Brussels highlights & beer tasting

Combine Brussels’ two biggest draws — history and beer — on this five-hour walking tour. You’ll get the chance to explore the often-extravagant buildings of historic Brussels, while also stopping to try the distinct beers of Belgium, such as lambic, gueuze, kriek and Trappist.

You’ll see Grand Place, Brussels’ busiest square, packed with ornate buildings and historic houses, such as the former home of Victor Hugo. You’ll also head to Place de la Bourse, the site of the former stock exchange building that’s built in a grand neoclassical style with ornate carvings on the façade. Your guide will also bring you to the Royal Galleries, an 1847 pedestrian shopping arcade designed with royalty in mind.

Your Audley-exclusive tour also includes well-known breweries such as Cantillon and Delirium Café, as well as a couple local taverns.

This five-hour tour begins in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges or Liège. If you’re already in Brussels, you’ll meet your guide at the hotel. If you’re coming from another city, you can either travel by train and meet your guide at the station, or by private driver. It combines historical highlights of the nation’s capital with interesting and hard-to-find local beers for a unique walking tour. The exact order of the tour depends on the time of day, but you’ll still hit all the same sites.

Your guide will take you to Grand Place, the central market square in Brussels and widely considered one of the most beautiful in Europe. The square is surrounded by guild houses that showcase ornate 17th-century architecture, with gleaming gold accents and lavishly designed gables. You’ll also find the former home of Victor Hugo, the King’s House and the house of the Dukes of Brabant.

You’ll also visit Place de la Bourse, the square named for the former stock exchange building that can be found there, featuring ornate carvings on the façade and an impressive neoclassical entrance. You’ll then see the Royal Galleries, an enclosed pedestrian street comprised of a long row of glazed shopping arcades under an arched glass roof that date back to 1847.

As you make your way around town, you’ll periodically stop to try one of Belgium’s beers. Visit Cantillon, one of the city’s best-known local breweries that brews traditional lambic-style beers, as well as Delirium Café, which serves 40 beers on tap and is owned by Huyghe Brewery, the company that created Delirium Tremens.

You’ll also make stops at two smaller local taverns, where you can try gueuze (a brew that blends lambics of different ages) from traditional clay jugs.

This tour is available year-round and any time during the day, however the tastings do depend on opening hours. The tour is also able to be tailored to your interests and can be longer or shorter than the five hours depending on what you’re looking for.