Belgium: The Don'ts of Visiting Belgium

Hey there fellow travelers, welcome to Belgium! Home of great beer, incredible chocolate, and an amazing collection of art and architecture! Whether you are visiting Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Brugges, or any of the other fantastic places in Belgium there are some tourist do's and don'ts you should know. Here we go over what tourist should do and what tourists should not do when they visit Belgium.
Filmed in Brugges, Belgium
Copyright Mark Wolters 2022

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[koenven]

What you describe is not bad service, it's what we expect in Belgium. You get your menu, they come back to take your order and then maybe once to ask if everything is ok. If you need something in between, you have to call your waiter yourself and then they will come and they will help you if possible. That's just the way we want it here and that's the way everybody is trained. That over the top American thing where they show up at your table every five minutes, we call pushy. It also helps that our waiters are not dependent on tips for their survival.

[S.tebban]

As a Belgian (Flemisch) may I explain the service-thing? Most of us don't like to be over-serviced. Asking once or twice if everything is alright is more then enough to us. We hate to be pampered, so that is why we don't do that ourselves.

[arthurchome]

As a Belgian, it's always strangely satisfying to see someone give visiting advice for my own country...

[mattersin]

The waffles with toppings is a tourist thing: Belgians eat their waffles plain (Liege type of waffles, or Brussels type of waffles) . All those shops in the center serving all sorts of extravagant toppings on waffles are a recent creation for tourists only.

[therabbit]

As a 20 year old from Belgium, I have never met someone from the German speaking part of the country. It's quite a mysterious place I guess. I plan to go there sometime in the future, just to confirm for myself that it actually exists.

[SabiaCDO]

I'm Belgian, and I always tell my fellow Belgians...please... explore the world, but don't skip our own country. It is incredible. Such a small country, packed with mesmerizing towns, cities and nature.

[mrpj]

As a Belgian I can say we do have nightlife, but it's pub related. Pubs stay open 'till 5-6am sometimes. We also have the concept of dance pubs, normal pubs which will turn in a dance venue after a while. If you look online you will find clubs in every big city. But in the summers we mainly have open air parties during the day.

[quietapplause]

Great video.
One remark. Belgium has a GREAT NIGHTLIFE. Modern nightlife is actually invented in Belgium. We had the first big techno disco's in the world. The techno nightlife started in Belgium (simultaneously with Londen and Chicago, but we were pioneering) and then spread all over the world.
In cities like Brussles, Antwerp, Ghent, Liege, etc. you can party till early morning or even later if you know where to go.
Why do you think the biggest techno festival comes from Belgium: Tomorrow Land. It comes from our early techno culture that started in the late 70's and 80's.

[BeefD]

Belgian here... here's how we typically do the customer-waiter dynamic in the more decent restaurants:
- most often the waiters will assign you a table and they will usually first come with a menu asking what you'd like to drink and sometimes an appetizer (small dishes to awaken the tastebuds),
if not immediately, they'll come back almost any time within 10 minutes unless its extraordinarely busy in the restaurant. if you haven't decided what to eat yet, just relax and think it through. if they catch you reading the menu, that typically signals you're still deciding what to eat.

- after you had your drinks, the waiter supposedly will come back to ask for a main course if you've all looked in the menu and laid it down to signal you've decided what to eat.

- it's not such a big deal if you haven't immediately decided but try to make sure everyone has before the waiter comes because if it gets busy, you don't want to keep the waiters around wasting their valuable time to serve other customers, however don't worry too much... most waiters will tend to ask you if everyone has decided and if someone hasn't decided yet, they'll say no problem and come back 5 minutes later. it's better to take your time and make an informed decision than to rush your stuff and move on to the next thing because to us Belgians that comes off as not taking the time to enjoy your meal.

- when you've been given your main course, you just eat your meal as anyone else, take your time to enjoy it (and gush over how good it is lol) and at this point it is socially more acceptable to signal a waiter if you want more drinks, however also here apply a few not-set-in-stone but generally useful rules:
order drinks when most people have less than half their glass left. don't order like three full pint size drinks in one go...
go easy on the alcohol, especially in a decent restaurant. nothing is as annoying as a bunch of overtly drunk tourists in a decent restaurants.
when signalling, don't just obnoxiously signal around with your hand all the time that you need a waiter, look out for one that is not preoccupied and is looking in your general direction BEFORE signalling. if you make eye contact, then signal, and they'll come to you 9/10 times.

- when you're done eating your main course, the waiter will come ask if it tasted good, and they'll typically either ask if you'd like to receive the bill or eat desserts (which is often accompanied with hot drinks like a cup of tea or coffee but dessert and hot drinks are usually still priced individually so don't expect 2 in 1).

If you receive your bill, and you feel the food was extraordinalery great, it's alright if you want to tip a couple euros but that's completely up to you. nobody's gonna give you a stink eye for not tipping.

I hope that helps.

[Blue_moon_vL]

As someone who lives in Belgium, I love waiters not interrupting my meal with a million questions. I just want to enjoy my food in peace XD

[vakaras]

No party nightlife in Belgium ? That's not really the case. It's just that it's specific to some places, especially places with a student community. For exemple a place like "Le carré (The Square)" in the city of Liège has a huuuuge nightlife all year long, with people dancing on the tables and bars closing at 5am or even later.

[elise]

As a Belgium I don't understand the bad service idea. Most of the time it is great, But maybe I just don't like the over the top fake friendly concept.

[onyva]

Lots of nightlife in Brussels, Antwerp and Gent. A lot of it is ‘underground’ so check local listings when you’re there. And Belgium has some of the biggest music festivals in Europe during the summer.

[TheToneLounge]

I'm a Canadian living in Belgium, and there's a few places people miss when they come here.

"Don't" miss going to Dinant and Bouillion. They are about a 45 minute drive from one another.

Bouillion has one of the most impressive castle I've ever seen, plus it is quite literally the place that started the Crusades.

"Don't" miss out on trying beer that you've not heard of before. Paix Dieu, Triple Karmeliet, Chimay and St-Bernardus Abt, to just name a few.

One last "don't" for you, is to not miss out on visiting smaller towns. There are Abbeys that make excellent beer, old castles and manors you can visit, beautiful public parks (the one in Enghien is really nice) and some fantastic food to be had.

Cheers

[asheirahs_nook]

The public transportation tardiness is indeed very typical to Belgium, sometimes frustratingly so. I learned to take a bus or train early just to avoid being late

[jturie]

Spent several weeks in Ghent for business. Wonderful city, wonderful people. Discovered the "meaning" of Tripel there. Took me two hours to find my hotel after midnight. At least I walked off the buzz.

[pieterkeuppens]

As a Belgian, visit Ghent and Bruges, those two are the most beautiful (big) cities we have to offer. If you are looking to party during the week, go to Overpoort in Ghent where all the students hang out (including myself), foreign people are always welcomed whit open arms! Especially when we’re drunk. Greetz

[tonypeters]

Belgium is a nice country. I was stationed there from 91-93 in the Army. Back in the 90's it was a party country! My first born son was born in Mons. My first wife is from Belgium. Good times back then.

[KoenvanGorpAstronomy]

Belgian here. My partner and mother are 'small eaters'. Not cleaning out your plate is not really frowned upon. You may be asked if anything was wrong, just answer it was good (if it was) and you are finished and no one will bat an eye. Most places will pack your leftovers, but you have to ask. The only place where it is frowned upon is all you can eat places: Take what you can finish there.

[rezonateDJ]

Absolutely love belgium, from Ireland 🇮🇪🇧🇪