MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Going to be road tripping around Belguim with the young family next week. Hotel recomendations please. Max of 80euro/night.
Try the youth hostels; not as grim and youth oriented as you might think, and often have family rooms, plus en-suite washing/pooing/weeing facilities.
I've stayed in the Gent one, De Draecke and it was excellent.
http://www.vjh.be/jeugdherbergen/gent/
The equivalent of Formula 1 hotels in Belgium are the Etap hotels. Cheap and cheerful, but okay.
They also have quite a few Best Western hotels that are reasonably priced.
Whereabouts in Belgium are you going?
Thanks very much will look into it all. Will be heading to Maastricht, Gent.
Already been to Brussels Bruge Ypres. Anywhere else you can recomend to go?
holiday inn express. they do twin rooms with a sofabed thingy so a room can take 4 people. (has to be an express not ordinary holiday inn)
There's a few Campaniles in BE too. Clean, a bit spartan but good value.
http://www.campanile.com/hotel/en/hotel-013197.htm
Go to Valkenburg near Maastricht, but if you go on any of the cave tours, remember it's bloody cold...
Gent is great, fab little city, Aalst has a wicked bike shop, VanEyck Sport.
Antwerp, Dinant, Leuven, Namur all worth a visit too.
Antwerp is great.
BTW, Maastricht didn't have much to recommend it. IMHO <-
Antwerp used to have a huge red light district with a chippie in the middle; they used to have coach tours of old ladies going there..
Antwerp has a Greggs bakers too. (so does Leuven)
Head down towards the German border at Aachen. At Eupen (on the A40) turn off and head down to Monschau, which is just over the border. Fantastic area for outdoor activities and very picturesque too.
Etap is ok, Formula 1 places are just crap IME.
+1 for Namur - big citadel in the centre and nice surrounding countryside (I used to do a fair bit of rallying and have experienced both at speed).
We used the F1s a few times and were always acceptable (for the price) as long as you were allocated a room at the desk by a real person (they'd give you one of the better ones), self/computer registration resulted in well used rooms that stank of fat blokes feet. . .
For the children try this:[url= http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/three-lands-point-maze-netherlands-germany-and-belgium/ ]Tri Lander Maze[/url] Try a trip to Bastogne, agree with Maastrict (as I live near there) well worth a visit, also Aachen, Valkenburg & Monschau. Just been to Liege, not impressed at all with it, would not go again. You will know when you cross the border into Belgium, they have the worst surfaced roads in Europe, even worse than the UK. Check the fuel prices as you drive around, differing tax rates on petrol/deisel between GER/NLD/BEL, place in BEL (Maasmechelen, half way between Gent and Maastricht)is 10 cents a litre cheaper than my local in NLD for tractor fuel.
It's the communal self-clean bathroom/shower/toilet facilities that freaked me out a bit. That and the fact loads of people seem to wander around in their kecks, maybe we just kept walking in on a big love-in (accidentally on purpose, a few times...)?!
If you want a day out with the kids Parc Paradisio is really good. Live bird of prey display and a real live bat cave. Plu it's round the corner from my in-laws.
