gilded façades glow
- Consuming Belgian chocolate, Belgian waffles, Belgian fries, and Belgian beer
- Staying at Le Dixseptieme (steps from the Grand Place) or Hotel Thon (perfect for drivers)
Brussels Quick Facts
- Where is Brussels?: Capital of Belgium and de facto capital of the EU, in the heart of Western Europe
- Top sights: Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Magritte Museum, Grand Place, Cinquantenaire Museum, Sablon district
- Best for: Arts lovers, architecture enthusiasts, serious food travelers
- Must book in advance: Magritte Museum timed entry recommended in high season
- Getting there: Eurostar from London (2 hrs), Thalys from Paris (1.5 hrs), direct trains from Amsterdam, Ghent, Bruges
- Best time to visit: April to June, September to October
- How much time: Two full days to cover the highlights; three is better
Map of Brussels
The map of Brussels shows all the sites and hotels mentioned in this post.
Why Visit Brussels?
Brussels is a city with formidable arts credentials, a gorgeous central plaza, and a food scene that includes world-class chocolate and beer.
Museums
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium is the umbrella term for four major art museums in Brussels: the Magritte Museum, the Old Masters Museum, the Wiertz Museum and the Meunier Museum.
If you only have two days in Brussels, you’ll have time to thoroughly enjoy my two favorites: The Old Masters Museum (#1) and the Magritte Museum (#2).
The Old Masters Museum houses one of Europe’s great collections of Old Masters including iconic masterworks by Bruegel, Rubens, and van Dyck at the Old Masters Museum.
The Magritte Museum houses a comprehensive collection of work by René Magritte, whose bowler-hatted surrealism has made him one of the most recognizable artists of the 20th century.
See below for more details about touring the Old Masters Museum and the Magritte Museum.
The Grand Place
The gilded guild houses surrounding the Grand Place (#3) date from the late 17th century, rebuilt after Louis XIV’s forces bombarded the city in 1695.
The French king destroyed medieval Brussels in two days; the merchants rebuilt it in four years, and what they built was more beautiful than before.
Food
And then there’s the chocolate and the beer. Oh, and the French fries and waffles.
Belgium takes chocolate seriously. Browse the many chocolate shops, buy several to eat while traveling, and then buy a few gift boxes to take home.
Tip: Make sure you store your chocolate gift boxes carefully. I stored a tube of Belgian chocolates destined for my daughter in an outside pocket of my pack and by the time I got home, the chocolates had melted into a giant blob of tastiness too unrecognizable to give away. So I ate them.
Beer is a matter of national pride so sample the many varieties on offer.
And as for French fries and waffles, become one with the carbs and try them. A perfectly cooked Belgian waffle heaped with fruit and cream is a joy not to be missed.
Suffice it to say that you will eat very well in Brussels.
Getting to Brussels
Brussels is one of Europe’s best-connected cities. The Eurostar from London takes about two hours. Paris is 1.5 hours by Thalys. Amsterdam is under two hours by Thalys. From Ghent, it’s a 30-minute train ride; from Bruges, about an hour.
Brussels has two main train stations: Brussels-Midi (#4), where international trains arrive, and Brussels-Central (#5), which is closer to the historic center and more convenient for most hotels. Check which station your train arrives at before you depart.
Brussels sits conveniently on the main European motorway network that connects with France, the Netherlands, and Germany, .
A private transfer with Daytrip is worth considering if you’re traveling between Belgian cities with luggage, offering fixed pricing and no navigation stress in an unfamiliar city.
Getting Around Brussels
The historic center of Brussels is walkable, with most of the main sights within a comfortable distance of each other. The Grand Place, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, and the Magritte Museum are all accessible on foot from a centrally located hotel.
For longer distances, Brussels has an extensive metro, tram, and bus network. The metro is straightforward and the stations are well signed.
Taxis and ride-sharing apps also work well here.
Where to Stay in Brussels
I’ve stayed in Brussels several times. Here are my two favorite places:
Le Dixseptieme: Just around the corner from The Grand Place, Le Dixseptieme (#6) is the best located of the places I’ve stayed at in Brussels. The hotel is elegant with lovely public areas and spacious rooms. We wish we could have stayed longer.
Hotel Thon: Perfect if you’re driving into Brussels and don’t want to go into the city center. The Hotel Thon (#7) is across the street from the metro. Rooms are spacious and offer excellent value.
