6 of the best road trips in Belgium

11.06.2024 - 13:15 / lonelyplanet.com

Jun 10, 2024 • 12 min read

Chips, chocolate and the world’s best beers are just the start in Belgium, which packs several of Europe’s most enthralling historic cities into the borders of this compact country. 

It’s hard not to be entranced by the majestic Grand Place of Brussels, the quirky brilliance of Ghent, the fashionably reinvented Antwerp, and the dreamy canals of Bruges. 

However, all of those big-hitters work determinedly to keep cars out, using low emission zones (LEZ), limited parking and deliberately confusing one-way systems to frustrate drivers.

It’s best to visit those cities by public transport – park and ride is well-organized. Save your vehicle to discover a whole gamut of less prominent Belgian marvels where having wheels is contrastingly ideal. 

Distances are relatively short, and what makes things interesting more than the sometimes-forgettable scenery is the close-packed attractions that driving your own vehicle allows you to access.

Here’s our guide to the best road trips in Belgium.

Best for Napoleonic history
Waterloo to Waterloo; 20km (13 miles); one long day

On June 18, 1815, the most famous battle in European history was fought on sloping, rain-soaked fields some 5km (3 miles) south of the Belgian town of Waterloo.

Brussels was “saved” from re-capture by the French and the battle marked the final defeat of Napoleon, who till then had been seen as the greatest military leader of the era. Even today, the term “meet one’s Waterloo” means to encounter one’s ultimate obstacle and be defeated by it.

The fields on which nearly 50,000 died on that single day are now marked by numerous monuments, most famously the Lion Mound, a 43m (140ft) tall conical hill topped by a 2-tonne bronze lion. 

Beside it is a fabulous, subterranean visitor center that could occupy you for hours, explaining facets of the battle and its context. Having a car lets you combine this with several other battle-related sites, with Waterloo as the starting point. 

From the visitor center, it’s 1.2km (0.7 miles) to Mont St-Jean farmhouse, a mini-museum about Napoleonic battlefield medicine. There’s a brasserie-restaurant at the farmhouse that’s far better than cafes at the main site. 

Another 3km (1.9 miles) south, past several more battle memorials, is Le Cailou, a museum in the house where Napoleon slept before the battle. From Le Cailou return north via Plancenoit, a small village with a memorial commemorating the heroic Prussian troops who saved the day in a lesser-known skirmish.

Finish the drive back to Waterloo. In the center of town is the former inn (now a museum) from which Wellington wrote home reports of his victory.

Planning tip: Parking is free at all the sites. Painfully slow buses do run from Brussels to