Antwerp, Belgium 5 Day Itinerary
Antwerp, Belgium: 5-Day Itinerary
Getting There
Most international travellers arrive through Brussels Airport (BRU), 50 kilometres south. Direct trains from Brussels Airport to Antwerp-Centraal run throughout the day; journey time is around 35 minutes and costs €15-18 each way. For those flying into Antwerp Airport (ANR), the city’s own small airport is about 6 kilometres from the centre. A direct bus costs around €3 and takes 9 minutes. A taxi runs €15-17.50 depending on the time of day. There is no direct train from Antwerp Airport into the centre.
Antwerp-Centraal station, the arrival point for most travellers, is worth a few minutes of your time. Completed in 1905, with a vaulted iron and glass interior and a Baroque stone facade, it regularly appears on lists of the most impressive railway stations in the world. It is not false advertising.
Day 1: Arrival and the Old City
Afternoon
Check in and get your bearings in the area around the Grote Markt. The city square is flanked by the 16th-century Stadhuis (City Hall) on one side and ornate guild houses on three others. The Brabo Fountain at its centre depicts the legend of Antigoon, a giant said to have chopped off the hands of sailors who refused his toll and thrown the severed limbs into the Scheldt. A soldier named Brabo killed the giant and did the same with his hand. The name “Antwerp” is popularly derived from “hand werpen” (throwing a hand), although etymologists are less convinced.
Walk 200 metres north to the Cathedral of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal). Entry is around €6. The interior holds four Rubens altarpieces, including the Descent from the Cross, which has been in this church since 1614. Seeing them in situ, in the light Rubens actually painted for, is different from seeing his work in a museum.
Evening
Dinner at ’t Hofke (Pelgrimstraat 2), a Flemish bistro tucked into one of the city’s oldest alleyways with two small terraces. The menu is traditional: stoemp (mashed potato with vegetables), waterzooi, grilled meats. Unpretentious and reasonably priced for a first night. Alternatively, Elfde Gebod (Torfbrug 10) serves decent brasserie food inside a building so densely decorated with religious statues and biblical reliefs that it functions partly as an attraction in its own right.
Day 2: Art, History, and the Waterfront
Morning
Spend the morning at the Museum aan de Stroom (MAS) (Hanzestedenplaats 1). The permanent collection is free and covers Antwerp’s history as a port city, its role in global trade, and the collections it accumulated as a result. The building itself is 10 storeys of stacked glass and red sandstone and offers the best free panoramic views in the city from its rooftop. Special exhibitions cost €12-16.
Afternoon
Walk south along the waterfront to the Plantin-Moretus Museum (Vrijdagmarkt 22). Entry is €8 for adults. This is one of Antwerp’s most genuinely unmissable experiences: a UNESCO World Heritage Site that preserves the house, workshops, offices, and library of the Plantin-Moretus publishing dynasty intact. The two printing presses on the ground floor are the oldest surviving working printing presses in the world, dating from the late 16th century. Christophe Plantin ran the largest publishing house in Europe from here in the 1560s and 1570s, producing bibles, atlases, and scholarly texts distributed across the continent. The courtyard garden is quiet even when the rest of the museum is busy.
For lunch nearby, Fiera (Melkmarkt 20) occupies a former trading hall with a cathedral-like interior and a menu that takes Belgian produce seriously. Quality-to-price ratio is good.
Evening
The Zurenborg neighbourhood, a 20-minute tram ride south, is where Antwerp’s wealthy merchants built eclectic late-19th-century townhouses. The street Cogels-Osylei has the highest concentration, ranging from Art Nouveau to neo-Gothic to Flemish Renaissance revival within a single block. It is not on the standard tourist circuit and is almost entirely untroubled by crowds. Worth the tram ride for an evening walk before dinner.
Dinner at Bistrot du Nord (Leopoldplaats 10), in the emerging Antwerp North neighbourhood. Chef Michael Rewers cooks classic French-Belgian bistro food with precision and without pretension. Genuinely one of the better mid-price restaurants in a city with strong competition at every price point.
Day 3: Fashion, Diamonds, and Zuid
Morning
Antwerp’s reputation in international fashion is largely built on a group of graduates from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (founded 1663, the oldest design school in Belgium) who began showing in London in the 1980s and became known as the Antwerp Six. The ModeMuseum (MOMU) (Nationalestraat 28, entry around €10) traces the city’s fashion history from the trade cloths of the 16th century to the contemporary designers who continue to make Antwerp relevant. It is a well-curated collection in a thoughtful building, and less crowded than its reputation deserves.
Walk north on Nationalestraat afterward. The street has a higher concentration of independent Belgian designers per metre than almost anywhere else in Europe. The brand Dries Van Noten has a flagship here. Maison Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, and others have roots or retail presence nearby.
Afternoon
The Diamond District runs along Pelikaanstraat and the surrounding streets near Antwerp-Centraal. Around 80 percent of the world’s rough diamonds pass through Antwerp at some stage of cutting, certification, or trading. Window shopping is free. The Antwerp Diamond Museum (DIVA, Suikerrui 17) provides context on the history of the trade including the role of the Hasidic Jewish community, which has dominated the district for decades, as well as the more recent growth of Indian and Lebanese trading families. DIVA entry is around €10.
