Day Trip Ideas from Ghent and Brussels

From either, while it doesn’t sound totally aligned to your interest profile, Ypres/Ieper to learn about the First World War is very meaningful. From Brussels, Namur is a relatively overlooked town about an hour south by train. It’s a pretty town on a river, with a historic citadel overlooking, in the French speaking part of Belgium which is a nice contrast with the more touristed Flanders.

Like Slate, I was also going to suggest Ieper. There is a very worthwhile museum, In Flanders Fields, and hearing the Last Post at Menin Gate (every evening at sunset) is very moving. All the names of the war dead are inscribed on the Menin Gate. There are also numerous war cemeteries around Ieper, which are also worth seeing. I would recommend a day trip with a guide so you can see the associated WWI sites more easily and to give context to what you are seeing.

Then to the south: Dinant (which is near Namur, you could combine the two) is absolutely stunning. When you get off the train, which is across the river from the town, you get a full view of the church, which I think is called Notre Dame (our lady), with its onion dome against the backdrop of a dramatic cliff. And on top of the cliff is a citadel, which you can visit. Dramatic scenery. While it is only a small town, it has a weird history, as it's the birthplace of Adolphe Sax (inventor of the saxophone). You can visit his house, and there is also a museum for the beer Leffe. There are lovely places for lunch along the river, and you can also do a river cruise. Further down river is kayaking, but I would only recommend this if you had a full day to devote to it as it takes at least 5 hours. And expect to get wet - the boats leak and other kayakers throw water on people :) .

There are also a few places close in to Brussels / Antwerp which would make a good day trip - Mechelen, Leuven and Lier. Lier in particular is very picturesque. Some compare it to Bruges but it is very small. They are all close together so you could 'bundle' them.

Good luck and enjoy your trip!

Lavandula

A lovely Renaissance style castle to visit is Ooidonk Castle / Kasteel Ooidonk near Ghent. Usually there are guided tours (only I think) on Sundays, except the 13th of September as the castle is closed for family reasons. There is a bus stop near the castle entrance.

https://ooidonk.be/en/visit

Another one worth to visit is Gaasbeek Castle / Kasteel van Gaasbeek near Brussels. It’s mainly a 19th century rebuild, nevertheless I enjoyed my visit 10 years ago. To reach within an hour with the bus, there is stop near the entrance.

https://www.kasteelvangaasbeek.be/en/plan-your-visit

More medieval near Brussels is Beersel Castle / Kasteel van Beersel. Also here a bus stop close to the entrance. Has not it's own website as far as I can see, so you have search the internet for more info.

https://www.herita.be/nl/monumenten/kasteel-van-beersel/praktische-info (Dutch only)

If you didn’t already have visited it, Waterloo, the place where Napoleon was finally defeated.

https://waterloo1815.be/en/plan-your-visit/practical-information

A poignant place to visit is Fort Breendonk, halfway between Antwerp and Brussels. It served as a Nazi prison camp during WW2.

https://breendonk.be/en/public-transportation

If you like something outdoors, not to miss to my opinion is open air museum Bokrijk near Hasselt. Takes 1½ hour with the train from Brussel-Centraal. So more time you want to spend, nevertheless worth that extra half hour travelling time. It has it’s own train stop at walking distance form the entrance.

https://bokrijk.be/en/your-visit/accessibility/by-public-transport/

and hearing the Last Post at Menin Gate (every evening at sunset) is very moving.

The same mistake again. It's at 8:00 p.m. (20:00), not at sunset.

Don't forget to check if Kortrijk and Tournai are of interest to you. They're accessible by train from both Ghent and Lille.

Lavandula, as you mention Lier think the following will interest you:

Lier was in 1496 the place of the marriage between Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile. Philip was member of the House of Habsburg, one of the most influentual dynasties in Western history and Joanna of Castile, member of the Spanish Throne. She was the second daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, the royal couple that united Spain and commisioned Christophor Columbus to discover the New World in 1492. It were the early days of the Spanish Empire, one of the largest in history.

