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Hotel near Grand Place

I am always so happy to post because it means there is a trip in the works and I get such great advice here.

I feel like this must be a thread in several places and I did browse the forum for ideas, but some of the posts were a couple years old. So sorry if this is somewhere on forum and I missed...

We start a river cruise in Brussels in April. Need a hotel for two nights, three rooms. The Dominican and Pillows were recommended. Any thoughts on those two in terms of walkable to the sites and restaurants?

There is also a Marriott that is an option.

Thoughts? Thank you!

Posted by
454 posts

There are a couple of NH Collection hotels near the Grand Place - I always stay in NH hotels when available.

Posted by
29220 posts

What sites are you interested in? Two of the segments of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts are currently closed. The old masters collection and the Magritte Museum (sharing an entry point) are open and aren't terribly far from the Grand Place. The museums in the Parc du Cinquantenaire and most of the Art Nouveau house-museums are farther south and a considerable walk away.

I was just in Brussels for nearly two weeks. I was bothered by the construction in the immediate area of Central Station. Vehicle traffic gets through, but some sidewalks to the NE are blocked. It really irritated me to have to walk blocks out of my way when I was pulling a suitcase behind me. I tried using CityMapper for walking directions, but it put me on a route that was heavily cobbled (lots of cobblestones in Brussels). I think Pillows might be really close to the construction barriers, though I'm not 100% sure. I believe the other three hotel locations would not be affected by the construction if you travel directly to or from Central Station. You might run into an issue on the way to the art museums and the Musical Instrument Museum if you tried to skirt Central Station to the east. Walking around it to the west would be fine, I think.

The Grand Place is indeed grand, but it is massively touristy--comparable to San Marco in Venice. Nearby streets are affected as well. It was not an area where I wanted to hang out, but YMMV. I didn't eat in the area around the Grand Place, but there are many options nearby because there's tons of foot traffic.

Posted by
25 posts

We stayed at Hotel Amigo, which is right next to Grand Place and close to everything. If you join the Rocco Forte “club” (free) then they usually upgrade you. The hotel is about a 5-10 min walk from the Central train station. Breakfasts were wonderful, the room was very large and service was great. The Concierge arranged a combined historical and chocolate tour for us which was awesome. Bar Magritte has some very interesting drinks.

Posted by
331 posts

Thank you so much for the replies. As first time visitors to Brussels, we are open to seeing anything. I am not surprised the Grand Place is touristy, I had just heard there are a lot of restaurants and shops in the area so it's very walkable.

It's a two day pre-cruise stay, which leaves from Brussels so I assume we are taking a transfer to the ship and not a train from Centra Station. We really have only one full day since the first day will be arriving from overseas, you never know what that's going to be like.

Hotel Amigo looks good. Marriott's properties include the Dominican. Wondering if anyone has a report from there.

Happy travels all!

Posted by
144 posts

The Dominican is a top-class hotel. I don't know what is happening in the neighbourhood right now in terms of street works but it's not far by foot to the Grand' Place or Rue des Bouchers, which is a restaurant street. There is an upscale food court called Wolf very close to there also, it's very fashionable. Watch Rue des Bouchers, it's filled with clip joints. The two restaurants Chez Leon (mussels, a family restaurant) and the elegant Aux Armes de Bruxelles (Belgian fare) are exceptions to this rule.

Lavandula

Posted by
331 posts

Thanks Lavandula! Especially for the Dominican specific info.