5 Day trips with kids from Brussels (part one)

One of the things we were most looking forward to when moving to Brussels was the fact that it's a really good base city for many day-trips. The city is surrounded by many other beautiful cities reachable within two-hour drive by car (or train, if you fancy). The obvious destinations from Brussels are Paris and Amsterdam, but we decided to first explore Belgian cities before going to the surrounding countries.

1. Ostend and/or De Haan

Distance from Brussels: 111 km.
Duration of travel: 1 hour 15 minutes by car, or 1 hour 11 minutes by train 
Our first day-trip from Brussels was to Ostend, at the Belgian coast. It was a sunny but chilly September, but wasn't cold enough to prevent our kids from bathing. In the freezing North Sea. There's no tolls in Belgium, which makes road-trip easier and cheaper. Long, wide, smooth sandy beach. Kids' paradise. Our kids loved this place. We spent hours building sandcastles, running away from waves and picking shells before heading for lunch in Koekoek Tavern (delicious roast chicken served with apple sauce and bread -no cutlery!). The day we visited Ostend, Disneysand Magic exhibition was still going on (held from June to September), so we went to see the most amazing sand sculptures of Disney characters and castles, which, our first-born absolutely loved. A few kilometers from Ostend is another coastal town De Haan, which we visited with our dear friends. With a cute playground on the sand for the kids, it's a fun place to visit even in the winter.

2. Bruges, in West Flanders

Distance from Brussels: 97 km
Duration of travel: 1.5 hours by car, or 1 hour by train
If your kids love boats like ours, Bruges is the place to go in Belgium. Bruges is known as the Venice of the north. It's also very close from Ostend so technically you could combine the two together. It's probably the most touristic city in Brussels though, so if you're not fond of popular destination with crowds of tourists, you might want to avoid this city. However, the city is absolutely stunning, and our kids really enjoy the boat ride on its canals. The boat ride costs €8 per person and it lasts around 45 minutes, with English speaking guide included. The architecture of the buildings along the canal is beautiful, and if the weather is sunny too, you'd get amazing view of the city from the canals. Our younger wanted another round of ride after our tour ended!

3. Dinant, in the Wallon Region

Distance from Brussels: 105 km
Duration of travel: 1 hour 10 minutes by car, or 2 hours by train
Much different from touristic Bruges, Dinant is a charming small town, unknown to most non-Belgians. Try to google it, and try not to be smitten by the pictures of the town you find online. With the river Meuse and the steep cliff as its background, Dinant is picture perfect. Not to mention it's also the home of Belgian beer Leffe. One must visit the Citadel of Dinant, a fortress located on the cliff. With kids, one of the most exciting things in Dinant is riding the funicular uphill to the Citadel. Dinant is also rich with history from the World War I due to the Battle of Dinant, and the Citadel has been converted to a Museum with the portrayal of the battle equipped with awesome catacombs your children would be thrilled of.

 4. Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée

Distance from Brussels: 331 km
Duration of travel: 3.5 hours by car, or 2.5 hours by train
Disneyland Paris was our first day-trip outside Belgium. It's only 331km from Brussels, 3-and-a-half hour drive by car. There is also a regular train connection and a train station exactly at the entrance of Disneyland Paris. I wrote about our trip to Disneyland here, where we also wrote our tips-and-trick to survive (and enjoy) Disneyland with small kids in one day!

5. Maastricht in the Netherlands

Distance from Brussels: 125 km 
Duration of travel: 1.5 hours by car, 1 hour 45 minutes by train
Maastricht might not come to one's mind when looking into the idea of a day-trip destination from Brussels with kids. But wait until you see Boekhandel Dominicanen, a beautiful bookstore inside a church in the center of Maastricht. Most kids I know love books, and this bookstore has a big children section. Although mostly the books are in Dutch language, they do have several shelves of english books for children. Our kids enjoyed the place, and undoubtedly, we did too. The church makes an amazing setting for the bookstore. We visited the city during the pre-holiday period, so we got to visit the charming Christmas market with a Ferris wheel and a skating ring as well.

And if you're not intrigued enough by our first five day-trip destinations, do wait for the second part of the post, where I'd feature five more destinations to do a day-trip from Brussels with little kids.