Brussels travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

The TOP hotel of Brussels, located in the very posh Avenue Louise near Chanel, but a bit far from the tourist sights. Opened in 1993, the Conrad Brussels has preserved its magnificent 19th-century façade, giving it a unique charm.

 

 Conrad Brussels has 230 rooms and 39 suites, all furnished with rich fabrics and double-glazed windows. All guest rooms have double glazing, so you can enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep in this lively location. Satellite TV, 3 telephones, bathroom in black and white marble, with separate shower and bath.

 The grand style of the Conrad Brussels ballroom makes it an excellent venue for conferences and banquets.

 Newly opened Champneys health and fitness centre with 2500 square metres of stunning leisure facilities: swimming pool, spa bath and steam room, relaxation and six treatment rooms, sauna, solarium, gymnasium, dance studio, beauty studio, members lounge and juice bar.

Aspria Avenue Louise is a private member’s club offering a preferential rate to Conrad Brussels hotel guests aged 18 and over.

 

Now we introduce you with two of most popular French restaurants in Brussels, Belguim. The first restaurant which you offer is “The Comme Chez Soi”. The restaurant was founded in 1926, but today it is one of the most visited restaurants in the city. The restaurant’s name translates as “like at home”. It serves typically Belgian cuisine, based on local products. The restaurant’s most popular dishes are “Sautéed lobster with truffles and chanterelles” and “Roast saddle of lamb”. This distinctive menu and a wine list cans to satisfy any gourmet. If you want to dine on Friday or Saturday night, make your reservation two to three months ago… 

  

The second offer in our article is “L’Ecailler du Palais Royal” – one of the best fish and seafood restaurants in Brussels. It’s a favorite for many diplomats with its quality cuisine and a large selection of French wines. Specialties include, of course, the assorted fishes and seafood, such as “Scallop carpaccio with green Puy lentils”, “Encrusted smoked eels”, “Medaillion of roasted burbot”, etc. Average budget which you need is 50-60 €.

The Hotel Amigo is located in the heart of Brussels, next door to the historic Grand Place – one of the most beautiful squares in Europe, near enough to any number of shops, restaurants, the financial district, and even the Town Hall. This five-star accommodation and personal service, should ensure that you will have a pleasurable stay, whatever the reason for your visit to Brussels.
Hotel Amigo offers a variety of bedrooms and suites, which are individual in style including 174 bedrooms and 19 suites. Many have views over the ornate town hall and the rooftops and terraces of the city, in particular the 180 sq m. The hotel itself is sublime—a Spanish Renaissance building decorated with ancient Brussels flagstones, Magritte and Broodthaers prints. Blaton Suite which has its own roof terrace, two ensuite bedrooms, sitting room, and dining room for private entertaining. Good-sized bathrooms contain mosaic details in red or green to match their marble vanity tops, and figures of Herge’s characters Tintin, Snowy the dog and Captain Haddock enliven the walls with a touch of humor.

“Superb!”, said David Bowie following his stay.

Brussels is the capital of Belgium, as well as home of the European Union headquarters. There is a great deal more to the city than politics though, with other historic cities such as Antwerp and Bruges being only a short drive or train journey away. Located at the foot of the Atomium, Mini-Europe is the only park where you can have a whistle-stop tour around Europe in a few short hours. This is a fun introduction to Europe, miniature famous landmarks from countries throughout Europe – canals of Amsterdam, Big Ben in London, the Eiffel Tower, windmills of Spain, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, and more. Plus, jumbo ferries that go, trains zooming around, steer your own radio controlled boat through the miniature waterways of Europe.

A park in which you can find all the important monuments of Europe scaled down 25 times their original size. It was some kind of commemorative park for the EU. At a glance, they might look like thermocouple models, but closer look will reveal all the minute details being brought out in the model as in the original. They are made by sticking together small thermocole bricks. A time taking process. This truly brings out the architectural beauty of the original.

Mini-Europe is above all an “invitation to travel”. The chimes of Big Ben, the gondolas in front of the Doge’s Palace, the Grand-Place in Brussels, the Acropolis … an animated tour with visual and sound effects of 350 miniature models and attractions that you won’t find anywhere else. The miniature trees and plants in the park make everything appear realistic in scale. Cheer on the matador at the Corrida (bullfight) in Seville, watch the launch of Ariane V, the eruption of Vesuvius, the fall of the Berlin Wall, follow the Thalys from Paris to the other end of France and marvel at many other working models, for both young and old. Also visit the exhibition “Spirit of Europe” where you’ll get to know the EU in a fun way. Mini-Europe… not to be missed during your visit to Bruss. The miniature model park of Mini Europe allows you to sample the charms specific to each European country.

All the monuments have been recreated down to the smallest detail. Most models are made on a scale of 1:25, but exceptions are made for representations of larger objects – such as Mount Vesuvius, built on the scale of 1:1000. Big Ben is 4 m high. With its height of 13 m, the Eiffel tower projects above a 3-storey building ! And yet all the buildings are on a scale of 1 to 25. The town hall of Brussels is decorated with 294 hand-carved statues. All against a backdrop of miniature gardens with an area of 2.5 hectares.

On Saturdays during the summer months, the organizers present fireworks to accompanying music. Please visit the Mini-Europe website to find out more about this and other special events. Mini-Europe also incorporates the European Space of interactive multimedia games for children and a European Union information office. Although open daily, the park closes each year from January to March as new cities and monuments are put onto the mini map. Fun for young and old. Admission: EUR8.5 to EUR20 depending on the package purchased. This summer, the venue welcomes new EU member Slovenia, with Ljubljana’s three bridges. Watch out for Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary to be added later on this year.

Built in 1958 for the the Brussels World’s Fair (Expo ‘58), it is103 metre(335-foot) tall monument represents a cell of an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times, with vertical body diagonal, with tubes along the 12 edges of the cube and from all 8 vertices to the centre. The Atomium is the visiualization of microscopic molecular structures on a great enlarged scale,which is located next to Heysel metro station in Brussels.

Nine spheres ,made of steel,18 metres in diameter connect via tubes with escalators as long as 35 m. A panoramic view of Brussels is seen from the top sphere. Other spheres have exhibitions. Three upper spheres are closed to the public for safety reasons.
Designed to be the star attraction of the ephemeral World Exhibition of 1958, this 103 metre high building has continued to shine for four decades, although its brilliance gradually faded with the effects of age and corrosion. But the quality and the precision of the work saved it from demolition, an ambitious renovation project has become rality. The aim was to completely renew the casing of the spheres and to replace the aluminium skin with insulating sandwich panels in mirror polished stainless steel on the outside and galvanised steel on the inside. The facelift also entailed the restoration of the structure, the replacement of all the windows, the lighting and the electricity systems.

After more than a year of renovation work the Atomium has a new face and give visitors a brand new aesthetic experience by taking them on a very special journey through its spheres.Today, the inside of the building glows with an unparalleled sparkle. The one-directional visit through each of the six spheres open to visitors makes the most of the possibilities offered by modern animation techniques. To echo this rejuvenation, the setting of the entire site is currently being developed with in particular the construction of an entrance pavilion at the heart of a pedestrian area. A fascinating and triumphant architectural prowess of the 50s that has once again opened its doors to the general public, the challenge of the Atomium is to retain its vitality. The vitality that endears it to the public.