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Which of these two places within Brussels center would you recommend?

Posted by on

Hi,
We are deciding between staying at the City Box Brussels hotel on Rue dejoncker, or in a private room at generation Europe youth hostel on rue de l’elephant.
Is one of these neighborhoods safer than the other? There is a notable price difference.
We are a family of four with two middle school children. We have never stayed at a hostel before.
They are similar distance in opposite directions to Grand Place and midi train station.
We plan to walk to the train stations and Grand place.
Are these areas and most of Brussels safe to walk during early mornings and early nights?

We will take day trips to Bruges and Antwerp. Are train tickets and Metro tickets easily purchased from the train stations with US credit cards?

Thank you so much.

Posted by
101 posts

Hi rqsteele, no question, I would go for Rue Dejoncker hands down. I know it because we regularly stay around the corner at Citadines Toison d'Or on Av Toison d'Or. It is a side street near the Louise metro / tram stop, with a small supermarket there (Delhaize Proxy), and a restaurant street at Rue Jourdan and also a bit on Rue Jean Stas and Rue Dejoncker itself. There are also other accommodations close by. The Louise district is upscale but out of the main tourist area which is in the centre of the city. We never find this a problem as the metro is excellent and you can walk to quite a few attractions from there.

The youth hostel you describe is in an area called Molenbeek. It is downmarket especially compared with Louise, and on the other side of the canal which means you can't walk to Dansaert or Ste. Catherine as easily. It is also not as close to the metro as City Box is to Louise. I don't know your exact accommodations but I would prefer to stay in Louise over Molenbeek any day.

Lavandula

Posted by
101 posts

About the metro - yes, you can buy a Mobib card and load it up with ten-journey tickets, inside Louise metro. Tickets are good for metro, tram, bus. You can also just use your credit card to tap on, on any of those forms of transport, for a similar price or slightly more.

With the trains - you can buy them on an app on your phone, or at the stations directly. There should not be an issue with your credit card, but we use a Wise account when travelling overseas, for pretty much everything except for cab fares.

Lavandula

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