Antwerp Hotels

I don't have hotel advice (I don't remember where I stayed, and I'm not sure I'd stay there again even if I had the info handy), but I'll just say that Antwerp was my favorite place in Belgium, so I compliment you on your choice to stay there. I did find that accommodations there are a bit pricey (since it mainly gets business travelers, I had more trouble finding a room there than in "tourist" Bruges, which had lots of reasonably priced choices).

This isn't a direct answer to your question but because Antwerp isn't a city that most people on this website would likely choose as a place to stay the night, allow me to mention the hotel where I stayed several years ago. Hotel Scheldezicht, a few blocks away from Groenplaats and very close to the river. Pluses: Cheap, decent location, and the rooms are huge... well, at least my room was big. Minuses: no lift, and the stairway had a strong odor of pee. Fortunately, the urine smell didn't seep into the room. PS- I'm not sure if it's available in the US, or if you could find it with English subtitles (unless you happen to understand Dutch), but if you want to see a good TV show based in Antwerp, see if you can find "Zone Stad".

I have not stayed there, but I inspected Hotel t'Sandt 03-232-93-90 Zand 17. The location is not as glamorous (although perfectly safe) but my wife's big company's Belgian employees like it. My wife prefers the Hilton, although it has less charm, if an even better location. I detest Radissons, but would you want to be in a big, safe, chain but right at the train station? Did you price De Witte Lilie? You will enjoy Antwerp!

Tim, Thanks for the tip. I've not priced De Witte Lilie, but I will. We certainly want to stay in the Town Centre or Old Town (I've forgotten the local phrase) and in a half-dozen Europe trips we've completely avoided all the US- or even Europe-based chains in favor of flavor and sort of 3-star comfort (always an en suite room and lately, at our age, a hotel with a lift) in classical or funky individually-owned older buildings. We always read the Rick books and have ended up in something less than half (maybe 1/3) of his recommended hotels; for us, the principal Rick's benefits are the focus on the "probably must see" sites and the best parts of town in which to locate so as to maximize our walking economy, e.g., in Rome in September 2011, we stayed about one and a half streets from the Pantheon and were able to walk to the Colisseum and environs and walk back from the Borghese Gallery.

"We certainly want to stay in the Town Centre or Old Town (I've forgotten the local phrase)" That would be 't Zuid.

We arrived in Antwerp by car one year without a hotel reservation and spotted the Rubens Hotel. Our lucky day! It is such a nice place and we could walk to the city centre easily. If I remember well, it had once been the residence of an archbishop.

Jim, the reason I mentioned the Radisson is only that you said you must have a lift. That suggests some mobility impairment, otherwise I would have stressed how walkable Antwerp is. I've regularly walked from the MAS to the Hilton, and from the Plantin-Moretus area to Het Steen. I have also walked with my roller-suitcase from the Hilton to the Centraal train station, when I was too cheap to take a cab, which is actually very affordable. If not for the lift requirement, I would concentrate on the charm of the hotel and neighborhood, not the location with reference to the old town. Also beware of slow lines to buy tickets from a human at the train station during business hours. Consider the ten-trip ticket that can be used by more than one person, even if you sometimes end up spending, say, 7 euros for a 5 euro journey. By the way, the Melkmarkt tram provides excellent connections between the train station and the cathedral area. The underground trams are also convenient, but not as much fun.

Tim, I should clarify the mobility issue. We are 75 and nearly so, and humping our bags up and down steps, and climbing steps over a five-night stay is a bit more of an effort than we'd enjoy, based on past experience; however our horizontal mobility is decent for our ages and we've spent a great amount of time walking around European cities and their cobblestones, most often in great mid-summer heat (before retirement we were limited to mid-Summer in our holiday scheduling by our jobs). In fact, in London we saw Romeo and Juliet at the Globe on the South Bank and walked from there to our flat in Knightsbridge and that's a bit of a hike.