Underrated Belgian city Antwerp can be tackled as a day trip from Amsterdam, Brussels or Bruges. Here are five reasons why.
- For a range of tour options in Antwerp – some cycling, some foodie, some historic – head this way.
A city break in Belgium tends to mean either the gorgeous medieval streets and chocolate shops of Bruges or Brussels’ combo of beer bars and high quality museums. But for an alternative option, Antwerp has bags of relatively under-the-radar cool. And here are five things that make it unquestionably worth the visit, even as a day trip from Bruges, Brussels or Amsterdam.
Why visit Antwerp: One astonishing railway station
It’s worth getting the train into Antwerp just for what you walk through when you get off it. Antwerpen Centraal station is almost cathedral-esque – all marble pillars, circular windows and a sense of dress-to-impress grandeur. The long walk flanked by jewellers’ shops selling diamonds adds to that feel of a bygone age when train journeys were about far more than just getting from A to B.
Best Antwerp attractions: The Museum Plantin-Moretus
The first museum to be World Heritage-listed in its own right wasn’t the Louvre, or the Hermitage, or the British Museum. It was this extraordinary old building belonging to an Antwerp printing dynasty. The upper rooms of the Museum Plantin-Moretus – full of tapestry-lined walls, evocative antique furniture and a sizeable collection of Rubens portraits – are pretty special in themselves. But it’s downstairs where rows and rows of typesetting blocks and old printing presses line up that the real magic happens. The highlight is seeing the oldest printing press still in existence – a hugely important and influential piece of history.
The best thing to do in Antwerp? Red Star Line Museum
Having opened in autumn 2013 inside the trans-Atlantic shipping company’s former control room, the Red Star Line Museum tells the tale of the company that took millions of European migrants to a new life in North America.
But it’s the stories of the people that are far more exciting than that of the shipping line. Many gave up everything they had to buy a ticket, take a long, uncomfortable train journey across Europe and cross their fingers that they’d pass the medical examination that would let them set sail. For many, the dock at Antwerp – still a major port city – was the last they’d see of the old continent.
Fashion shopping in Sint Andries, Antwerp
The Sint Andries area to the south of Antwerp’s historical centre is one of the best places in the world for clothes shopping. In the late eighties, when half a dozen Antwerp designers took the world’s fashion scene by storm, the city was firmly placed on the world’s fashion map. The Antwerp Six led the way, but now the area’s streets are lined with indie boutique after indie boutique. Even if just window-shopping, there’s a distinctive creative energy here that most cities can’t begin to match.
Food and art in Het Zuid
The Het Zuid area, to the south of Sint Andries, is where those in the know head to in the evening. It has a much more cruisy, laid-back vibe, and many of the city’s best moochy bar terraces and high quality restaurants can be found here. Fiskebar is a great bet for affordably-priced seafood and a buzzy vibe, while the MHKA pulls off frequently challenging large scale art installations.