The diamond trade’s concentration here is a specific historical accident: Flemish polishing technology in the 15th century was the most advanced in Europe, and the trade routes established then never fully migrated elsewhere, even as the political and religious landscape of the Low Countries transformed completely.
Evening
The Zuid (south) neighbourhood is where Antwerp’s cultural and restaurant life is currently most concentrated. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts (KMSKA, Leopold De Waelplaats 1, free until 2026 for most permanent collection) is the anchor; the streets around it hold a mix of serious restaurants, wine bars, and galleries.
Dinner at The Jane (Paradeplein 1) if budget allows. Housed in a former military hospital chapel with stained glass, high ceilings, and an open kitchen where you can watch the team working. Two Michelin stars. Reservations weeks or months in advance for weekend dates. If the price point is too high, Zaowang Zuid (Vlaamse Kaai 47) nearby offers strong Southeast Asian-influenced cooking in a more casual setting.
Day 4: Day Trip to Ghent
Ghent is 55 minutes from Antwerp-Centraal by direct train. Several trains per hour make this practical even for a half-day. Buy a return ticket on the NMBS/SNCB app for around €15.
Ghent is, for many Belgium regulars, a more rewarding day than Bruges. It has a comparable medieval centre with fewer cruise-ship crowds, a stronger student population (Ghent University has 40,000 students), and a food and bar scene that punches well above its size. The Ghent Altarpiece by the Van Eyck brothers (currently in St. Bavo’s Cathedral, entry around €16) is the most technically ambitious panel painting produced in the 15th century. The recent restoration, completed in 2020, brought out colour saturation in the lamb panel that had been invisible under centuries of varnish.
Lunch at the Vrijdagmarkt, Ghent’s central square, or at one of the cafes around the Groentenmarkt. Spend the afternoon exploring Graslei and Korenlei (the guild-house waterfronts), the Gravensteen castle, and the streets of the Patershol neighbourhood. Return to Antwerp by early evening.
Dinner back in Antwerp: ’t Zilte (Hanzestedenplaats 5, in the MAS building) for a special-occasion Michelin-starred meal with views over the port, or a simpler and cheaper dinner in your neighbourhood.
Day 5: Departure Morning
Final Hours
If your departure is afternoon or later, use the morning for anything you missed. Two places that reward a second or longer visit:
The Rubenshuis (Wapper 9, entry around €12) is Peter Paul Rubens’s actual home and studio, preserved largely as he left it. The formal Italian garden in the rear, reconstructed according to 17th-century plans, is a good place to sit before heading to the station.
Brood en Spelen (Veemarkt 1) is a corner bakery cafe in the northern part of the old city that does proper sourdough sandwiches and strong coffee. If you have not found somewhere reliable for breakfast by this point, this is a consistent choice.
Store luggage at Antwerp-Centraal (automated lockers available) if you need to check out before your departure time. The station area has a range of shops and cafes if you want to run last-minute purchases.
Where to Stay
Near the Grote Markt / historic centre: Closest to the major monuments and the Cathedral. Best option for first-time visitors. Rates for mid-range properties run €100-160 per night.
Zuid neighbourhood: More residential feel, closer to KMSKA and the restaurant scene. Slightly quieter evenings. 10-15 minutes by tram from the historic centre.
Antwerp North (near MAS): A neighbourhood in transition, increasingly interesting for food and nightlife. Less polished than Zuid but noticeably cheaper.
Hotels worth noting: Hotel Julien (Korte Nieuwstraat 24) is a well-regarded boutique option in the historic centre. Lindner Hotel Antwerp (Lange Kievitstraat 125, near Centraal) offers reliable mid-range comfort. Budget travellers should check hostel options in the Meir area near the main shopping street.
Transport Within Antwerp
The Antwerp City Card costs €25/48h, €35/48h, or €45/72h and includes free entry to MAS, Plantin-Moretus, and several other museums plus unlimited De Lijn tram and bus travel. For a 5-day stay, calculate whether the card pays back based on your planned museum visits; for two or three museums plus regular tram use, it does.
Trams are the practical day-to-day option within the city. Antwerp is also notably flat and well-served by cycling infrastructure; bike rental is widely available and worth considering for days when you are not carrying luggage or visiting widely separated sites.
The port area is interesting to walk through but is large enough that cycling makes more sense for a serious exploration.
Practical Notes
Antwerp is a Dutch-speaking city. French will get you through in most tourist contexts, and English is very widely spoken, but a few words of Dutch (dank u wel, alsjeblieft) are consistently appreciated.
Belgian beer deserves more than passing attention. The city has over 200 beers available in various bars, including Trappist ales, Gueuze, and Saisons. A traditional brown cafe (bruin cafe) with a single focus on good beer and no cocktail menu is the format locals prefer; avoid the large tourist bars on the Grote Markt itself, which exist primarily to extract money from people who arrived in a tour coach.
The Antwerp food scene is significantly underrated relative to Brussels. The concentration of quality in a relatively small walkable area means you can eat at an extremely high level without needing to make reservations at famous restaurants. Ask your hotel for current recommendations; the scene moves quickly and what was excellent eighteen months ago may have changed.