Antwerp 5 Day Itinerary (Belgium Base)
Five days extends the 4-day version of this itinerary with the longest and most tourist-saturated hop on the list: Antwerp on day 1, Ghent on day 2, Mechelen on day 3, Brussels on day 4, and on day 5 the 1h25-1h35 train to Bruges. That’s all 5 Belgium day trips this cluster recommends; see the Antwerp Belgium day-trip guide for why Lille, the 6th option, is a lower priority than any of these five.
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
- Bruges day trip on Viator : the Belfry queue sells out on summer weekends, book ahead
| 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 |
| 5 | Bruges day trip: canals, the Belfry climb | 1h25-1h35 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. Check visitantwerpen.be for current hours, then close the day with a Bolleke of De Koninck.
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 belgiantrain.be for current times. Ghent has the canals, the Gravensteen castle, and the Van Eyck brothers’ Ghent Altarpiece in St Bavo’s Cathedral. See visit.gent.be for opening hours, spend the afternoon at Graslei and Korenlei, then head 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 old town covered by early afternoon. Return to Antwerp by mid-afternoon and spend the rest of the day in the Zuid neighborhood.
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; head back to Antwerpen-Centraal by early evening.
Day 5: Bruges, worth it once, but plan the whole day around it
The direct train takes 1h25-1h35, longer than the same trip from Brussels, and it’s the one day trip on this list that genuinely eats a full day. Take the earliest reasonable train out; check visitbruges.be for current Belfry hours before you plan the rest of the day around it.
Is Bruges worth 5 hours of round-trip travel from Antwerp?
Yes, once, if you go early or late to dodge the midday coach and cruise-shuttle crowds. Canals, the Markt, and a 366-step Belfry climb with no lift justify the trip. But of the five day trips in this itinerary, it’s the only one where the travel time genuinely competes with the sightseeing time, so don’t stack anything else onto this day.
Restaurants ringing the Markt are priced and mediocre the same way Brussels’ Rue des Bouchers is; walk a few streets back for a better meal before the train home.
Before you go
Keep a few euros in coins on you for station lockers. If five days leaves you wanting more, the 6-day version of this itinerary adds a full day at the coast without changing anything you’ve already done.