Best Brussels Activities to Try
Skip the chocolate boutiques on the tourist strip for a minute and go find the beer that’s still brewed the way it was in 1900. That’s the Brussels move: this city rewards people who dig one street past the postcard.
Start at a working brewery, not a beer bar
Brasserie Cantillon (Rue Gheude 56, Anderlecht, five minutes’ walk from Bruxelles-Midi) is the last traditional open-coolship lambic brewery still operating in Brussels proper. Spontaneous fermentation, wild airborne yeast, the whole 19th-century process running exactly as it did a century ago. A self-guided tour with a tasting booklet and three pours runs €15 for adults, free under 16. It’s open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 10:00-17:00, last entry 16:00, closed Wednesdays and Sundays, so plan around it, and book online because weekend walk-in slots are rare. Reserve a Brussels beer tour on GetYourGuide if you’d rather have a guide walk you through the wider scene first.
For a lower-key crawl, Moeder Lambic Fontainas (Place Fontainas 8) pours 40+ craft taps and a serious lambic cellar list at €4.50-9.00 a glass, open daily from late morning to 01:00. Delirium Café (Impasse de la Fidélité 4A) is worth a 20-minute look for its Guinness World Record bottle list, but it’s loud and a known pickpocket zone: don’t linger with your bag open. Brussels Beer Project on Rue Antoine Dansaert does modern experimental brewing if you want something newer.
Hunt the Marolles flea market
Place du Jeu de Balle in the Marolles runs a genuine, 365-day open-air flea market (the Vieux Marché), 06:00-14:00 on weekdays and until 15:00 on weekends. Thursday and Friday mornings pull the serious vintage dealers before the crowds; Saturday and Sunday are louder and more chaotic but fun to wander even if you buy nothing. It’s free to browse.
Follow the comic murals
Brussels invented the Franco-Belgian comic and it shows on the walls: more than 60 large-scale murals of Tintin, the Smurfs, Lucky Luke and Gaston Lagaffe are painted on gable ends across the Pentagon, part of the self-guided Parcours BD. The core cluster sits around Rue de l’Étuve (Tintin), Rue du Marché au Charbon (Broussaille) and Rue de l’Écuyer (Gaston Lagaffe), a free, 24-hour open-air museum you can do in an afternoon.
Practical notes
The city center is hilly and cobblestoned, so wear real shoes, not sandals. Sunday evenings go quiet fast as neighborhood shops shutter early. For the official word on hours and events, check visit.brussels .
Pair a brewery visit with the sightseeing highlights for a full day, or if you’re building a longer stay, look at the 3-day Brussels itinerary for how to sequence it all.
One tip that saves a wasted trip: check Cantillon’s booking calendar before you leave your hotel. Wednesday and Sunday closures catch more visitors out than any other Brussels scheduling quirk.