Introduction

Travelling with my friend this time, we spent a booming 5 days in this capital city and succeeded in well and truly exhausting ourselves taking it all in. We walked the length of the city centre a couple of times, not to mention climbing the stupidly steep, thin, winding stairs of our hotel at least twice a day.

Flights and Price

So, we booked a trip to Brussels for 4 nights, with return flights to Edinburgh. Nothing fancy, nothing flash, pretty standard. I used an app called Kiwi to book our flights. In fact, I’d never used Kiwi before and so that was interesting (jump to section on Kiwi). There was a first-use discount code of £8 which made our flights cheaper here than on other sites.

Our outbound flight was on the 12^th December at 10am from Edinburgh to Brussels CRL and our return flight was the 16^th December at 7:20pm from Brussels CRL back home to Edinburgh. Flight time for both legs was around 1 hour and 45 minutes. Overall, we paid £75 for these flights for two passengers, no baggage or priority.

You can check in with Ryanair from 24 hours before departure, unless you purchase their upgraded packages. You can also specifically pay for a certain seat. I don’t see the point in paying for a seat for a short journey and so I leave it to chance. And this time, the two of us got split up and placed in middle seats miles apart. No big deal, it’s only for one hour and 45 minutes.

However, I swear it used to be longer than 24 hours in advance when you could check in with Ryanair. Am I getting confused – feel free to let me know in the comments!

Our hotel we booked on Expedia and for a twin room, for four nights, we paid £225.63. Jump to the Accommodation Evaluation section to read more about our hotel experience. Spoiler: I don’t necessarily recommend this one.

Getting to Edinburgh Airport

If you’re travelling from Edinburgh city centre, you can get the 100 Airlink Bus. Then again, if you live in the north of Edinburgh as I do, the 200 Airlink Bus may be better suited for you. I jumped on the 200 Airlink Bus (at 7:25am in this case) for a price of £8 return (price correct as of Feb 2024). To clarify, this return ticket does not have an expiry date, so even if you snag a lift for your return journey, you can keep to use again in the future!

Don’t forget an Edinburgh Airport pro tip: take an empty water bottle with you and fill it up at the free water fountains once passed security! Saves you money and reduces waste simultaneously! I also always bring sandwiches to munch on the plane.

Brussels Airport to the City Centre

We found Brussels CRL airport to be fairly intuitive and simple to navigate. Security was hassle-free and fairly quiet and once you’ve exited the baggage claim, you want to turn right. You will see a sign and times for the Flibco bus. You then leave through the doors, and follow the crowd to the right, out of the airport gates and take a left.

While it may be true that I am a big believe in getting the best price, I decided this time to purchase the tickets in-situ at the airport and experience first-hand the ticket process. After all, how can I tell you lot about it, if I’ve not done it myself? Indeed, I have some learnings to share which may help you to save a couple of ££.

Firstly, there is no price advertised anywhere until you get to the self-service machines at the Flibco ticket point. The price on the machines was 19,95€ per person. The online price is currently (as of Feb 2024) 18,99€. The tickets are valid all day, so you’re not tied in to a specific shuttle. Supposedly this is in the event that you have a flight delay or something, which is pretty useful.

Secondly, you cannot pay with cash: it’s card only at the machines. To pay by cash, there is apparently a Flibco staff member inside the terminal. We did not seek them out, rather we paid by card. Check with your bank for any applicable foreign currency fees, so you can see which option is best for you.

Once paid, we waited in a rather primitive tent-like hut and queued for a canny while. It took one hour to get to Brussels Midi station and where the bus drops you off, there is no specific stop. Rather, it feels you are dumped at the side of the road.

Brussels City Centre to the Airport

All in all, we had planned on just getting the Flibco bus back from Brussels Midi as we were exhausted from our trip and thought it would be easier. However, as we approached the Flibco Bus Stop (nothing but a small sign), a taxi driver approached the queue to offer services. I must admit, I was sceptical at first, but with the promise of a quicker transport time, and a cheaper price, I gave in and accepted the new plan.

By comparison, the taxi was indeed quicker and cheaper. We paid 15€ per person and there were 8 spaces in the taxi: all filled. Given that the taxi was full, and it’s a relatively small space, you were kind of crammed up against your fellow taxi-taker. That being said, your luggage was stored in the boot and the journey time was shorter than the bus, albeit it was still ~30 minutes.

In conclusion, I’d say the risk paid off and it was worth it to take that taxi.

Flight Booking Tool

The first thing to remember is that I always compare prices to get the best deal. In this case, Kiwi was the better price as it offered the first-time user discount code. Offering an £8 discount, we paid £75 in total for two passengers, Edinburgh to Brussels return flights.

