Escorted Belgium Holidays and Guided Tours
Belgium is close enough to Britain for a short break to feel worthwhile, and different enough to feel properly abroad. Our holidays here concentrate on Flanders and Brussels: the canal ring at Bruges, the guildhalls of the Grand Place, Ghent's old waterfront, and Antwerp, where Art Deco and Art Nouveau stand a few streets apart.
Distances are short, so several cities can be visited from one hotel without long days on the road. We travel by Eurostar, or by Eurotunnel or ferry with our own coach and driver, with local guides for the walking tours.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Belgium Tours
It depends on the tour. Some travel by Eurostar from St Pancras, with transfers at the other end and a local guide for the sightseeing. Others go by private coach through the Eurotunnel or on a ferry crossing, with the same driver and coach for the whole holiday, which makes the excursions straightforward. Each tour page states which applies, and we can tell you the timings for a particular departure if you ask us.
The Flower Carpet is laid in the Grand Place every two years, in August, and stays in place for only a few days. It is made from close to a million cut begonias, most of them grown in Belgium, arranged to a new design each time. Because it is biennial and short-lived, our tour only runs in the years it takes place. Ask us for the confirmed dates before you make other arrangements.
More than you might expect for city sightseeing, because the historic centres of Bruges and Ghent are largely closed to traffic and paved with cobbles, which can be uneven underfoot. Walking tours with a local guide typically last a couple of hours at a gentle pace, with stops. The coach cannot always drop you at the door. If you have concerns about distances or standing, please tell us before booking and we will talk you through the specific itinerary.
Bruges, Ghent and Brussels
Bruges is the capital of West Flanders and the reason many people come to Belgium in the first place: canals, cobbles, and a medieval centre that survived the centuries largely because the city's trade collapsed and nobody rebuilt it. The Stadhuis on the Burg is one of the finest city halls in the country, its Gothic Hall lined with murals by Albrecht and Juliaan Devriendt.
Ghent is the working counterpart, a university city with the merchant houses of the Graslei and Korenlei facing each other across the water. Brussels offers the Grand Place, the Art Nouveau townhouse Victor Horta built for himself, and the Van Buuren house and garden. Just north of the city, the botanic garden at Meise spreads over some ninety hectares of grounds around Bouchout Castle, with one of the largest glasshouse complexes in Europe.
Our tours combine these on foot with guided coach sightseeing, and leave free time built into the itinerary.
Beer, chocolate and Art Deco
Belgian beer culture is on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage, and with good reason: Trappist abbey ales, sour lambics fermented with wild yeast in the Senne valley, and blonde beers that come in their own glassware. Our food and drink tour includes a brewery visit in Bruges and a chocolate workshop in Brussels, where you make the pralines rather than watch someone else do it, and a day across the border at Lille's covered market, the Halles de Wazemmes.
Antwerp appeals to a different interest. The city has Art Deco in many variations, from apartment blocks to cinema frontages, and it was also one of the places where Art Nouveau took hold. A tour built around that architecture takes in the Royal Academy of Fine Art and the Horta Museum, with a farewell dinner in an Art Deco restaurant.
