This was our 2nd walking tour with Sandemans, and it did not disappoint. Tom, the guide, was…read moreknowledgeable, easy to hear and understand, and very entertaining. We plan to do this again when available in other cities.

A very positive experience today with my free walking tour. Sandemans does a very good job with…read moretheir tour guides and having done this in several cities (Edinburgh, Prague, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona), this is one of the best. My tour guide today was Maggie. Maggie is a Brussels native and very cheery. Clearly excited to show people her city, she was positive and outgoing. The tour lasted 2.5 hours, taking us past the highlights of the old city including the famous Mannekin Pis, the Galleries de la Reine, up the Mont des Arts and more. Only one downer in the tour, Maggie spent a good ten minutes addressing the atrocities of the Belgian Congo, a topic that she is clearly passionate about. And yes, the tour is free with the tour guide paid in tips. The solicitation was modest and not too much. Maggie also invited us to the beer tour that night which she would be running. A good time with Sandemans. I'll continue to use their tours in other European cities.

What better way to discover a city than stroll around without getting tired?…read moreThis is what you get with Once upon a time in Brussels! :) but instead of strolling you're actually more rolling ;) on your electric bike that is! Virginie brought this ingenious idea to Brussels nearly 2 years ago. Visiting a city by bicycle is one of the best ways of seeing the place, but with Brussels being so hilly, it wouldn't be a chilled afternoon out. This is where having electrical bicycles that give you that extra little push of help comes in very handy! :) Going around by bicycle you get to see a lot more than by foot and this way Virginie manages to take us to uncommon places a bit further than the city centre! Although, she knows to surprise you in the city centre too! :) yep, the tours of 'Once' are so well put together that they will enjoy and surprise both 1st timers in Brussels and born and bred Brusselairs! :) So, if you're hesitating how to visit Brussels, what to do, which tour is the best, don't look no further, you will find your joy with 'Once'! :D +Virginie is so nice and enthusiastic about her city, she will never hesitate to give you tips about other things to do during your stay once you finished the tour :) some notes to keep in mind: - If you get cold easily and it is not middle of summer and sunny outside, make sure you dress adequately and bring an extra layer, you never know it might come in handy ;) - if you like to be superactive and are looking for a tough physical activity, this is not it! In the end you don't cycle thaaat much, there are a lot of breaks where Virginie will explain you things about the history of Brussels and the surroundings (this is a guided tour in the end, not a bike ride). but you can of course not use the electrical assistance & then the tour will get physical ;)

Thoroughly enjoyed this biking experience. We were a group of four Americans and the only people on…read morethe tour. All different degrees of cycling experience, but everyone felt comfortable with the electric (we actually chose Once Upon a Time over the competitor because you really do need electric bikes in Brussels -- Amsterdam it is not.). Virginie was really friendly and spoke fluent English. Saw some great locations and appreciated her ability to both playfully criticize her city, but also exhibit so much pride for it. Scheduling our tour was fairly easy as she was okay with us paying cash the day of. Apparently bank transfers are a thing in Belgium, but that would have cost us $45 to do ahead of time, so she just trusted us instead. Ask her to take you to the Jean-Claude Van Damme statue.

