Christmas in Belgium

From Tricia: "I am going to Europe in September for an indefinate amount of time... several months at least. We are going all over, most likely spending Christmas in Belgium."

Two decades on, the plan is still a good one and one part of it has become impossible to wing.

The catch is Schengen. If you hold a US, Canadian, Australian or UK passport, you get ninety days inside the area in any rolling one hundred and eighty. September to Christmas is about a hundred and ten days, so Tricia's "indefinite amount of time... several months at least" now needs either a national long-stay visa or a deliberate break somewhere outside the zone. Ireland, Croatia's neighbours, Albania, Montenegro, Morocco and the UK all sit outside it and all make sensible places to spend the weeks that would otherwise put you over.

Christmas in Belgium remains an excellent idea. Brussels runs Winter Wonders across the Grand-Place and the Marché aux Poissons for about six weeks from late November, Bruges does the version everyone photographs, and Liège has the oldest of them and the fewest tourists. The country is small enough that you can base yourself in one city and see three markets by train on day returns, no reservations needed.

Book the beds early and the trains late. It is the reverse of everywhere else in Europe.

Posted 30 April 2003 by Ant in BootsnAll Travel Community · updated by Chris