Today, we are moving on to the second city stop of my 3 week Europe tour with the train! Here is my guide to the perfect Brussels itinerary on how to spend 2 days in Brussels and what to do in Brussels!
I stayed in Brussels for 2 nights, getting there Sunday midday, and leaving Tuesday morning. So I spent approx. one and a half days in Brussels.
In this post, I will tell you the places I’ve visited and the places WORTH seeing. If you’re interested in how much money I spent or what foods to try, leave a comment below so I can write it for you!
I’ve done that kind of post for Paris and London, so if you are traveling to those cities as well, its worth checking out the posts.
Click here for Paris, and here for the London post.
[convertkit form=1700482]I added the locations of every place under the matching picture, so you get an idea of where things are located. I didn’t have this kind of Itinerary plan, so I walked waaay more than I needed to than if I knew where all my to-dos were located.
So, tip to you: Use the maps provided to make your own little route for your perfect Brussels itinerary!
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase via my link I get a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend things I use and love! That helps support this blog and makes it possible to provide free content for you! Thank you.Read my full disclosure here.
After checking in the hotel, we went to explore the city a little.
If you’re interested in what hotel I’ve stayed at: I booked it through booking.com (as always haha). This is NO promotion, I paid for my room! haha. But just in case you’re looking desperately for a hotel in your budget, I can recommend you mine here.
Want more Budget Travel Gadgets? Check out my RECOMMENDATIONS page!
Alright. Getting back to city exploration. I was dying to see the Grand Palace!
THE GRAND PLACE
This is the most famous place in Brussels City. There are tons of cafes and food places, but also lots of chocolate shops!
The first thing I’ve done is, of course, to eat a waffle!! I was looking forward to that the whole trip. And it was soooo good!
Next, we walked to the Palace of Brussels.
ROYAL PALACE OF BRUSSELS
The Royal Palace is a 14-minute walk from the Grand Place through the city. You can click the link under the picture below and get to the map!
I enjoyed the walk through the city so much. It’s so easy to get to places in Brussels! Except for the Atomium (I’ll get to that in a second), everything is in possible walking distance.
MANNEKEN PIS
This one is a must for everyone visiting Brussels! Honestly, I don’t really understand the hype, I just know it’s supposed to show the humor of Belgians. But well.
Anyway, there are so many people around!! So just go there, take your picture, and leave. haha.
There is also JEANNEKE PIS, the girl variation of the sculpture. If you wanna check that out too, IT IS HERE, just like the ZINNEKE PIS, the peeing dog, which you can find HERE.
Then it was already time for dinner. And it was my favorite dinner of this whole trip I think!
We went to the restaurant “Drug Opera” (Again, no promotion, just sharing my Brussels experience with you). I had a Belgian ragout with fries and a Belgian fruit beer! It was so delicious. Still dreaming about it…
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. One thing I noticed in Brussels was that all the shops closed by either 6 or 8 pm, and only opened at 10 am! So you might just spend your evening at restaurants or maybe walking the city or a park.
DAY 2
The next day, I headed out by myself to do some shopping (yeah, I needed new boots because my other pair broke!) And of course, I also grabbed a waffle for breakfast.
I personally felt really safe in Brussels, even when I went out by myself. I actually liked when I had some me-time. So for the solo travelers here, Brussels felt save to me! Part of that was maybe that it isn’t the most ginormous city ever, haha.
ATOMIUM
On our full Brussels day, we headed out with the metro to visit Atomium. Atomium was created for the same purpose than the Eiffel Tower! It’s basically just a huge Atom out of Aluminium, what it’s named after. Wow, what an explanation.
If you’re interested in going inside, you can get tickets here.
Right next to the Atomium, there is another fun attraction: Mini Europe!
I think it sounds super fun! It has a tiny Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Gondolas and more.
Get your ticket for the must-see here.
PARKS
The next thing we did was go through Brussels’ various city parks.
Parc du Cinquantenaire
This one was my favorite! It had plenty of space for all the people to do picnics, play soccer, volleyball and more. I would totally recommend to take your own snacks and make a picnic!
Not too far from that park are all the European Commission buildings! It’s worth a stroll around that area. Lot’s of business people and so different from the old city part of Brussels. I almost felt like in Miami!
Jardin Botanique
This one is a botanical garden. So if that’s your jam, it’s worth a visit!
Parc de Bruxelles
This is the main park of Brussels, like the name says already. It’s a pretty cool park, perfect to take a little break from all the walking and eat a snack! It’s also right where the Royal Palace is!
PALAIS DE JUSTICE
This is the Law Court of Brussels and looks pretty beautiful from the outside too. Definitely worth a stop.
ST MICHAEL & ST GUDULA CATHEDRAL
I discovered its towers from the distance and it totally made me think of the Notre Dame!
Another amazing must-see is the Notre Dame Cathedral Laeken. I just found out it existed after I left the city. But damn it’s beautiful! Go check it out! It’s near the Atomium.
FREEDOM QUARTER
This quarter of the city is in the center too, so it’s easy to get to! We discovered it by walking by.
Eglise Royal
I saw the top of this one from like 2 miles away and knew I wanted to go see it! So we walked and walked and walked..way longer than I anticipated. But we got there and it looked amazing!
The next thing we did was to actually buy chocolate, and not just walk in and out of stores. We also tried Belgian street fries and it was so good! There are many street food places all over Brussels, and all of them are equally amazing!
There are lots of great places to see and things to do in Brussels!
Whether you stay for one night or four, you wouldn’t be bored! And if you happen to see all of Brussels before you leave, you can visit Ghent and Bruges!
If you wanna check out more things to do in Brussels, or if you’re interested in Food and Tasting Tours, check out this website! They offer various tours and tickets for Brussels Attractions.
Now you know what to do and see in Brussels on your 2 day Brussels itinerary!
[convertkit form=1700482]Got more tips? Share in the comments!
Pin this post to save for later!
Until soon,
Brussels looks absolutely stunning, thanks for sharing these insights.
I loved being there! I am glad this helped you:)
Hey! I was just wondering if you could give me a rough price breakdown on the food and activities? because im on a bit of a budget when i go there. This was super helpful tho thank u!!
I actually tracked all my spendings haha. So what I spent is $198.50, including the hotel for 2 nights (which I split with another person though), Food, souvenirs like chocolate, and transportation to the Atomium (I walked to all the other places). I didn’t really do paid activities, so that is not included. Hope that helps!
Hey, just visited to see your 2 week itinerary, but as a Belgian teenager I was curious about what you thought of Brussels. Nice review! However, there is some history on Manneke Pis. Apparently he was a naughty boy who lived in Brussels during the Middle Ages. This is the part where it splits up in two “possible” stories. The first says that Brussels was being attacked by barbaric people and when they tried to blow up the city using a bomb Manneke Pis was the little boy who peed on the bomb to stop it from exploding. The second story says that he peed on the door of a witch. The witch was so angry that she cursed him, she thought that he should pee forever, and this is the reason why he is still peeing. Those stories likely didn’t happen though, but it’s still an iconic statue without people knowing the stories behind it.
I loved Brussels! And I didn’t know about the stories. They are interesting and maybe I would’ve enjoyed the statues more if I had some more background knowledge. Thank you!