One of my traditions when going on a trip is to do some sort of food-related activity that revolves…read morearound a country's specialties. For Belgium, everyone knows that its specialties are chocolate and beer. While doing my research I found this company as it came recommended by quite a few bloggers as well as Brussels' tourist bureau site. Length: 4.5 hours Cost: €80/person This is by no means a cheap tour. However, the amount you get for €80 is quite a lot, especially when you factor in that aside from beer and chocolate you also get to know the history behind two of Brussels' most famous landmarks: Grand Place/Grote Markt and Manneken Pis. Personally after the end I couldn't eat another bite of chocolate and I was pretty buzzed, especially if you take into consideration how strong Belgian beers can be. Julie was my guide. She was also training 2 other guides in addition to managing our group. She was the epitome of a good guide - presented the more "boring" parts of the tour in a fun and engaging way, helped guarded the chocolate from being stolen during the Pierre Marcolini portion of the tour (apparently that chocolate's quite popular) and made sure that everyone's needs in the group were taken care of since some people in our group didn't care for beer. Our group also managed to get along very well. Here are my notes of the stops on the tour along with any chocolate and/or beer that was consumed. -Chocopolis- 1. Traditional dark chocolate, coconut base 2. Mexican chocolate with red pepper 3. Speculoos This particular shop is known for their "bean-to-bar" approach; meaning to say that they take control of the entire process as opposed to getting the starting products from distributors. This shop is also good for vegans or people that need dairy-free chocolate as the owner is lactose intolerant. Base milk is from coconut and is used in all the chocolate. I liked the pepper chocolate the most. -Meert- 1. Ginger and yuzu juice 2. Chinese green jasmine tea Located in the Royal Galleries. Apparently they supply chocolate and pastries for the royal family. We were able to choose 2 chocolates from this shop so I went for the more interesting combinations. -Pierre Marcolini- 1. Ecuador single-origin (floral) 2. Earl Grey Tea 3. Câlin "hug" (almond and hazelnut praline, Quimper wafers and Madagascan vanilla caramel) - family favorite. Also located in Royal Galleries. Pierre Marcolini is a master chocolatier and his products are renowned worldwide because he uses high-quality chocolate in his products. Noteworthy is that other people not on the tour tried to get samples thinking that the store was having a tasting. I was aware of Marcolini as the No1DP gifted me chocolate in the past. Later I bought chocolate for gifts (and myself) in another Pierre Marcolini store but bought a few câlins for myself. -Manneken Pis Cafe- Vedett Blond (on tap) This bar is located next to the (in)famous Manneken Pis statue. A good starter beer that's not too strong. -Atelier Sainte Catherine- 1. India single origin (earthy) 2. Cayenne - citronnelle (lemongrass pepper) 3. Sea salt caramel 4. Irish coffee milk ganache An authorized distributor of Frederic Blondeel chocolate, another master chocolatier. His chocolate was recognized as the winner of the Gault & Millau Chocolatier of the Year, the first year the award was inaugurated. I bought chocolate here the next day as gifts. -Dolle Mol- 1. Golden Carolus Tripel 2. Troubadour Magma The first bar also offered a charcuterie board. I liked the provided celery salt as a flavor enhancer to the cheese. Here we were given our first proper introduction to the Belgian dubbel/triple that the region is so well-known for. Troubadour Magma I ended up liking despite being an IPA because nobody overhops their beer in Belgium. -Benelux- 1. Lindeman's Kriek (lambic) 2. Jambe de Bois Here our group was given an introduction to the lambic beers, which Brussels is well-known for. Lambics undergo spontaneous fermentation using wild yeast strains. Kriek (a sour cherry) tasted like Robitussin, which earned mixed reception from the group but I personally liked it. Jambe de Bois is a triple made in Brussels. -Au Bon Vieux Temps- 1. Westmalle Dubbel (on tap) 2. Rochefort 10 The oldest bar in Brussels, this is where I got my proper introduction to trappist beer. I ended up loving trappist beer so much that my family came back here twice to explore their trappist beer offerings. Rochefort 10 is one of my favorite beers and I had a few more glasses of this over the duration of the trip. With the exception of Marcolini the chocolate shops offered a 10% discount if you bought chocolate from them. Not only did I buy chocolate from the vendors listed here, I also bought a few beers sampled on this tour as gifts. This is the best beer tour I've ever done and one of the best tours I've done in Europe. Many thanks to Julie and the Brussels Journey for putting together a great tour.

So glad we did this tour. Not only did we get to sample and learn about chocolate and beer, but we…read morealso learned about the history of Brussels as we walked along. Our guides, Julia and Andrea were amazing - they consistently checked in with all of us and at least one of them was available if there were some slower member of the groups that wanted to stop to buy chocolate or take pictures. They were also extremely informative - you could tell they loved their jobs. We had several pieces of chocolate at each location and also had a 10% discount at 2 of the locations (definitely came in use). We also had 5-6 beers throughout the tour as well. The world cup final ended up being during our tour and they even provided doggy bags of the beer for those who couldn't bear to miss the game. Definitely recommend.

From the owner: L'Échappée Bière est une structure spécialisée dans le tourisme et les animations brassicoles pour…read moreles particuliers et les entreprises. Notre ambition? Redonner à la bière ses lettres de noblesse en toute décontraction. Que vous soyez novice ou amateur, jeune ou âgé, une association ou des visiteurs de passage, nous saurons vous proposer une activité à la carte. Visites de brasseries (combinées à des visites de musées, fabriques artisanales, etc.) Jeux de pistes ponctués de dégustation (Lille, Bruxelles, Paris) Cours de dégustation de bière Murder Party Casino de la bière Découvrez ou redécouvrez le patrimoine sous un angle gourmand et original !

