I will be travelling through Benelux. My flight home is out of Brussels Intl. Any suggestions on what area to stay in my last night, and best transportation to the airport. Prior to this I will not be spending any time in Brussels.
Stay somewhere in central Brussels and get a train to the airport which are frequent and fast. If you want a really short distance from bed to train stay in a hotel near Centrale station - the areas close to the other two, Nord and Midi, are not pleasant.
We stayed at the Best Western Carrefour de l'Europe in Brussels on Marche Herbs street. It is a very short walk from the Centrale train station and the Grand Place so you could easily do a little sightseeing and find a decent restaurant nearby as well as catch your train back to the airport. I think the train trip was about 25 minutes and cost under 10 euros. edited to add: the area near the Carrefour is very safe, we walked around at all hours with no problems. Hotel Carrefour de l'Europe Rue du Marché aux Herbes, 110 Grasmarkt 1000 Brussels – Belgium
Phone: 011 32 2 504 94 00 Fax:011 32 2 504 95 00
For our one-night stay before our flight home, we stayed at Les Ecrins and thought it was great - we were upgraded to an apartment. The hotel is a 10 minute walk to the Grand Place, near the St. Catherine subway stop, and a 20 minute subway ride to the airport.