What a visitor's money does in Belgium: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Euro (EUR) · 1 EUR = 1.15 USD · 1 EUR = 0.86 GBP
Euros, and Belgium is card-friendly, though a few chocolate shops and the smallest cafés still want cash. Bancontact is the local debit system and foreign cards work alongside it.
Avoid: Euronet machines near the Markt
Use: Batopin, KBC, BNP Paribas Fortis
Batopin is the shared Belgian bank network and is free with European cards. A few chocolate shops and small cafés still want cash.
A short ride in Bruges: €10–16 across town — pricey
From the airport: Brussels airport to the centre €45–55
About level. Brussels licenses both onto one tariff.
Mussels and chips, which are Belgian rather than French, and the chips are fried twice. Waffles come in two kinds and the Liège one with pearl sugar is the better. And the beer is the point: a Trappist from one of the six Belgian abbeys, served in its own glass, at eight to eleven per cent.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