Fen in Ghent is the best! Our tour guide Fen was incredible. Engaging, charismatic, funny and…read moresuper knowledgable. Everything you want in a tour guide and then some! The tour was super informative - since i used to fall asleep in history class it was great to learn so much about Belgium's history and Ghent specifically. The "free" tour (or pay at the end based on how much you liked it) concept is great. Keeps the tour guides interested and excited. Made our trip :) ASK FOR FEN!

Tom was amazing! He was very fun and knowledgeable. The tour was 2.5 hours and was a great intro to…read moreBrussels. Great recommendations of places to go. We had the Leige waffle later on and it was spectacular! Definitely would recommend this tour.

Knowing that we were going to be in Brussels, and hearing that Belgium has the best chocolate in…read morethe world, we thought we would go on a chocolate tour. One, because we don't know the city, and two, we would have a guide to explain the history of chocolate. We decided to book an English speaking tour with Groovy. They had several tours to choose from but we chose the tour that only did chocolate tasting. We were a small group of 10 (which is perfect) and our guide was delightful. She is originally from Amsterdam and is in Belgium to finish her schooling. She said she decided to become a guide so that she could practice her English. She did a really good job, and we could understand her perfectly, even though she has an accent. (well to us she did. wink wink) We stopped at 5 different chocolate shops. We started out with the chocolate company that has the most stores (mass produced) to the company that only has three shops, and hand dips their chocolate at each location. Three of the shops are in the Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. This is the actual meeting place for the tour to begin. We were given 2 different chocolates to taste at each location, and each location we tasted different types of chocolate. I didn't like the white chocolate that was at our first location so they swapped it for a nice milk chocolate. (That was nice of them to do that) After the Gallery tasting we walked to two different locations outside, and a few blocks away. It was a nice stroll, and ended at the last chocolate shop, at that point we all went our separate ways. Nice, and informative tour, highly recommend it. You will get your daily chocolate fix by the time this tour is over since the Belgium Chocolate is Very Rich. I ended up going back to the third shop we stopped at, and bought some chocolate to bring home, although you can buy any chocolate along the way, I just wanted to taste all the samples before I decided on one.

Fantastic tour! Best way to learn about Belgian chocolate and tasta amazing truffles. Highly…read morerecommended.

This was a few hours well spent in Brussels for me, the beer aficionado. But you certainly don't…read morehave to know the finer points of beer to enjoy the tour, your guide will explain all! Our tour was 20-30 folks (most if not all from North America) ranging from college students to what I'll call "retirees". And all had a good time, and as you would expect to happen, you meet some new friends (and get tips on other sights to see in the area). Our tour guide was Cesar. The tour starts in an old (what I would call) pub with a large sample among three choices. Here you learn about the making of Belgian beer (brewing style, why it was made by trappist monks, beer styles), and get a good foundation for the rest of your tour. This is the best opportunity to ask questions. The tour then moves to the only Brewery still active in Brussels (Cantillon), which is about a 15-20 minute walk well off the beaten path (apparently jaywalking is legal if no cars are coming). This tour was really interesting (small place with a lot of subtleties for the Belgian style and the Lambic method). After the tour, several samples are provided, they were okay, but most American beer drinkers seemed disappointed as the flavor did not resemble what they expect out of beer. The tour then migrates back toward the main downtown area for a more modern pub with what Cesar called "by far the best selection of Belgian beer in Brussles". I believe him, it was a huge bar with everything you could possibly want (if you could figure out what it was). Some description of how this particular pub kept it's beer fresh was presented. Here was maybe a couple of more samples and you're welcome to stay as long as you like. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and personable, definitely made the tour much more enjoyable (how do I get this job????) Actually the answer to that question is to start your own business (as he is the owner). You might think 5 beers is a lot, but spread over 3-4 hours (plus the samples at the brewery are smaller) it's no problem (I was also drinking my wife's). If you're paying that day, bring cash Euros, it's the easiest way to pay and be sure to budget in a tip if you enjoy your guide.

Held the first or second weekend in september each year…read more this years was 4-6 sept and was excellent with 44 brewers showcasing around 270 of their beers only slight complaint would be not any food stalls bar one selling oysters and snails,a stall selling more traditional beerfest food would be welcome