Classic City Tour of Brussels & Other Options
We will have a full (jet-lagged) day in Brussels plus most of the next day before boarding ship for May 2 Brussels-Amsterdam. Does the classic city tour with Tauck take you in any museums? Do you have time to browse in the market square? What should we be sure to do in our extra time?
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Tauck's website will provide a brief description of what the excursion covers. The Grote Markt—the central square—is a lovely place to explore even though Tauck will probably give you an orientation/architectural tour of the area. If I had stayed longer—I was only there briefly on a holiday market cruise—I would have liked to have toured the beautiful city hall.
We will be on the 4/12 tour but reading the description and knowing it is only 3 hours long, it is highly unlikely that any museums are included. In addition many or the great building such as the Royal Palace are not open to the public. If you are not to get lagged you can try to go Bruge or Ghent on your own. The Central station is a very short walk from the Hotel Amigo. You can also book at tour one or both days. On tour day one I am assuming that we won't need to be at the hotel until 230ish to get the provided transportation to the ship. We booked a tour with a tour company called WithLocals. We have used them before and they have a wide variety of tours in Brussels. Our tour ends at 1PM. You can always choose to make your way to the ship on your own if you choose a tour that ends later than the the hotel pickup time. If you are doing a private driving type tour outside of Brussels, they may be able to drop you of at the ship. If you are a museum person you can get your tickets online early such as the Museum of Fine Arts which is not far from the pre stay hotel.
Pam, there is a certain "science" to reading Tauck itineraries. If it says something like "a city tour" that means basically a drive/walk by not that you are likely to enter any of the buildings. If you're going to get a guided tour of a site it will say something like "a guided visit to the Red Star Line Museum". We're on one of the summer tours to this area and looking at the Hotel Amigo it seems to be in the heart of the pedestrian area very close to the Grand-Place/market square so we will be doing some exploring of that area on our own. Note: I edited this to correct Grand Palace to Grand-Place.
I wrote to the concierge at the Hotel Amigo and they sent me a wonderful list of fine dining suggestions for dinner on our pre-tour night. It certainly helped to narrow the long list on several sites. We are traveling April 15
It’s a very simple meal, but when in Brussels have mussels. They do really good mussels.
Yes, they do. I had mussels in Brussels at one of the food stands during the Yuletide holiday cruise. Absolutely scrumptious!
Randiespecter - After your tour please consider posting some thoughts about your trip, especially where you ate for your fine dining, pre-tour meal. We also enjoy having at least one formal dinner during pre-and-post tour days. It's a great way to begin and end a holiday.
We have also experienced some very nice pre-set menu meals with wine pairings at many of Tauck's hotels. I have not stayed at the Amigo, however. Have a wonderful journey.