So it was a marriage of great importance and the whole world had to know it. A fleet of around 130 ships left Laredo in northern Spain with Joanna accompanied by 20.000 people, most all kinds of court servants. With on board 85.000 lb of smoked meat, 50.000 herrings, 1000 chickens, 6000 eggs and 400 barrels of wine. Just to be sure no one had to complain about feeling hungry during the two months sailing journey to Lier.

To see it a bit more in perspective: That famous Spanish Armada, with the plan to invade England almost hundred years later in 1588, counted around 137 ships.

Philip and Joanna had never seen eachother before. And despite it was an arranged marriage they fel immediately in love at first sight. Instead of following the court protocol, they left everybody behind and ordered a priest, just somewhere in the middle of the street, to officiate their wedding. After that they went to the house that was ment to stay during the festivities, locked the door and likely already consumed their marriage, as it is named in those circles at the time.

The day after they married for the second time, but now according the official court protocol. The party could begin.

Joanna had trouble dealing with the death of Philip 10 years later. Seems she travelled with the coffin still with the corpse in it for a period of time. One of her children was emperor Charles V (born in Ghent), ruling the first collection of realms being labelled “the empire on which the sun never sets”.

To say that Lier is more than just a lovely place.

Christophor Columbus to discover the New World in 1942

They call it dyscalculia ;-) ... 1492!

Lier is also called the Bruges of the Kempen, and doesn’t suffer from the modern hell of overtourism.
I will blame yourself and Lavandula if this will change :-)

Thanks, lets call it a typo.

I enjoyed a day trip by train from Bruges to Ostend (also available from Ghent). There, I took the coastal tram to the Atlantikwall Museum and later to DeHaan, a charming seaside resort town, which had slowed down by the time of my visit (second half of September).

Thank you for all the great suggestions! I have spent the afternoon looking into the various places.

Slate, Namur looks like a good choice. I want to spend at least a day in Wallonia. Besides the Citadelle, what other activities would you suggest?

Lavandula, Dinant's landscape is stunning! The train from Brussels is 1.5 hours, so it's beyond how far we wish to travel. Mechelen, Leuven, and Lier all look interesting. Do you have a favorite of the three?

Wil, the links you provided are really helpful. For Ooidonk Castle, we would not be able to visit on a Sunday. Is it worth going there just for the gardens?

Windyram, I recently watched a Monday Night Travel video from 2023 about West Flanders. The guest was from Kortrijk, and he did a good job highlighting his hometown. Would it be easier to reach Kortrijk from Ghent or Lille?

G3rryCee, your coastal itinerary is a good plan. From Ostend, can you walk to the Atlantikwall Museum, or would we need to take a bus?

Would it be easier to reach Kortrijk from Ghent or Lille?

Almost the same.
From Ghent 2 direct trains (=no change) per hour 30 minutes ride
From Lille-Flanders 1 direct train per hour 35 minutes ride. This train service is also operated by the Belgian railway company NMBS/SNCB.

From Ostend, can you walk to the Atlantikwall Museum, or would we need to take a bus?

You can either take the coastal tram https://www.belgiancoast.co.uk/plan/coastal-tram

Or a 8,5-10 kilometer walk
https://www.visitwestvlaanderen.be/en/beaufort-walking-route-raversijde

Since you also want to visit Wallonia, I think Tournai, one of the oldest cities in Belgium, would be a better fit for your "profile" than Namur. Both are a 70-minute train ride from Brussels.

A bit off topic but I was running the numbers on Wil’s provisions and 20,000 people would have run out of all that within a few days at most, let alone two months; per person, it’s about 4 pounds of meat, 3 herrings, one piece of chicken, and a spoonful or two of egg. To drink, one barrel of wine (not sure how much that is) for every 50 people. I hope they had plenty of hardtack as well and very favorable winds!

