For E’s first transatlantic adventure, we took a family trip to Belgium and Luxembourg. These little countries generally don’t get a lot of attention from American tourists. However, despite their small size, they pack a significant punch. I described the process that led us to choose Belgium and Luxembourg in a previous post. In this post, I’ll provide an overview of our adventure.
Destination Belgium:
Belgium and neighboring Luxembourg’s geographical positions have placed them at the center of many pivotal moments in Western Europe’s history. During medieval times, the region served as a buffer zone between the French and Germanic empires. Even to this day, Belgium is a divided nation with separate governments for the French, Flemish and German speaking regions. That has resulted in a rich history, interesting cuisine and a wealth of castles.
More recently, Belgium hosted Napoleon’s downfall at Waterloo, the bloody trench warfare of WWI, and Nazi Germany’s final offensive strike during WWII’s Battle of the Bulge. Battlefield buffs will have plenty to keep them busy.
Meanwhile, nature lovers will find great hiking, beautiful rolling hills, and some internationally impressive caves. Among the many reasons to to consider a trip, four factors made this an amazing destination for us:
#1 Castles
Belgium and Luxembourg were two of the most heavily fortified countries on the continent in the days of old. As a result, castle enthusiasts have a wealth of options to choose from. Because we were traveling with a six month-old, we were a little limited in what castles we could access. Still, we managed to visit a mix of ruins, restored medieval castles, and palatial chateaus on our trip.
In fact, the highlight of our trip was spending two nights in our very own castle tower in the Ardennes. That’s right, in Belgium it’s not just possible to visit a castle; you can also book an affordable night in one. While searching for information about Belgian castles I came across this useful site that I’d recommend. The author reviews castles in a number of countries.
#2 Belgian Beer
Sarah and I enjoy a pint, and world famous Belgian beers are ubiquitous and inexpensive throughout the country. While America has only embraced the “micro-brew” culture within the last 15 years, Belgium has a long history of local brewing that goes back to the medieval monasteries. Here are a few significant differences that I noticed to the US beer scene:
- Belgian beers run strong. Most seem to clock in between 6-9% alcohol, so go slow;
- Most breweries are closed to the public, so don’t expect to go on a lot of brewery tours;
- Breweries tend to produce a limited line of excellent traditional beers. While there are a few new micro-brewery joints that are beginning to experiment, they are the exception rather than the rule;
- IPAs are only starting to take off in Belgium, and oddly enough, they tend to be lower in alcohol than their American equivalents;
- When going to a restaurant or bar, most beers will be served in their own distinct glass, making it possible to glance around a bar and see what everyone is drinking based solely on the type of glass they have.
#3 Belgian Cuisine
Talk about comfort food. The meals we ate tended to be meat heavy with plenty of French style sauces. This is no place to keep to a diet. Think bowls of steamed mussels or stewed beef served alongside a mountain of excellent Belgian fries. I’m talking potatoes fried in actual animal fats. They are kind of a national obsession. Some fast food joints serve fries and nothing else in large paper cones.
I also had perhaps the best steak I’ve ever eaten while in Brussels. It wasn’t beef, either. It was horse. I’ve had slivers of raw horse in Japan and chunks of tough, overcooked gray horsemeat in Mongolia, but this was a whole new experience. Apparently the restaurant sources its horse from a farm that raises the animals for meat. It was extremely tender and cooked rare in butter. Unbelievable.
#4 The Belgian Summer Climate
Summer in Nashville can be brutal. While on our trip, the highs in Nashville averaged in the mid 90s. That made the crisp 60 degree mornings in Belgium and Luxembourg all the sweeter. Granted, we were running a bit of a risk – just a month before, the country was hit by a record heat wave. Because of the region’s typically mild summers, air conditioners are few and far between, so a heat wave is a bit more problematic than it would be in the American south. By and large though, you can expect pretty ideal weather in August. It was like jumping ahead to the early fall.
Booking Our Family Trip to Belgium
The flight
These days I try to avoid paying cash for airfare whenever possible. Even award tickets incur taxes and fees, though, and things can get tricky when booking an international award flight with a lap infant. That’s because most airlines charge a portion of what they estimate as the “cash price” for a seat in order to add a lap infant. Some airlines make you call to book a lap infant, so if you’re booking an award ticket online, you’re a bit in the dark as to want the lap infant will end up costing. United takes the mystery out of the process by allowing you to price out the lap infant ticket using their website.
After shopping around a bit, I snagged two economy award tickets from Nashville to Brussels and back with a single transfer for a total of 120K United MileagePlus miles. I transferred those miles from my stockpile of Chase Ultimate Reward points, and I opened up a Chase MileagePlus card just before booking in order to get access to the expanded award space that United offers cardholders.
The initial routing included a 3.5 hour layover in Chicago on the way to Brussels, but I was able to take advantage of a United schedule adjustment to change our flight (for free) to a route with a mere 90 minute connection. Granted, the actual travel experience ended up a bit worse than planned but thats a tale for another post.
Ground Transportation
Traveling with a kiddo means that we have to pack a lot more stuff than we did in our kid-free days. I used to pack for a short trip like this in a single carry-on sized backpack, but those days are gone. Hence, we opted to use a rental car in order to better transport the travel crib, stroller, car seat and all the other bulky stuff that comes with a little baby.
