Yes, Belgium is one of the easiest countries in Europe to backpack on your own. Distances are short, trains connect every major city at least hourly, and English is widely spoken, especially in Flanders.
From Brussels,
Ghent is about 30 minutes away by train,
Antwerp about 40 minutes and
Bruges about 1 hour. Hostel dorms cost €25 to 45 a night, with the highest prices in Bruges and Brussels on weekends. A realistic backpacker budget is €60 to 95 a day. The only part that takes planning is the Ardennes, where towns like
La Roche-en-Ardenne need a train plus a TEC bus, and buses on rural routes can run only every one to two hours.
Ten days is the right length for Belgium. That gives you the main Flemish cities, Brussels and a few nights in the Ardennes without rushing.
With 5 days, stay in Flanders: 2 nights in
Ghent and 2 in
Bruges, with a day trip to the coast. Ten days adds 3 nights in
Brussels and 4 split between
Dinant and
La Roche-en-Ardenne. Fifteen days lets you add
Antwerp, a night in
Ypres for the Menin Gate ceremony, and the High Fens near
Spa. The country is small, about 3 hours by train from the coast to Liège, so extra days go into experiences rather than transit.
Yes, you can travel around Belgium without a car. Trains cover all the cities and the coast, and only the deeper Ardennes villages take some patience with buses.
Intercity trains link
Brussels,
Ghent,
Bruges,
Antwerp,
Namur and
Liège in 30 to 60 minutes per hop. A one-way ticket from Brussels to Bruges costs roughly €15 to 17. Travelers under 26 get 40 percent off every train ticket. The coast tram runs the full shoreline from
Knokke-Heist to De Panne. In Wallonia, TEC buses reach
La Roche-en-Ardenne,
Durbuy and the High Fens, but often only every one to two hours, and less often on Sundays.
In Belgium, the must-visits are
Bruges,
Ghent and
Brussels’ Grand-Place, followed by
Ypres and the Meuse valley around
Dinant.
Bruges needs 2 nights so you see the canals before and after the day-trippers. In Ghent, the Castle of Gravensteen and the Ghent Altarpiece fill a full day. Brussels deserves 2 to 3 nights for the Magritte Museum, the Atomium and a half-day trip to the Waterloo battlefield. Ypres, about 1 hour 30 minutes from Bruges by train, is best overnight so you can catch the Last Post at 8 pm. Dinant is about 1 hour 30 minutes from Brussels and is the easiest entry point to the Ardennes.
If you are short on time in Belgium, skip
Manneken Pis, the Walibi theme park and the coast outside summer.
Manneken Pis is a small bronze statue about 60 centimeters tall, and it sits a 5-minute walk from the Grand-Place, so look at it in passing and move on. Walibi and Pairi Daiza are good days out but each takes a full day for things you can do elsewhere in Europe. From October to April, the beaches at
Oostende and
Blankenberge are cold, windy and half shut. On a tight 5-day plan, spend that time in
Ghent or
Bruges instead. Liège is also easy to leave out unless you are heading on to Spa or the High Fens.
Yes, our itinerary-planner does exactly that. Set your trip length in days, give your interests and travel style, optionally give start- and end location and/or some mandatory stops you would like to include and the itinerary planner creates your personalized routes for Belgium in seconds. Try it out!
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