Belgium

Currency: Euro | Exchange Rate: €10 = USD $10.43 | €10 = ¥1,648.13

Brussels

Before I even got to Belgium, I had the whole internet telling me that there was nothing to do there. And, I unfortunately have to agree to a certain extent. I think there are other cities in Belgium that have much more to offer; however, the Grand-Place de Bruxelles was the most incredible plaza I had ever seen in my life. And Brussels had a more diverse population than any other city I saw in the entire country. There were immigrants from every country and every facet of life running businesses and creating their own communities. I even spoke to a Pakistani shopkeeper who told me about his sons and how he had been at his store for two decades.

Ghent

I went to Ghent and Bruges on a single-day trip from where I was staying in Brussels. My tour guide was the sweetest short, old man, and told us a lot about both towns that we visited. It took about 45 minutes by bus to reach Ghent, which is very densely populated with students. In fact, there are 10 institutions of higher education located there.

It was refreshing to see such a contrast between the vibrancy of youth culture alongside the antiquity of the architecture. There were massive gothic buildings looming around every corner. I truly could not get enough.

Bruges

Compared to Ghent, Bruges was a much more relaxed city with small rivers running through the entire town. It’s a great place to hop on a boat tour and learn about the city’s rich history in lace-making, religion, and medieval architecture. There are covens located that there are still in use today. It took another 45 minutes or so by bus to get to Bruges from Ghent.

Dinant

The inventor of the saxophone was born in Dinant, and boy would you know it. The town streets are decorated in all things sax, complete with six-foot tall painted monuments adorning the town’s bridge, music notes strewn across roads, and a small museum dedicated to the man himself, whose name was Adolphe Sax. I stopped in Dinant on another day trip from Brussels whose main stop was actually Luxembourg. Literally everything closes at 6 p.m. in Dinant, and we happened to arrive there at 5:30 p.m. So apart from strolling through the town streets, there wasn’t much for me to do.

For the busy traveler…

Itineraries are available with and without suggested times.