Travel in Belgium

Meet Paul van Frank, a seasoned hotelier with 30 years of experience in luxury resorts worldwide. Known for his integrity, guest-centric approach, and adeptness in operations and sales marketing

The Air&Rail Terminal is open daily from 5:30 am until 6:30 pm. 

“Night trains are the future,” says Georges Gilkinet, Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Mobility.

Wildly creative in a refined way. That’s how a local Swiss journalist hailed Dutch chef Jeroen Achtien during his previous job. “Wildly creative” is one of those phrases that get thrown around a lot (guilty here), but in this case it’s apt. It’s what the chef is now doing in his native Netherlands, where he’s stepped into some pretty big shoes.

New photos and footage have emerged of the northern lights putting on a show in the background as a volcano erupts in the foreground.

You can now take a sleeper train directly from Belgium right through to the Czech Republic with European Sleeper's latest route expansion.

European travellers can now fall asleep in Brussels and wake up in Prague with the launch of a new sleeper train service.

Your next hotel room stay may not be as secure as you hope it is.A group of security researchers who were invited to a Las Vegas hotel to identify digital security vulnerabilities discovered a technique that would enable intruders to open “millions of hotel rooms worldwide in seconds, with just two taps,” according to a new report from Wired.The team of security researchers, who spoke with Wired, have dubbed the hotel room keycard hacking technique “Unsaflok.”It is based on what Wired describes as “a collection of security vulnerabilities that would allow a hacker to almost instantly open several models of Saflok-brand RFID-based keycard locks sold by the Swiss lock maker Dormakaba.”More than 3 million hotel room doors around the globe, throughout 13,000 properties in 131 countries, use these types of Saflok systems, per Wired.Hackers are able to exploit weaknesses in keycard's encryption and underlying RFID system, the article goes on to explain.

Brussels, long the realm of stuffy French restaurants packed with gray-flannel-suited diplomats, has suddenly gone bold and bright. Thanks to a crop of young chefs with iconoclastic ideas about flavor and sustainability, the city, in thrall to the rich sauces of Gaul for nearly two centuries, has emerged as one of the most exciting, and affordable, places to dine out in Europe right now.

In December and January, China brought in visa-free entry for citizens of seven European countries and Malaysia. 

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nadia Crevecoeur, a 26-year-old project manager from New York who traveled to and lived in many countries, including China, Portugal, Ireland, Germany, France, Denmark, and Italy, before moving back to the US in 2023. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

China has announced a 15-day visa-free entry for citizens of six additional European countries: Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

The table is set with a crisp white tablecloth, there’s a soft glow from a tablelamp and outside the window, snow-dusted trees are whizzing past at 120 kilometres per hour.

Air Botswana is the flag carrier of Botswana operating scheduled flights to domestic destinations such as Maun, Kasane, Francistown and Gaborone as well as regional destinations including; Cape town, Johannesburg, Lusaka and Harare.

Brussels’ cultural sector will also be participating in events, with a programme of LGBTQIA+ artists and projects in collaboration with Brussels Pride.

There’s a lot of money pouring into next-generation flight technology. This week, there was an investment into renewable jet fuel and a propulsion system for flying taxis.

Last year, my parents took their first-ever group tour to France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. You know, those tours where you share a coach bus with 30 strangers for a week, stop at popular tourist draws, stay in pre-arranged hotels, and go on guided city walks with bright orange audio boxes that might as well be “look at me, I’m a tourist” placards. I tried to dissuade them, offering to plan their entire Eurotrip myself, but they ultimately opted for the tour’s convenience and relative all-inclusiveness. Now they’re absolutely hooked, with two more tours under their belt this year.

The luxury hotel brand Rocco Forte Hotels recently combined its world-class hospitality with sustainable slow travel to create a modern-day “Grand Tour” of European cities by rail. The scenic vacation train package connects two of the most romantic cities in Europe: Edinburgh, Scotland, and Palermo, Sicily. It’s designed to let travelers indulge in an inter-rail experience while taking a deep dive into local cultural experiences at each stop.

Tenuta Licinia is a small boutique wine producer in Lucignano (Tuscany) that offers tastings and personalized tours of its vineyards and garden.

This spring, a first-of-its-kind tour is kicking off in Austin, Texas at SXSW Festival, a tour designed to showcase the power of small businesses in hospitality through cinema. Using a mobile pop-up vehicle and projector, hospitality software company eviivo Collective plans to spotlight “10 of the world’s best independent properties,” on outdoor screens through eight global cities: Austin, Belfast, Canterbury, London, Dusseldorf, Amsterdam, Brussels and Belgium via the eviivo Collective 2.0 World Tour.

If you’re keen to add some of Europe’s most exciting destinations to your list this year but would rather not fly, you’re in luck.