Entry requirements | Organizing your trip | Visiting | Eating | Paying | Speaking |

Entry requirements

Passport and visa service

All information on the website of the Belgium Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Diplomatic representations

All Belgium embassies abroad

For more information

Embassy of Belgium in Greece
3 Sekeri
10671 Athens
Phone: +30 210 3617886-7, +30 2103600314-5
Fax: + 30 210 3604289
athens@diplobel.org

Organizing your trip

Means of transport recommended in town

Recommendation

Brussels has three Metro lines. You can buy travel cards for 1 or 5 days which are cheaper than paying for individual journeys. The main bus network is STIB/MIVB. You can buy a ticket for bus, metro and train journeys in the city with the same ticket. For details see the STIB website. In Antwerp, in addition to buses, there are trams.

Taxis are to be found near railway stations, or you can phone them or hail them in the street. They are quite expensive. There is a standard charge before you even start driving, then a specific rate per kilometer.

For further information about transport in Brussels, see the Easy Expat website; for Antwerp, see the Transport and Travel section on the University of Antwerp website.

Maps of urban networks

Brussels Metro map
Brussels Transport network maps
Maps of Belgian cities

Means of transport recommended in the rest of the country

Recommendation

The Belgian rail network was the first to be built on mainland Europe and is the densest in the world. Of course, density is far from uniform across the country because the recent trend has been to drop unprofitable lines. Efforts are generally being poured into large international routes, either completely electrified or in the process of being electrified.

The high-speed train network will comprise a total of 300 km of line, half of which will be newly converted to take speeds of up to 300 km/h.

There are no scheduled domestic flights in Belgium.

Rail companies

SNCB

Flight from Greece

One aircraft company operates direct flight from Athens to Brussels : Olympic Airlines, and companies like Alitalia, Lufthansa,, Swiss Air, Czech Airlines and Austrian Airlines operate regular flights from Greece to Belgium. For low cost company, check Virgin Express.To find out air connections from Greece to Belgium click here

Traveling by yourself

Recommendation

Belgium has a highly developed motorway network -the densest in the world. High-capacity motorways are centred around Brussels or cut across the country, such as the Wallonia motorway. The motorways are supported by a network of expressways.

Most of the motorways are part of European routes. They facilitate access to neighbouring countries and generally make it possible to travel easily from one town to another or to cross a region.

The toll-free highways are generally lit at night. A car insurance is compulsory. Road signs are written in Dutch in the Flemish part of the country and in French in the Walloon region. Be careful of the right of way. Trucks: be careful of the concentration of trucks in the border zone on Sunday evenings and especially in bad weather conditions, as well as in the hours preceding the time when trucks are not allowed to drive over the weekend in the countries surrounding Belgium (10.00 pm). It is advisable to have some Euros in case you need to pay a fine. If unable to pay immediately, vehicles that are registered abroad may be immobilised.

Road maps

Information sur les autoroutes

Find an itinerary

Mappy
ViaMichelin

Visiting

Different forms of tourism

Historical

- In Brussels: the Grand-Place, the Atomium (vestige of the 1958 World Fair)
- In Bruges: the Grand-Place and its Belfry, the canals
- In Ghent: the City hall, the Saint Michel Bridge, Saint Nicolas Church and the Belfry
- In Antwerp: the cathedral, the port.

Cultural

Belgium is not a homogeneous country with one national identity. As such, it is therefore difficult to give a general overview that applies to all Belgians. Each area will have its own particularities. The three predominant cultures are: 1) in the north, Flanders - primarily Dutch, 2) in the south, Wallonia - primarily French and 3) the northeast - primarily German influenced.

Nature

Coastal beaches
Ardennes forest

Religious

The religious heritage is huge. Further information can be found on the website Tourisme.be.

Thermal

Spa city and Ostend city. Find more information on Belgium Tourist Office.

Beach

A few km of beach only, which does not attract many foreign tourists.

Winter sports

Skiing in the Ardennes area.

Outdoor activities

In a protected natural setting, you can do numerous outdoor activities, from mountain biking to kayak and many more.

Shopping

Special purchases include ceramics and hand-beaten copperware from Dinant; Belgian chocolates; crystal from Val Saint Lambert; diamonds; jewelry from Antwerp; lace from Bruges, Brussels and Mechelen (Malines), woodcarvings from Spa and comic-strip books by a number of talented Belgian cartoon artists from Brussels.
Main shopping centers are located in Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Liège, Mechelen, Mons, Namur and Ostend.

Tourism organizations

Belgian Tourism Board
Tourism Promotion Board Wallonie-Bruxelles
Flanders Tourism Board (in Flemish)
Belgian Tourist Office

Eating

Food specialties

Belgian food is varied. There are numerous regional specialties. You will be able to enjoy some Waterzooi, tomatoes with gray shrimp, mussels in white wine, the famous Flemish carbonnades and you can finish your meal with one of those well-known waffels.

Belgian cuisine, which is related to the French one, but with some very distinctive touches, offers many dishes worth trying. A well-known speciality are the Belgian chocolates which are sold all over the world.
And then there is the national dish, "French" Fries ("frites"), which, according to legend, were invented in Belgium, not France, and which are supposed to be better here than in any other place in world.

For more information, see the Real Travel website.

Drinks

Belgium offers an incredible diversity of beers. The most well known mass-produced ones are Stella Artois, Duvel (literally: the Devil, beware, 8.5%!), Leffe, Jupiler (plain standard beer), Hoegaarden (white beer).
The names given to some beers are pretty imaginative: eg Verboden Vrucht (Forbidden Fruit), Judas, Delirium Tremens. Warmly recommended are also Kriek (sweet or sour cherry beer) and, for the Christmas season, Stille Nacht (Silent night).

Dietary restrictions

There are no particular food restrictions in Belgium.

Paying

Domestic currency

Euro

ISO Code

EUR

To obtain domestic currency

ATM, bank counter. Everywhere in town.

Possible means of payment

Cash, Cheque, Proton, Maestro, VISA, Amex, etc.

Exchange rate on

Automatic Teller Machines (ATM)

To find out the locations of ATMs in in Belgium, click on the link to your credit card: Visa, Mastercard or American Express

Speaking

Official language

Dutch, French and German. In Belgium, 5.6 million people speak Dutch, 3.5 million speak French and about 50,000 people speak German.

Other languages spoken

Indigenous languages, recognized since 1990, such as Walloon, and immigrant languages, such as Arabic, Spanish and Turkish.

Business language

French, German or English (common business language with Flemish people).

Getting some knowledge

In Flemish; in French.

Free translation tools

Google translation - Translation of words and web pages
Babel Fish - Free translator of texts and web pages from and to French and German
Leo - German-English-German dictionary
Systran - Free English-Dutch-English translator of texts and web pages
Freedict.com - Dutch-English-Dutch dictionary
Culture - Free Greek-Dutch-Greek translator
Babel Fish - Free Greek-French-Greek translator
Lexilogo - Free Greek-French-Greek translator
Lexicool - Free Greek-French-Greek translator

We can translate your foreign-language documents.

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Last updates: May 2012