Antwerp travel guide

Plan your trip, step by step

• Where to stay
  Pick the quarter whose character fits, then hotel or apartment.
• Things to do
  Work out what actually needs booking and what you can walk into.
• Antwerp in 3 days
  Follow a plan that works around the Monday closures.
• Estimate your trip cost
  Put a euro range on your nights, meals and museums.
• First-timer mistakes to avoid
  Skip the errors that cost visitors a day here.
• Antwerp on a budget
  See what a lean, comfortable or open-wallet day costs.

The neighborhoods at a glance

Historisch Centrum (Historic Centre)

Known for the guild houses on the Grote Markt, the Cathedral of Our Lady and its Rubens altarpieces, Het Steen on the quayside and the hidden Vlaeykensgang alley.

Het Zuid (the South)

Known for the KMSKA fine-arts museum, the photography and contemporary-art museums on the old docks, wide 19th-century avenues and the densest run of restaurants in the city.

Sint-Andries & the fashion district

Known for Nationalestraat and the MoMu fashion museum, the designer boutiques the Antwerp Six made famous, and the antique dealers strung along Kloosterstraat.

Eilandje

Known for the 19th-century docks turned residential quarter — the red sandstone MAS with its free rooftop, the Red Star Line emigration museum, a marina and Zaha Hadid’s Port House on the edge.

Station quarter & Diamantwijk

Known for the domed hall of Antwerpen-Centraal, the diamond trade working quietly in the blocks behind it, the zoo next door and the hotel strip on De Keyserlei.

Zurenborg

Known for Cogels-Osylei’s row of Art Nouveau and neo-everything mansions, and the café terraces on Dageraadplaats — residential Antwerp, a short walk east of the ring.

Deciding where to base yourself? The where-to-stay guide turns these areas into a lodging decision.

When to go — month by month

Average daytime high (bars) and rainy days per month, from 5-year climate normals. Greener months are the most comfortable to visit.

Best months to visit: May–Sep

Destinations with a similar climate

Like Antwerp’s weather? These places have the closest year-round climate in our data — tap through for each one’s best time to visit.

• Brussels →
• Bruges →
• London →
• Cologne →
• Amsterdam →
• Hamburg →

Know before you go

Currency & paying

Euro (€). Belgium runs close to cashless — contactless cards and phones work almost everywhere, including on trams. VAT is already inside every displayed price, so a menu price is the price you pay.

Language

Dutch (Flemish). Antwerp is in Flanders, not bilingual Brussels — French is not the local language and defaulting to it lands badly. English is very widely spoken; a “dag” or “hallo” to open is plenty.

From the airport

Brussels Airport (BRU) is the practical arrival: direct trains run to Antwerpen-Centraal in roughly 30–45 minutes, and the ticket price already contains the compulsory €6.90 Diabolo airport supplement. Antwerp’s own airport (ANR, Deurne) is small — a couple of airlines — with buses 51, 52 and 53 reaching Antwerpen-Berchem in about ten minutes.

Getting around

Mostly your feet. De Lijn runs the trams and buses when you need them: a single ticket is €3, a day ticket €9, a three-day ticket €18 and a 10-trip card €22, bought in the De Lijn app, online or at a Lijnwinkel. Velo bike-share stations are dense across the centre.

A live 2026 disruption

The premetro tunnel under the Scheldt (Opera – Meir – Groenplaats – Van Eeden) closed on 4 May 2026 for renovation and is expected to reopen around the end of March 2027. Trams 3, 5, 9 and 15 run as temporary lines A3 and A9; to cross to the Left Bank use the Sint-Anna pedestrian tunnel, the ferry or the waterbus.

Museum days

Most Antwerp museums — the MAS, Plantin-Moretus, MoMu, FOMU, Red Star Line — close on Mondays. The KMSKA is open every day of the week and runs a late opening on Thursdays, which makes it the answer to a Monday arrival.

Tourist tax

The city charges a per-night tourist tax on accommodation: €3.20 per person per night excluding VAT for room-based stays, €1.20 at campsites, with under-12s exempt. Some booking sites fold it into the total, others leave it to be collected at check-in.

For the best months to visit and a day-by-day plan, see Antwerp in 3 days.