Family holiday in Belgium?

[IvantaOuiOui]

We want to go to Belgium this year but I don't know where to start looking. We are a family of four (kids are 7 and 11), don't drive, would go in a hotel or self catering and want to go somewhere interesting with museums and stuff for kids. And beer and chocolate

Anyone with any knowledge of Belgium, could you help me narrow it down a bit? Thank you.

If you don't drive, I would recommend staying on the coast - there is a tram that goes from the French Border to the Dutch one. Easy peasy to get to Bruges/Brussels and Gent by train. Look at www.sunparks.com - nice park at Oost Dunkirk. Also centerparcs at De Haan -(a lovely little town). The beaches are fabulous and you can hire bikes and go carts for trips into the countryside and for riding up and down the prom. Most people speak English and the food is generally good. This is a handy website.

Porto has sorted you out!
I would suggest a day in Antwerp if you can manage it. Lovely lovely small city with plenty to see and do.
Belgian people are amongst the kindest and friendliest in the world.

We had a summer holiday in Belgium in 2009 and I loved it. We stayed at Sun Parks De Haan and had lovely day trips to Bruges, Damme, Gent. I can't help from a public transport standpoint, because we drove, but I do know that you can get to Bruges by train from London (Eurostar to Lille, I think and then change).

I think all the SunParks have been taken over by Centre Parks?

Just the De Haan one I think, Belgo....

the one we went to in Germany NoordZeeKust is also a Sunparks turned to Centre Parks, the pool was lovely but apart from that, it was dire, not up to the usual CP standard. Don't go there! It was nearly 6 hours drive from here.

The CPs in Belgium are far better.

Antwerp zoo is lovely too, right in the ity centre too so easy to get to. Train travel is fab in Belgium ( or was 20 years ago when I lived there) so should be easy to see quite a few places. Bruges is lovely and knokke is a lovely seaside village

Bruges looks lovely. As long as the public transport is good, we can get around anywhere. Not so keen on Centerparcs, think we would prefer a hotel or self catering place if we can find somewhere nice - not sure what our budget will be yet but not massive.