Regarding Namur, there is a remarkable thing called the “treasures d’Oignie”, which are some amazing medieval jewelry enamel works. When I visited in the 1990s, you had to ring the doorbell at a convent and a nun would show them. I think since then the convent has closed and it looks like from google they’re at a municipal museum.

Mechelen, Leuven, and Lier all look interesting. Do you have a favorite of the three?

Yes, I like Leuven; just a very calm place to visit on the weekends. It is a university city but somehow escapes a lot of tourism and does not feel crowded like Ghent or Bruges.

Lier is also a bit special but it is a bit harder to get to from Brussels. You have to change trains in Antwerp, or go via Mechelen, so if you want to do Lier, you would combine it with a Mechelen trip also. I don't think Lier will suddenly be overrun because I have mentioned it here, it's not really set up for mass tourism!

Lavandula

Wil, Windyram, Lier can remain our secret!

Lavandula

LaurieC - You can walk around the castle, it's actually more a little park with a garden. I have visited it once midwinter, have not the impression that the garden itself is special. It's the whole setting with the castle at the background that makes it so beautiful. Spending an hour or so will be enough to my idea if you follow the walking trails outside the castle too. Know that the gardens are closed at the end of September due to the Garden Fair (for the dates see the website).

Slate - Well noticed. The numbers are based on a Dutch wikipedia article about Joanna of Castile. Likely the fleet must have stopped somewhere in between to restock, but have no info about this. Nevertheless it must have been an impressive expedition.

I have no idea exactly when in September you’ll be visiting us.
If you’re a fan of “castle events,” you can check out a great spectacle on the grounds of Gaasbeek Castle on September 26 and 27.

Over the course of two days, hundreds of reenactors from 12 countries will gather there. They’ll take part in jousting, archery, and sword-fighting tournaments, and each day they’ll head out into the fields for “the siege of Gaasbeek.” They’ll sleep, eat, and live in a sprawling tent camp featuring inns, food markets, and more—alongside over 40 medieval merchants and dozens of entertainment acts and extras.

Tickets here https://www.quondam.be/nl/tickets

More medieval near Brussels is Beersel Castle / Kasteel van Beersel. Also here a bus stop close to the entrance. Has not it's own website as far as I can see, so you have search the internet for more info.

https://www.visitbeersel.be/en/content/detail/1/beersel-castle

https://www.visitbeersel.be/en/content/detail/5/practical-information

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/belgium/day-trips-from-brussels-besides-bruges-and-ghent

If you have only spent a day in Antwerp, you might consider more time there. It's a very varied city, with completely different walks in each direction from your hotel. There are a lot of subtle attractions there, like a bustling family-weekend day in the Rivierenhof park - that's really "living local". I think the former silver museum castle is no longer open, but it's a neat sight in that park. The Sculpture Park Middleheim Museum is a long trip by public transportation, but a very nice, large outdoor sculpture site. Have you walked through the pedestrian tunnel under the river? Many visitors overlook the roughly 100 superb townhouse exteriors in the Cogels Osy Lei, easily reached by tram, near Berchem station.

I did find a lot of Antwerp subway escalators out of service in March, 2026.

As another noted, it's very quick to get to Lier or Turnhout from Antwerp by train. Have you been to the Bokrijk Open Air Museum? I agree that Leuven is a must-see. They have a very nice town art museum. The interior of the Leuven city hall is only shown on a TI-ticketed tour on Sundays, AFAIR.

The interior of the Leuven city hall is only shown on a TI-ticketed tour on Sundays

Due to remodeling and renovation work, City Hall is closed until 2029.

Thank you for all the advice! We will have lots of places to choose from. I'm ready to dive into the researching!

Lier is also a bit special but it is a bit harder to get to from Brussels. You have to change trains in Antwerp, or go via Mechelen

Incorrect information. This applies only on weekends. On weekdays, there is a direct train every hour.