Last Updated on March 27, 2026 by Adrienne
Brussels has a reputation as one of Europe’s less interesting capital cities, but on our recent winter visit we found a lot to do – even outside of the Christmas markets and other festive holiday activities. While Brussels isn’t a city that you need to spend a week in, it makes a great home base for exploring other Belgian cities like Bruges, as well as other European cities (you can get to Paris, Amsterdam, London and Cologne in just a couple of hours on the Eurostar) and we found plenty to fill a couple of days. Read on to learn more about our how family spent our two days devoted to exploring Brussels.
Things to Do in Brussels with Kids
Atomium
Brussels’ most famous landmark is the Atomium, built for the 1958 World’s Fair. It’s actually so recognizable that we first glimpsed it from the airplane as we were landing. Though it’s a very cool building to look at, I was a little skeptical that a ticket to go inside would be worth it, but we ended up really enjoying it. There are all sorts of cool light features and staircases and escalators that tunnel through the narrow passageways between the big domes. It’s a pretty cool experience that kids will enjoy.
Mini-Europe
Right next to the Atomium is “Mini-Europe,”a 1:25 scale model of well-known sights from every European country, including the UK and Ireland. It’s amazingly intricate and has features like an exploding Mt. Vesuvius and working model trains and boats. Kids will get more out of it if they have some familiarity with major European landmarks, but either way it’s really interesting to go through all the various countries and see the things you recognize and learn about the things you don’t. I would plan to devote a significant portion of one day to the Atomium and Mini-Europe together, especially with the travel time (they’re about a 30 minute drive each way from central Brussels; Uber works well if you don’t have a car). There’s a small indoor cafeteria next to Mini-Europe where you can get coffee and snacks.
Chocolate tour + workshop
Just like Switzerland, Belgium is pretty much synonymous with chocolate for me and I knew doing some kind of immersive chocolate experience here was a must. Since we’d done a chocolate walking tour in Geneva, we opted to do a more hands-on chocolate tour and workshop that combined visits to quite a few chocolate shops with a stop where we got to build our own chocolate creations. It was a small group, just us and one other family, and we got to make and eat so much delicious chocolate. It was a really fun afternoon and by the end I was totally chocolate-ed out, which is quite a feat. 🙂
Grand-Place and Mannekin Pis
Brussels’ central square, Grand-Place (Grote Markt in Flemish), is absolutely gorgeous. At the holidays it’s lit up in a colorful nightly show, and every other August it’s covered in flowers for a few days as part of the “Flower Carpet” event. Just steps from the Grand-Place is the famous Mannekin Pis statue. There are actually three peeing statues in central Brussels (a boy, a girl and a dog) and kids will get a kick out of going on a scavenger hunt to find all of them.
Other things to do in Brussels with kids
We visited in the winter, so we didn’t get to go inside the Royal Palace, which is only open for a month in the summer (typically late July to early September). It’s free to visit but you need to reserve tickets online in advance. I was also disappointed we couldn’t fit in a visit to the European Parliament (it closes for the holidays) since Brussels is probably best known internationally as the informal capital of the EU and I thought seeing the inner workings of the government would be really interesting.
Where to Stay in Brussels with Kids
We stayed at the NH Collection Grand Sablon, which was conveniently located close to Brussels Central train station and the Grand-Place. It was an excellent family hotel, with comfortable, spacious rooms (our room had a separate sitting area with a sofa bed), a very tasty breakfast (at an additional charge) and special touches like a Christmas cookie cart during our holiday visit. They also had a very affordable early check-in option, which we took full advantage of coming from the US on a red-eye.
Other good options for families are the Hilton Brussels Grand Place, which is right at the train station and also has very spacious rooms, and the Sofitel Brussels which has suites and interconnecting rooms that are perfect for larger families, and a special welcome amenity for children. As a travel advisor, I can add perks like free breakfast, room upgrades and property credits at the Sofitel and other 4* and 5* Brussels hotels.
Where to Eat in Brussels with Kids
For a traditional Belgian meal, we loved Nüetnigenough, a cozy brasserie that serves Belgian classics like Flemish stew, Liège meatballs and stoemp. Go early to avoid a wait for a table in the small space.
We had another tasty and kid-friendly meal at Ballekes, a meatball shop where you select your meatball, sauce and sides (including their signature Belgian frites) to build a meal.
For breakfast most days, we visited the coffee shop Terres de Café, which was just steps from our hotel and had great coffee and pastries. For a more substantial breakfast, we loved the eggs Benedict and savory waffles at Woodpecker 47, which serves brunch all day.
Naturally we couldn’t leave Belgium without sampling many waffles, and our favorite ones in Brussels were at Maison Dandoy, which has excellent versions of both the light and crispy “Brussels” waffle and the dense, sweet “Liège” waffle, along with lots of delicious toppings.
And of course, we tried (more than) our share of Brussels’ famous chocolatiers. Some of our favorites included Neuhaus for pralines, Mary for truffles and Pierre Marcolini for macarons.
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