Majestic Belgium: Ghent, Antwerp & Atomium from Brussels

Great day trip to Antwerp and Ghent! -We started at the meeting point at central station. It was very busy, as there was multiple bus tours starting at the same time, you had to find the right person to check in with. My guide had a sign on a stick that she carried all day long. Then waited for the whole group and head to the bus. The bus was full. -The first stop was the Atom display, we stopped near a fountain maybe 1km away from it, so you had a good view. We spent about 10 min here for pictures then back on the bus. -Next stop was downtown Antwerp after about 1 hour drive. We got out, and the guide picked a meeting spot near the bus for later. Then took us on a walking tour of the area, teaching about the buildings and symbols, stories and history. We walked for 1 or 2 hours, and then we were given 1.5 hours on our own to get lunch and explore on our own. The guide mentioned a few places of interest for us to explore and where to get a free city map. -I ate quick lunch, took some videos on go pro of some places we already went, and then visited the castle, and the wooden escalator to the underwater tunnel under river. -We met at meeting spot and got back on the bus and left for Ghent. -In Ghent we got off the bus and walked to the 3 towers. again explaining the history and the buildings around. we walked around past a river, and to the death square, and then again were given 1 hour to explore on our own with some recommendations. -I tried to go to the ghent castle, but it was already at capacity for the Day, but was still letting in people with pre-booked tickets, so maybe book castle tickets in advacne if you want. I then went to the "Dulle Griet" bar, that has a famous tradition of taking a shoe as collateral for one of their large drink types. The shoe is put in a basket on the ceiling. I wanted to go up one of the towers to the observation point, but it took me a long time to find the bar(because i didnt know the name of it at first) and then a line to get in, so i ran out of time before meeting the bus. -We then got on the bus and head back to brussels, drop off at the same location as starting, central station. -The guide was great, i forget her name, but she was very informative, she took care of the group, spoke clearly. She had a headset mic and speaker so we could all hear her. She guided us well all day. -Our group was good, we never had to wait on people, everyone was on time. Overall it was great to spend time in Antwerp and Ghent and learn about the unique things in those citys and the history behind them.

We highly recommend this tour. Diego is professional, knowledgeable, and a wonderful leader. The pace of the day was just right. We even got to see Ruben’s house during our free time.

Spending half day in both Antwerp and Ghent was great plan. Ghent is beautiful town. However seemed like many places were closed during time of the tour. Believe that may be since Ghent is a large student town so local spots open later and cater to them and not us tourists. Just an observation. Still enjoyed the trip. Plenty of activity if stick to the main tourist section.

A fairly long day exploring Antwerp & Ghent. The tour particularly in Ghent was not helped by the weather but still good to see these places. The guide focused on a lot of historical facts but was not as engaging or as personable as other guides. Overall the guide left a few on the tour quite bored and seemed in a rush during the walking tours. I noticed on a few occasions members of the group who could not walk as fast were left behind as the guide did not wait for the tail of the tour group to catch up, to the point where a few people were verbally not happy about it. As a result, some of the group left part way into the walking tours to explore at their own pace and met us at the meeting point for the bus after

Great trip and price is fair. Guides were helpful. We will use them again. (A little too big of a group, other than that it was really good)

We had a beautiful tour. The day was lovely - Jorge did the English version. Very pleasant and informative. Both cities were amazing. Highly recommended !

Ghent was wonderful. Antwerp was worth seeing but less scenic. Jorge, our guide, was amazing. He was a fount of information.

Despite the torrential rain in Ghent, the trip was great. The tour had two guides. One for Spanish and one for English. Our guide was very informative and gave us plenty of time at both towns. He made sure we saw all the important places. We had a quick 15 minute stop at the Atomium for photos and kept driving to Antwerp. Antwerp was beautiful. We had plenty of time to have lunch and to wander the streets. Unfortunately, we were caught in a storm in Bruges just after we arrived. It was miserable walking around in such heavy rain. I managed to see most of the sights using my coat and umbrella. However, I was disappointed that the famous Altar piece was not available because they were using the church for a concert. (Sorry Ghent photos have disappeared.)

We had a great time visiting the Atomium, Antwerp and Ghent with Diego and Eduardo. Our guides were friendly, enthusiastic, knowledgeable about the three stops and took care to ensure our comfort during the trip (e.g., they would find shaded spots to gather when they had to describe the history of a particular place, they provided recommendations for what we could do after the end of our trip). We would definitely recommend this trip to others.

We had an excellent guide, Julianna. Both cities were really interesting but there was too little free time. 90 minutes free time isn’t even enough to go get dinner and be sure you have time to walk back to the meeting point. Would ideally have done these two cities in separate trips but there was no tour that did this.