Antwerp 4 Day Itinerary (Belgium Base)
Four days extends the 3-day version of this itinerary with a fourth Belgium day trip: Antwerp on day 1, Ghent on day 2, Mechelen on day 3, and on day 4 a 45-minute train to Brussels for the Grand-Place and the Atomium. See the full Antwerp Belgium day-trip guide for the one option (Bruges) this trip still leaves out.
Book these before you go:
- Hotel near Antwerpen-Centraal : book before weekend rates climb
- Ghent day tour on GetYourGuide : worth it if you’d rather skip the walk from Gent-Sint-Pieters station
- Brussels day tour on GetYourGuide : covers the Grand-Place and the EU Quarter in one afternoon
| Day | Focus | Travel time from Antwerp |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antwerp: Grote Markt, the Cathedral, De Koninck evening | none, you’re already here |
| 2 | Ghent day trip: Gravensteen, the Van Eyck altarpiece | 46 min-1h each way |
| 3 | Mechelen half-day, back to Antwerp by evening | 17-20 min each way |
| 4 | Brussels day trip: Grand-Place, the Atomium | 45-48 min each way |
Day 1: Antwerp itself, before the day trips start
Fly into Brussels Airport (BRU); the direct train to Antwerpen-Centraal takes 25-40 minutes. Walk up the Meir to Grote Markt, ringed by guild houses and the 1564 Stadhuis, then visit the Cathedral of Our Lady, EUR 12 adult, home to several Rubens altarpieces still in the building he painted them for. Check visitantwerpen.be for current hours, then close the day with a Bolleke of De Koninck, brewed in Antwerp since 1833.
Day 2: Ghent, the day trip that beats Bruges from here
Direct trains take 46 minutes to just over an hour, fare roughly EUR 9-14; check current times at belgiantrain.be . Ghent has the canals, the Gravensteen castle, and the Van Eyck brothers’ Ghent Altarpiece in St Bavo’s Cathedral, with none of Bruges’ midday coach crowds. See visit.gent.be for current hours, then spend the afternoon at Graslei and Korenlei before heading back to Antwerp by early evening.
Day 3: Mechelen, the underrated half-day win
Trains run every 8-15 minutes and take 17-20 minutes each way, the shortest and cheapest trip on this itinerary. St Rumbold’s Cathedral and its carillon anchor a compact, walkable old town covered by early afternoon. Return to Antwerp by mid-afternoon and spend the rest of the day in the Zuid neighborhood or the Diamond District.
Day 4: Brussels, the essential half-day add-on
Trains run roughly every 15 minutes and take 45-48 minutes, fare around EUR 9-11. The Grand-Place, the Atomium, and the Magritte Museum are all doable there-and-back in an afternoon.
Does Antwerp actually need Brussels as a gateway?
No, and that’s worth saying plainly. Antwerp has its own airport-adjacent rail link and its own depth (Rubens, MAS, the Diamond District), so Brussels isn’t a required stopover the way it is for some smaller Belgian towns. The day trip is worth doing anyway, for the Grand-Place and the EU Quarter specifically, not because Antwerp needs Brussels to function as a base.
Head back to Antwerpen-Centraal by early evening; the last direct trains run frequently enough that you don’t need to plan around a specific departure.
Before you go
Keep a few euros in coins on you for station lockers. If four days leaves you wanting more, the 5-day version of this itinerary adds Bruges, the longest and most crowded hop on the whole list, without changing anything you’ve already done.