Belgium/Holland with 2 year old dd

[mrsbabookaloo]

Hi all, we have a friend in Liege who is due to have her first baby soon and we'd like to combine a quick visit to her in late October (don't want to overwhelm her) with a few days somewhere else nearby that would be nice for us and fun for dd.

I'm thinking Bruges, Ghent, possibly Lille ( I know that's France) or even Amsterdam.

We will be coming on the Eurostar from London and hoping to stay in cheapish hotel.

Any tips or recommendations?

Am going to shamelssly bump this several times if necessary!

Bump for evening mners who've been to Belgium!

If you go to Amsterdam, can thoroughly recommend American Hotel. Lovely art-deco hotel - child friendly - will even arrange sitters .

I would really recommend Bruges, a beautiful place and we found it child friendly too.

Brussels is good and you can get to Bruge, Ghent etc easily from here by train or car. There are a variety of hotels here as well. If you are Eurostarring, then I'd stay in Brussels and day trip, as it will be easier for you going back.

Agree with scaryteacher. If you stay in Brussels, Liege, Bruges, Ghent etc are all within 1 hour by train and travel tends to be quite cheap. The Citadines St Catherine in Brussels has mini apartments are are very reasonable. I always like being able to make a cup of tea/quick snack and we stayed there when we first came out to find a house.

Thanks everybody: this is great advice. Will look into the recommended accomm.

If you travel to Brussels on the Eurostar your onward ticket to your final destination (say to Bruges for instance) by train will cost you nothing!.

Bruges is nice and English is widely spoken there, in Ghent they mainly speak Dutch.

If you want any more info about Belgium let me know....

Thanks Attila and Vampy.

Do you live there?

Of course, I should ask the friend we're visiting who lives there, but I want to find out whether it looks like a good idea before I say we're definitely going, and also....she's a lovely friend but always a bit vague on the details of things!