5 bikeable day trips from Brussels

The upcoming train strike on 28 May doesn’t mean you’re stuck in Brussels. With this nice weather, instead of booking your Cambio car, perhaps it’s time to hop onto two wheels and discover Brussels’ surroundings at a slower pace.

From the capital, there are several charming towns, villages, castles and landscapes to enjoy on your own two wheels. Here are five bikeable day trips from Brussels.

1. Green Belt

One of the best things to do in Brussels is leave it. Unlike many other large cities, Brussels doesn’t have the suburban or industrial sprawl continuing on for kilometres beyond its city limits. Immediately upon leaving Brussels you encounter a surprisingly rural, sleepy village life.

They’ve made it easy to escape the car-congested confines the city and to enjoy the city’s quieter sides with its Green Belt (Groene gordel / Promenade verte). A 60-kilometre loop circling the suburbs, tiny villages and farmlands that surround the city, the Green Belt offers peaceful, rides through Brussels bucolic countryside.

While you certainly could endeavour to do the full 60kms in one gulp, the route is also easily broken up into seven more manageable sections of 5-, 10- or 20-kilometre itineraries.

2. Pajottenland

The 16th-century painter Breughel the Elder called the Pajottenland (pictured) the Tuscany of the north. And it’s true, that as you pass old farmhouses and cattle pastures along dirt and stone paths, a journey through this rolling region will make you feel worlds away from Brussels, even if you’re just an hour’s pedalling.

Reacheable from the Green Belt, the Pajottenland's gentle rolling hills are inviting to any cyclist looking for some fresh, open air. While some parts of the Pajottenland closer to Brussels can be considered industrial sprawl, if you bike a short ways further, you’ll find yourself immersed in lush farmland.

The main sight to see is the Gaasbeek castle in the town of Lennik. First erected in 1240, today the castle is a museum, currently with an exhibition entitled “The stones are speaking”, a full-sensorial performance piece that gives life to the history and stories of the people who have lived in the castle.

Like in Beersel, here you’ll also find several lambic breweries, including the Girardin brewery in Sint-Ulriks-Kapelle and the Timmermans brewery in Itterbeek. 

3. Tevuren

Some 10 kilometres east of Brussels lies the cosy, wealthy suburban town of Tevuren, a worthy day trip for anyone looking to get out of bustle of the city for a few hours.

The town of Tevuren flanks the enormous, gorgeously landscaped Tevuren Park, an entry point to the Sonian Woods built from the former hunting grounds of the Duke of Brabant.

There are several routes you can take to arrive at the sleepy town, depending on where you’re starting in the city. All take a little under an hour to complete and will take you through parts of the Sonian forest.

Along the way, you can stop and visit the Red Cloister Abbey, a former 14th-century Augustinian abbey tucked away the Sonian woods that today houses a centre for the arts.

Once in Tevuren, there is plenty to do. Talk a stroll through the tranquil Tevuren Park. Enjoy an aperitif on the enormous terrace looking out over the ponds at Het Bootjeshuis. Then head to the town square, just a stone’s throw from the park, and cool down with an ice cream from Mont Blanc or sit down for a heartier meal at Het Park restaurant.

Just note, one activity currently crossed off the list, however, is the Royal Museum for Central Africa, which is undergoing renovations and closed until 2017.

4. Beersel

Only 45 minutes by bike from Brussels city centre lies the sweet town of Beersel. Between its castles and its beer, Beersel makes for a perfect day out.

First, spend your morning amongst the flowers of the Coloma Rose Garden. With over 200,000 flowers spread across 15 hectares, this fragrant floral paradise is a little known secret in Brussels. You’ll find it in Coloma Park, tuck behind the Coloma castle.

Next, continue your castle tour heading due east to visit the 15th-century Beersel castle, one of the best preserved medieval structures in Belgium. Complete with moat and three watchtowers, this imposing monolith gives you a glimpse into the life and landscape of a medieval Belgium.

If you’re bound and determined to fit in one more castle on your journey, pedal down the road to find the Provincial Domain of Huizingen. There you can tour the grounds of the old manor home, enjoy the terrace and playground of the café or even stay overnight in two cottages for rent.

Along your route, be sure not to miss the beer. Beersel is home to a few of Brussels’ lambic breweries, brewing gueuzes and krieks unique to the Brussels region. The town has a Lambick Visitor Centre where you can sample several different types of lambic beers and learn about the brewing process. You can also go directly to the breweries, such as Oud Beersel or Drie Fonteinen and sample and purchase their wares there.

Finally, after long day of biking about, you might be looking for a hearty meal. As anomalous as it might sound to find in rural Belgium, try biking to the neighbouring village of Linkebeek for some of Brussels’ best Thai food at Noi. (Note that in July and August, Noi is only open in the evenings.)

5. Leuven

Two hours on a bicycle will put you in the lovely student town of Leuven, home to Stella Artois and one of Europe’s oldest universities. Here there is plenty to do, such as a visit to its stunningly preserved medieval beguinage, now a Unesco world heritage site, tour the ancient university buildings and, of course, a good beer in one of the dozens of terraces flanking the Old Market.

Along the way there, you’ll also pass through the wealthy suburb of Heverlee, where you’ll find the neo-gothic Arenberg castle and the old Park Abbey. Both are wonderful places to  jump off your bike take a rest.

Time your trip right and you might hit one of the city’s summer festivals, including Marktrock, which in mid-August fills the city with three full days of party and rock music.

Right now, the various routes to Leuven take you on everything from forest bike paths, to busy main drags to winding country roads. But by 2025, the trip should get easier and faster, when one of the 15 superhighways currently in the works for the Brussels region will create a direct cycling route connecting the two cities.