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Brussels Travel Guide: 6,621 reviews and 11,413 photos
Brussels is a town with a heart...(the ring all around the center has also this form!!!). What I mean is the warmth of its atmosphere, life and inhabitants... Even if our country is famous for the rain (fact even used in the touristic shops in the center to sell T-shirt and souvenirs from Belgium)...people are very friendly :-)))
Brussels is the city I live in for almost 7 years (my birth town is Mons). My small apartment is situated just next to this big arches (Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark)...in the district of Brussels called Etterbeek.
I really love this area because of the beauty and the green of the park, the proximity of everything (city center is 5-10 minutes away from there with metro), the nice buildings all around, ...and because it is a place with a lot of events in the summer like the Summer Drive-In, various free concerts, etc...
There are also other neighborhoods that are quite nice, each of them have a special atmosphere :
Rue de Namur - Matonge - Saint-Boniface : african exotic neighborhood
Etangs d'Ixelles : great ponds surrounded by wonderful old houses
Sablon : famous 'chic' square for high quality antiques and chocolates!
Marolles : the neighborhood where the real Brussel inhabitants live, formerly poor, now becoming trendy for its antique and furnitures shops and market on Sundays
Saint -Jacques : the place to be for gay meetings, the fashion and trendy bars
Antoine Dansaert and Place St-Géry : the street of the new designers and the bar neighborhoods with lots of terraces to see and to be seen
Avenue Louise and Boulevard de Waterloo : prestige streets with luxe and expensive shops
Rue du Bailli - Place du Châtelain : trendy shopping and eating in a 'village' atmosphere
Another charm of Brussel is its international character because of its status of center of Europe (EU Parlament, Commission).
You can't take the metro once without hearing English, Spanish or German. But it is not only that : Brussel has been before the EU-stuff a bilingual city used to do a lot of compromises because of its French-speaking and Dutch-speaking population : all the public indications are in both language and that surprises a lot of tourist!!!
I must say that this environment is great for people that love travelling and the other cultures... Anyway, as translator and languages fan, it is a town for me !
Maybe the capital of Belgium does not have the harmony and the prestige of the old european capitals like Paris, London, Rome, etc... but if you are patient, you will discover its wonderful treasures!!!! Of course there are the obvious touristic places (like the "grand place" that deserves its wonderful reputation) and very beautiful neighborhoods but there are also a million of other nice things to discover, which are sometimes just around the corner, or lost in the middle of a simple street of neighborhood...I'll try to convince you by developping my Brussels page in that sense :-)
An example of treasures of Brussels is the heritage of the Art Nouveau architecture. There is no other city in the world with such a rich heritage of this tendency, developed at the end of the 19th and beginning of 20th century, a renovating movement of architecture and decorative arts, reacting against the bourgeois and classic constraints (more info in the Art Nouveau travelogue).
Dancing Brussels
Brussel is also very dynamic : great if you like to dance like I do. Everything is possible : from Hip-hop to salsa, from belly dance to flamenco... You will find out more about that in the night life tips :-)
Summer in the city
And if you visit Brussels in the Summer, you will be able to enjoy a lot of open air events! Check out these summer events in the corresponding travelogue here under.
Reviews (43)
Tango in Brussels on Friday
Nightlife
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ptitetoile's Related Pages
Brussels Travel Guide
Member Travel Pages
- "More than a decade in Brussels"
- "Say Brussels?? K! let's go to find The Soul"
- "Gothic treasures , art nouveaux - a royal city!"
- "Brussels"
- "Brussels, Capital of Belgium"
- "Bruxelles, ma belle"
- "BRUXELLES - BRUSSEL - BRUSSELS"
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Share Your TravelsLatest Activity in Brussels
- Uploaded a Photo to "My latest funniest parties in Brussels!"
- updated a Brussels Travelogue "My latest funniest parties in Brussels!"
- Wrote a Review Tango in Brussels on Friday about Dancing in Brussels Nightlife
- Commented on GillianMcLaughlin's Brussels Page
- Replied to irisbe's Travel Brussels Forum Forum Question "Meeting up in Brussels ?"
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BackpackingLatest Brussels hotel reviews
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- 18 Reviews & Opinions
Latest: Apr 26, 2012 - Silken Berlaymont
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Comments (35)
Hello, Sarah! Brussels is very attracting and interesting! Thanx!
Congratulations - your review on art nouveau on yur Brussels' page is really lovely! Would you know any nice antique shop there where I could purchase a lightlamp in that design at a fair price? (I´ll be visiting B' by the end of this month) Thanks.
I like that city a lot. Ciao!
Really interesting page. Great photos. Brussels is prettier than I ever thought it was. Thanks for showing me that. I love pages that show you what the town really look like :)
Hi Sarah, Enjoyed your tips , have saved some to travel guide. Can you recommend good 3 star or better hotels, close to rail as we intend to take several day trips over border & to Bruges.
Thank you very much for listing this! One night, my friends & I stumbled upon this place & I had the best mojito of my life (I used to live in Miami, FL so I am not exaggerating) & I had no idea of the name or location of this. Now I know!
Great tips! Brussels was my first destination outside of North America and I loved it!
coucou sarah, how ru today? a:^)
Very informative Art Nouveau travelogue
very interesting page / good stuff & tips
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