Here are some more options:
Day 1: The Oldmasters Museum and the Grand Place
The Oldmasters Museum
The Oldmasters Museum is world-class and deserves several hours of your time. Its collection includes masterpieces by Bruegel, Rubens, Jordaens, and van Dyck, displayed in handsome galleries that never feel overwhelming.
It’s one of the easiest major museums to tour that I’ve visited. Here’s the central atrium around which the galleries are located.
I wandered gallery to gallery gasping as I recognized yet another favorite.
They have that one? OMG!
Here’s an overview of five of the works you shouldn’t miss, in the order in which I encountered them, moving from the beginning of the Old Masters Dutch School on the first floor around the four sides of the atrium.
Still Life with Flowers Arrangement and Plums by Rachael Ruysch
Rachael Ruysch is one of my new favorite artists. I adore her still life paintings which you’ll find in museums all over Europe, particularly in the Netherlands (The Rijksmuseum has a few) and Belgium.
That said, I still have trouble pronouncing her name (RAH-shel Rowsh). I once spent a good five minutes with a Dutch friend who tried to teach me how to say Ruysch correctly.
Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach
This depiction of Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach intrigues me. Eve looks somewhat impatient while Adam just looks gormless.
I also love the stag behind Eve, which makes her stark nudity look even more vulnerable set against the jagged antlers. And yet she appears to be relaxed and in control of the situation.
Battle of Carnival and Lent by Pieter Brueghel the Younger
There’s so much to look at in this painting, which gives a wonderful panorama of life in the Netherlands in the 16th century. The painting contains almost 200 separate characters.
I stood in front of it for quite a while to get a sense of all the activities going on.
The Census of Bethlehem by Pieter Brueghel the Elder
This is one of a series of paintings set in winter by Brueghel and one of his most famous. It portrays Joseph and Mary traveling for the Roman census, set in a wintry 16th-century Flemish village.
Again, the portrayal of contemporary life during the period gives the scene so much vibrancy. It rewards serious contemplation.
Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel
This painting is one of the most famous in the Oldmasters Museum. It depicts the great mythological tragedy of a boy falling from the sky as little more than a footnote to an ordinary working day.
In the foreground, life goes on: a farmer plows his field, a shepherd stares at the ground, a ship sails serenely past. A pair of legs disappears beneath the surface of the water but nobody notices.
Fall of the Rebel Angels by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Now, this is a painting! You really could spend a lot of time in front of it dissecting the incredible variety of wee beasties—fish with arms, a head sprouting butterfly wings, an upside-down frog and many more that I can’t even begin to describe.
Previously attributed to Hieronymus Bosch (I wonder why!), this painting is renowned for its dense composition and meticulous rendering. It depicts Lucifer and his followers being banished from heaven. Things obviously don’t go well.
The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David
Fast forward a few centuries and you’ll see this iconic work, which I didn’t expect to be in Brussels.
Painted in 1793, the work depicts the French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat after he was assassinated in his bath by Charlotte Corday. It’s one of the most famous paintings from the French Revolution and considered by some art historians as the first modernist work.
Tickets for the Old Masters Museum
Get your tickets from the Royal Museums website. You can purchase a combo ticket for both the Old Masters Museum and the Magritte Museum.
After enjoying the museum, consider a walking tour of Brussels. Here is an option with GetYourGuide:
The Grand Place
Go to the Grand Place twice: once in the afternoon to see it properly, and once after dinner when the crowds have thinned and the gilded façades are illuminated.
The square is ringed by ornate guild houses built in the late 17th century after Louis XIV’s artillery reduced the medieval city to rubble in 1695. The merchants who rebuilt it were making a point. The Town Hall, which survived the bombardment, dates from the 15th century and is one of the finest examples of Gothic civic architecture in Belgium.
Find a restaurant in or near the Grand Place for dinner. After dinner, come back to the square and stay until the crowds thin. It’s worth it.
Day 2: The Magritte Museum and the Sablon District
The Magritte Museum occupies a neoclassical building close to the Royal Museums and houses the world’s largest collection of work by René Magritte. You’ll see paintings, drawings, gouaches, and sculptures spanning his entire career.
Magritte spent most of his life in Brussels, working in a modest house in the Jette district with his wife, Georgette, painting his precise, unsettling, and inventive images in what he described as a very ordinary life.
The gap between the domesticity of his existence and the radicalism of his imagination is itself a kind of surrealist joke.
The museum is organized chronologically and thematically, which makes it possible to trace how his ideas developed, from his early Impressionist work through his mature surrealism to the late period experiments that confused his admirers and delighted him.