Accommodation Evaluation

What was downright criminal, was the gross and disgustingly used fork we found in the wardrobe of the hotel room. Not a sentence I’d thought I’d ever write, honestly.

As I said, we booked the hotel via Expedia and I guess we got what we paid for. In fairness, it was one of the cheapest options where we could confirm a twin room. As I was travelling with my friend and not my partner, a twin room was a must.

The location of the hotel was pretty good, being just a stone’s throw from the Brussels Midi train station and we could walk to the city centre and the main square within 15-20 minutes. The area was pretty urban, on the outskirts of the centre and so I would advise caution when roaming around late at night. Some shopkeepers spoke about individuals frequently trying to pay with stolen bank cards who may possibly turn violent. I cannot, however, say that we encountered any unruly characters during our stay.

The first hotel room we were given was crap. And that’s an understatement. There were stains and marks all over the walls, the glass-topped side table was cracked in two, the floor was in complete disrepair with gaping holes and plugging a charger into the one working socket made the lights flicker. Another socket was quite simply hanging out the wall. Holy smokes, almost literally. Ben found what appeared to be a few crumbs of greasy batter in the bed (we were checking for bed bugs after the recent Europe epidemic late last year)… and when I turned to the wardrobe, I saw dirty, greasy smears and crumby handprints all over the doors. And inside….

A FORK. A motherforking dirty grease-ridden fork. Sitting there, looking at me, like butter wouldn’t melt. Well, that was it: I went downstairs in a disgusted whirlwind to request with great insistence another room as this was clearly not fit for human habitation.

Consequently, we were indeed given a second room which was at least habitable. And fork-free. The floor was still needing attention, but you could smell the cleaning products as soon as you walked in. So, you knew at least it was clean. Even the WiFi deigned the room acceptable enough to make an appearance. So yeah, watch which room you get!

In-Depth Itinerary

Using VisitACity, which I do recommend (although watch the entrance timings and fees as this information isn’t always up to date – I’m not affiliated), I planned a busy and packed itinerary for our 5 days in Busy Brussels.

Following this itinerary, we were absolutely exhausted. Undeniably, however, we felt we had seen SO much. In later volumes, I’ll go more into what worked, what didn’t, and my overall impression of the site or activity on the itinerary. Spoiler alert: there was only one visit we didn’t get to see properly, due to timing.

At any rate, I love a good colour-coding, so the below, busy itinerary is colour-coded to show which attractions were included with, or were discounted/benefited by, the Brussels Card. What is a Brussels Card, you ask? Click here, or have some patience and read on…

Brussels Card

To begin with, I am very happy I found out about this wee card. I would say on the whole it saved us a CHUNK of money.

I actually bought our 72-hour ones with additional Atomium visit on Tiquets in advance of going, although at the time of writing this (way later than I should be…), they don’t seem to sell it anymore. You can, however, buy it through the official website and find out all the info: Visit Brussels.

Basically, you buy the card and that automatically gives you free entrance to a whole bunch of museums across Brussels; and busy Brussels is teeming with them! Not only that though, you also get discounts and freebies from other retailers and tours in the city.

Highlighted on the itinerary above, you will see “Chez Leon”, “La Brouette” and “Mini-Europe”. Even though Mini-Europe is an attraction, we didn’t get it free with the card, but a discounted ticket fee. For the restaurants, we got a free drink in “La Brouette” which was worth around 10€ per person: the price of a beer in Grande Place. We enjoyed 15% off the bill in Chez Leon too, which likewise is a bonus.

A 72-hour card is truly a 72-hour card. It’s not valid by calendar days, but by the hours. I proved this by pushing our itinerary to activate the card at the Army and Military History Museum at around 3pm on Day Two, to entering our last Brussels Card attraction, 70.5 hours later at around 1.30pm.

12 Attractions free-entry, pre-paid discounted Atomium entrance, 2 Restaurants and 1 Attraction with discounts.

In December 2023, we entered 148€’s worth of attractions for the price of our 61€ Brussels Card:

Beer Artifact Museum – 8€, Atomium – 17€, Belgian Beer World – 17€, Chocolate Museum 13€, Porte Hal – 7€, City of Brussels – 10€, Coudenberg – 10€, Royal M. Fine Arts – 10€, Army and Military History – 11€, Fashion and Lace – €7, Comic Strip – 13€, Musical Instruments – 15€, Belvue – 10€. In conclusion, I’d say we saved over 100€ each using the Brussels Card. Not sure we’d have included some of the attractions in our itinerary without the card, it must be said…. but it’s still an impressive saving. Undoubtedly worth it.

Thanks for reading about the plans, now see how it all panned out… in Volume Two! I’ll spill everything that happened in the first three days of our trip, for better or for worse, and show you some brilliant Belgian beer, buildings and busy bustle! Say that five times fast!