We are taking our daughter to a french immersion program near Verviers, Belgium in July. (She will be staying in the town of Spa). We want to take a few days after we drop her off to explore the area before returning to Brussels. Can anyone recommend some nice small towns with interesting sites to see and places to stay in that area? We will have a car. We love fun places to eat, and small museums, markets, local flavor.
Or should we skip that part of Belgium and just head back to Brussels and explore there and Brugee?
Thanks for any suggestions!
Posted by
IJzendijke, The Netherlands
1968 posts
Besides a visit to Bruges you can go to Bokrijk, a lovely open air museum between Hasselt and Genk. In nearby Tongeren, if you like history the Gallo-Roman museum, the main square there is nice for a drink. Verviers is not that far from the German and Dutch border, interesting are Aachen, Monschau and Maastricht. With a bit of luck, if of interest there are races going on at the famous Spa-Francorchamps racetrack. The racetrack museum is in nearby Stavelot.
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
7270 posts
Besides the good suggestions from Wil, I have heard that Maastricht is very attractive, but I haven't been there. Aachen is good for a full day if desired. Hasselt, Diest, and Tienen have small but attractive medieval centers and could be all done in one day with a car. Bokrijk is excellent, and has its own train station. I keep mentioning trains because you want to see Calatrava's Liege station, if only from the carriage steps during a stop there. Not much else in Liege. I like Cologne very much, and 85% of it (more than one day's worth) can be walked from the train station.
Brugge is relatively far away. I know that everyone will ask you "Did you go to Brugge?", but to me it makes no sense to go that far and miss Antwerp, Gent, Brussels, and Leuven. Note that cars are a hinderance inside all the real cities, and traffic can be annoying. Do not drive to Brugge from Verviers.
Although it is not remotely correct that Monschau and Brugge are comparable, the car makes Monschau easy and you will not meet many Americans who have been there-despite its high attendance figures. There are Germans who don't know it.