Gregg Simpson (husband, travel companion, and artist) has been associated with the surrealists for decades. His work appears alongside Magritte in several art history surveys of the movement so, needless to say, he was especially drawn to the Magritte Museum.
Take your time and enjoy! For more details about the museum and photos of some of the paintings you’ll find there, check out my post 7 Outstanding Single-Artist Museums in Europe where the Magritte Museum is #6.
The Sablon District
A ten-minute walk from the museums brings you to the Sablon district (#8), Brussels’ most elegant neighborhood. The Place du Grand Sablon is lined with antique dealers, chocolate shops, and cafés, and on weekends hosts an antiques market that is worth browsing.
The Church of Our Lady of the Sablon (#9), a flamboyant Gothic church begun in the 15th century, anchors the square and merits a look inside.
This is also where you’ll find some of Brussels’ finest chocolatiers. Pierre Marcolini (#10), whose shop faces the square, makes chocolate that will recalibrate your understanding of what chocolate can be. It is expensive. It is worth it.
Comics, Art Nouveau, and Belgian Culture
Walking through Brussels, you’ll quickly notice that comic art is woven into the city’s identity. Murals of comic strip characters appear on walls throughout the center, and specialist comic shops turn up in unexpected streets. I photographed one on my last visit that stopped me in my tracks, its window packed floor to ceiling with manga.
This is not a coincidence. Belgium has one of the world’s great comic strip traditions. Tintin, the Smurfs, and Lucky Luke all originated here, and the Belgian Comic Strip Center celebrates this heritage in a gorgeous Art Nouveau building designed by Victor Horta.
Even if you don’t think of yourself as a comics person, the building alone is worth the visit, and the context the museum provides for this serious Belgian art form is fascinating.
Mannekin Pis
You have to see him and take his picture. Mannekin Pis (#11) is a Brussels tradition! The day I visited, he was dressed as a chef. He has an extensive wardrobe of over 600 outfits, with different costumes displayed during festivals and events throughout the year.
When the enemy was at the gates ready to bring down the city walls with gunpowder, a little boy decided to relieve himself over the fuse, thereby extinguishing it, saving Brussels, and becoming a statue depicted in a million tourist snaps.
Cinquantenaire Museum
Alternatively, the Cinquantenaire Museum houses an eclectic collection of decorative arts, antiquities, and vehicles in a grand 19th-century complex.
The triumphal arch at its center is one of Brussels’ more photogenic landmarks; seek it out even if you don’t venture inside.
Beer, Food and Chocolate in Brussels
Belgium’s food and drink culture goes well beyond chocolate and waffles, though both are excellent. If you’re not afraid of carb and sugar overload, sample a waffle from one of the many waffle places in Brussels.
Belgian beer is among the world’s finest;the variety is staggering and every café has a list that requires serious study.
If you’d like a guided introduction to Brussels’ food markets, beer culture, or chocolate scene, Winedering has some good options:
Ghent and Bruges as Day Trips
Brussels makes an excellent base for day trips. Both Ghent and Bruges are 30 to 60 minutes by direct train and easily visited in a day.
If you’re choosing between them, I’d send arts lovers to Ghent for the altarpiece and architecture, and first-time visitors to Bruges for the canals and postcard scenery. Both are worth your time and neither requires a car.
For more details about visiting Ghent (and staying overnight), see Staying Overnight in Ghent: The Perfect One-Night Stop for Arts Lovers. Here is a day tour option through GetYourGuide:
Brussels FAQs
Two full days covers the main highlights: the Royal Museums, the Magritte Museum, the Grand Place, and the Sablon district. Three days gives you time to add day trips to Ghent or Bruges and allows a slower pace overall.
Without question. It’s one of the best single-artist museums in Europe and the collection is far more comprehensive than most visitors expect. Allow at least two hours, more if you want to linger.
Moderately. Less expensive than Paris or Amsterdam, more expensive than Ghent. The chocolate and beer are exceptional value given their quality.
The historic center is very walkable. The wider city is large and best navigated by metro or tram for longer distances.
Brussels is officially bilingual, French and Dutch, though French predominates in the city center. English is widely spoken and you’ll have no trouble getting around.
Spring and early autumn are ideal. Summer is busy but the long days are pleasant. December brings excellent Christmas markets to the Grand Place and surrounding squares.
Art Nouveau architecture, surrealist painting, Flemish Old Masters, extraordinary beer, and the Grand Place, one of the most beautiful public squares in Europe. The chocolate and waffles are excellent too, but they’re supporting cast.
Easily. Ghent is 30 minutes by direct train, Bruges about an hour. Either makes a very comfortable day trip.
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