Luckily, rental cars are pretty cheap in Belgium. We ended up getting a Mini Cooper Countryman for a week for less than $250. It even came equipped with a great navigation system. The rental desk tried to up-sell us to a larger car, but the Mini was actually bigger than most cars on the road. We turned them down.
Accommodation
We divided our trip into two parts. The first week we used the rental to zip around the countryside before ditching it for a bit of city living in Brussels during our final three nights. The rental combined with our loose schedule gave us a lot more freedom in where we could stay than if we were traveling by public transportation. When booking accommodation we (and especially Sarah) paid close attention to places that would be manageable with a baby. As a result, some of the cheaper options needed to be nixed but we were generally able to keep to about $100 per night.
Overview of Our Family Trip to Belgium
Night #1: Bouillon, Belgium:
We chose the town of Bouillon, Belgium, because of its epic medieval castle and the fact that it was roughly en route to Luxembourg. We booked the Hotel de la Poste on hotels.com both because the price was right and because I was attracted to its history. It once hosted Emperor Napoleon III. What I failed to do, though, was to research the festival schedule in the town. We arrived near the end of a weekend long medieval festival. Talk about a parking nightmare.
Festival aside, Bouillon was a magnificent place to spend a night. Located just north of the border with France, this pretty little town is built around a loop in the Semois River and watched over by a massive fortress. The castle’s greatest claim to fame is as the former residence of Godfrey of Bouillon. Godfrey went on to become the first crusader to rule Jerusalem after selling his castle in the 11th century to finance the campaign..
Nights #2 & 3: Luxembourg City:
On day two we paid a quick visit to the Orval Monastery and the Aldi grocery store on our way to a large apartment that we booked via AirBnB in the outskirts of Luxembourg City. We went the AirBnB route since most of the hotels were rather expensive and charged for parking. Beyond that, food is pretty pricey in Luxembourg, so booking our own apartment allowed us to self-cater. In the end, we avoided dining out at all while in the Duchy.
Luxembourg was a fascinating place to visit, so much so that it deserves its own blog post…which will eventually get written.
Nights #4 & 5: The tower of a castle in the Belgian Ardennes:
Guess what? AirBnB has a filter that allows you to limit a search to castle stays. Early on in my research I was playing around with the filter and came across a listing for the central tower at Chateau de Froidcour. This place looked awesome, so we decided to build our trip around its availability. It was the most expensive place that we stayed, but the castle and its grounds were more of a destination than place to crash. We paid using a Barclay’s Arrival Plus card and “erased” the fees using a sign-up bonus we’d gotten with the card. This was definitely the highlight of the trip and will get its own blog post.
Night #6: Maastricht, Netherlands:
Our sixth night was kind of a filler night between our castle experience and our move to the capital. I wanted to visit a small village in the Netherlands the next day (to be reviewed later) so we opted to spend the night in Maastricht. Neither Sarah nor E had visited the Netherlands before, and the city sounded nice. Sarah found a semi-private apartment in an AirBnB and made the booking. Maastricht was a fine enough place to visit, but the crowds were a bit overwhelming. I’m also not a huge fan of driving through cities. I ran at least one confusing red light, but the rental company never dinged me with a fine, so I guess there wasn’t a traffic camera.
Nights #7-9: Brussels (and Ghent)
We opted for Brussels instead of the more touristic Bruges for our last few nights in part so that we’d be near the airport. A great thing about visiting Brussels in August is that, due to a decrease in business traffic, most hotels actually switch to low season pricing. That made them a more attractive option than the AirBnBs. I chose Hotel Hubert which is located near the iconic Grand Place. The pot was further sweetened when I signed into the hotel’s website using my Facebook account and scored a further 20% off the listed price. Hotel Hubert was great, with a nice lounge area that provided free espresso to guests all day long. It made for a great place to hang out during the baby’s naps.
On our eighth day in Belgium, we hopped a train (baby’s first train!) to Ghent. We met up with a fellow who’d couch surfed with us several years back when passing through Nashville. It ended up being a really nice day, with a local to guide us around to his favorite spots. This included the escape room (top rated in the city) that he’d started with some business partners a couple years back.
Our final full day was spent in Brussels, which is a fine enough city to kill some time in: good food, good beer, and loads of pretty architecture.
Final Take and Costs
Belgium ended up being a great destination for or first transatlantic trip with baby E. It was clean, safe, and easy to move around with plenty of sites.
The total cost of the trip would have been about $5K for our family, but we were able to knock that down to roughly $2250 thanks to some “travel hacking.” Basically, I transferred Chase Ultimate Reward points to United in order to book the tickets and used points that Sarah got as a sign-up bonus on her Barclay Arrival Plus card to shave close to $600 off the accommodation bill. The rough breakdown is as follows:
- Airline Tickets: 120K United Points + $260 taxes and fees
- Rental Car: $234
- Gas & Parking: $95
- Ubers & Public Transport: $152
- Accommodation: $1044 ($456 out of pocket)
- Groceries: $110
- Restaurants & Bars: $475
- Entrance Fees: $64
Our out of pocket costs came to $225 per day (including the travel day there) for a family of two and a half. That’s way more than I would have spent traveling solo but not bad for a fancy family trip to Belgium.
I loved all the info about the history of the locations.