7 Days in Antwerp: Your Belgium Base
Seven days extending the same spine as our 6 day version : Days 1 through 6 keep Mechelen, Ghent, Brussels, Bruges, a day back in Antwerp itself, and the coast at Ostend, and Day 7 crosses an actual border into Lille, France, about 1h30 away. Six day trips, two countries, and you still only unpacked once.
Book these before you go
- Hotel near Antwerpen-Centraal: check rates on Booking.com
- A Ghent and Bruges day tour from Antwerp: book on GetYourGuide
- A Brussels day tour from Antwerp: reserve via Viator
| Day | Day trip | Travel time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mechelen | 17-20 min |
| 2 | Ghent | Under an hour |
| 3 | Brussels | 45 min |
| 4 | Bruges | 1h25-1h35 |
| 5 | Antwerp itself | None, home base |
| 6 | Ostend / coast | About 1h35 |
| 7 | Lille, France | 1h30 fastest |
Day 1: Mechelen, the 17-minute warmup
Start easy. Mechelen is the shortest ride on this whole itinerary, as little as 17 minutes from Antwerpen-Centraal with trains running as often as every 8 to 15 minutes, so there’s no need to plan around a timetable. It’s the cheapest hop too, and the one nobody else seems to be doing, which is exactly the point.
Mechelen’s compact Gothic old town centers on St Rumbold’s Cathedral and its carillon; climb it if the tower’s open, or just circle the Grote Markt below for guildhouses that get a fraction of Antwerp’s own foot traffic. The whole center is walkable in half a day, so resist the urge to over-plan. Details at visitmechelen.be .
Ride back to Antwerp for the evening. Find a real cafe near the Grote Markt and order “een bolleke,” De Koninck’s amber Spéciale Belge served in its own round glass, with a paper cone of frites (EUR 3-5) from a stand-up frituur. Not a bad way to close a warmup day.
Day 2: Ghent, the calmer canal city
Ghent runs under an hour by direct train, typically 46 to 59 minutes depending on the exact service, and rewards the trip with the Gravensteen castle, the Graslei waterfront, and St Bavo’s Cathedral, home to the Van Eyck brothers’ Ghent Altarpiece, the Mystic Lamb. It’s also a working university city, so the crowds thin out fast once you’re a block off the main canal.
Spend the day on foot: the historic core is small enough to see most of it without a single bus or tram. Ghent draws noticeably fewer coach tours than Bruges, which is the real reason to put it here instead of the longer, busier trip. Current hours and the altarpiece’s viewing setup are at visit.gent.be .
Take the early evening train back to Antwerp rather than the last one; you’ll want energy left for dinner.
Day 3: Brussels, 45 minutes to the capital
Brussels is the easiest connection on the whole board: about 45 minutes from Antwerpen-Centraal, with direct trains roughly every 15 minutes all day. If you flew into BRU to start this trip, you’ll recognize the route; if not, it’s still the fastest way to feel like you’re in a genuinely different city from Antwerp.
Grand Place anchors the day, ringed by guildhalls and the Brussels Town Hall, with the Manneken Pis a short walk off it. Add the Magritte Museum for a couple of hours of Belgian surrealism, and the Atomium if you’ve got energy for one more stop; it’s further out but reachable by metro. Details and event listings at visit.brussels .
Catch an evening train back to Antwerp; the frequency here means you’re never really stuck waiting.
Day 4: Bruges, the long one done right
Here’s the correction worth knowing before you book: Bruges runs 1h25 to 1h35 from Antwerpen-Centraal, longer than the same trip from Brussels, so don’t treat it like the quick hop Mechelen or Brussels were. Give it the whole day and start early; Bruges is also the single most tourist-saturated stop on this itinerary, with coach and canal-cruise crowds peaking hard around midday.
Climb the 366-step Belfry tower before the queue builds, walk the Markt and the Rozenhoedkaai, and take a canal boat tour to see the medieval core from the water. You’ve already had the calmer canal-city experience in Ghent on Day 2, so let Bruges be the postcard version: busier, more photogenic, worth doing once. Current hours at visitbruges.be .
Take a later train back if you want to catch Bruges in the evening light once the tour buses clear out; the Belfry-lit Markt after dinner is a genuinely different, quieter place than the one you walked into that morning.
Day 5: Antwerp itself, the day you stay put
After four straight days on trains, Day 5 is the payoff for picking Antwerp as a base in the first place: no schedule to catch, just the Grote Markt’s guild houses and the Cathedral of Our Lady’s Rubens altarpieces, a two-minute walk apart in the historic center.
One correction before you go looking for more Rubens: his actual house, the Rubenshuis, has been closed since January 2023 and isn’t expected to fully reopen until around 2030, so the cathedral is your real Rubens stop this trip. Send the rest of the morning to the MAS museum’s rooftop instead; the panorama over the port and the Scheldt is completely free and one of the best no-cost views in Belgium. For the full depth of what Antwerp itself offers, our Antwerp city guide and its own 7 day itinerary go much further than one catch-up day can.
Close the evening with a proper sit-down Belgian dinner and a Bolleke somewhere in the old town; you’ve earned a slow one after four fast ones.
Day 6: Ostend and the Belgian coast
Ostend runs about 1h34 to 1h45 from Antwerp on roughly hourly trains, the longest single hop after Bruges, and it’s a completely different kind of day: North Sea beach and promenade instead of another old town. Go between May and September for the real payoff; it’s a weaker pick in winter unless a bracing off-season walk by the water is genuinely what you’re after.
Once you’re there, the Kusttram runs the entire length of Belgium’s coastline, so you can hop onward to the belle-époque resort town De Haan if the main Ostend promenade doesn’t fill the whole day on its own. Details at visitoostende.be .
Take a late-afternoon train back to Antwerp; six days in, you’ve now covered a Gothic warmup, two canal cities, a capital, a home base, and the sea, all without a rental car.
Day 7: Lille, France, crossing the border
Bring a passport or EU ID card today, not just a train ticket: Lille is the one genuine international trip on this whole itinerary, about 1h30 on the fastest direct service and up to 2 hours if your train needs a change. It’s also the lowest-priority stop on the list if you’re short on time, but the most different, since you’ll hear French, not Dutch, the moment you step off the platform.
Spend the day in Vieux Lille, the Flemish-French old town, and if your dates line up with a Sunday, don’t miss the city’s famous Braderie flea market, one of Europe’s largest. Details at en.lilletourism.com .
Take an evening train back to Antwerp for a final Bolleke and a last plate of moules-frites; seven days, six day trips, two countries beyond Belgium’s own borders, and one Antwerp hotel room the entire time.
Practical notes
Belgium runs on the euro, and Antwerp’s working language is Dutch (Flemish), not French, though both Brussels and, for a day, Lille flip you into French. Days 1 through 6 all run on SNCB domestic tickets bought same-day; Lille is the one leg worth booking a little ahead, since it’s an international service and seats can sell out on weekend departures.
Save Lille for last on purpose: it’s the only day that needs an ID check, and doing the five easier domestic trips first means you’ll have the timetable rhythm down before the one day that’s genuinely different.