My son and I are headed to Europe next month on one of our “long distance dates”. We’ll be gone for about a week, touring some of the lowlands (Belgium / Netherlands / Denmark)
Where we’re headed
The trip started out centered around the twin towns of Baarle-Hertog, Belgium and Baarle-Nassau, Netherlands. These two towns have been on my travel bucket list for awhile. I’m a map-geek guy and so have always been intrigued by these two towns. It lies about 5 miles on the Netherlands side of the “main” border between the 2 countries, but there are 22 Belgian exclaves inside the Netherlands and some of those Belgian exclaves have Dutch exclaves INSIDE them. Which leads to interesting situations like the below cafe, with the country border running in the restaurant.
Photo credit User:Jérôme – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
There are also houses whose front door and back door are in different countries (!)
We ended up flying from the US into Copenhagen, Denmark and out of Brussels, Belgium. Our tentative plan is to take the train from Copenhagen to Billund Denmark and spend a day at LEGOLAND in Denmark as well as the relatively new LEGO House. Then we will fly from Billund to Brussels and rent a car (super cheap thanks to Autoslash). We’ll have 3-4 days in driving distance from Brussels, so my thought was to check out some combination of Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp and Ghent, in addition to Baarle-Hertog.
On our drive, we may dip into France, Germany and/or Luxembourg just to say we did (gotta count those countries too!)
The hotels we’ve already booked
We’ve already got a few hotels booked (though these are refundable reservations so they’re subject to change)
- We have 2 nights booked at the Holiday Inn Express Antwerp. My thought was that we could use this as a base to explore Antwerp as well as any of the other nearby Belgian cities. 20,000 IHG points / night
- On our last night before flying back out of Brussels we have the Hilton Grand Palace Brussels. It was 38,000 Hilton points for the 1 night we’re staying there.
- And of course there’s the original redeye flight to Copenhagen which while not a hotel is somewhere I’m going to sleep. Yes I know that (trying to) sleep on a plane violates my 4 things I don’t do now that I’m 40 but hey sometimes gotta make exceptions 🙂
Hotels we considered
We looked at a couple of different hotels before booking the other ones
- We wanted to spend a day in Bruges so looked at the Crowne Plaza Brugge as well as 2 of the Best Westerns in town. I have a bunch of Best Western points but even though I know supposedly BW is much better overseas, I hate paying 24,000 or 32,000 Best Western points for one night. Maybe I’m hoping they’ll rerun one of the best promotions ever that nobody talked about
- Same thing in Ghent – there’s a Holiday Inn Gent (boo!) and a Holiday Inn Express Gent, but they’re both pretty far out from the city center. There’s a Marriott Ghent but it’s 35,000 Marriott points and sold out on one of the two nights we’d be in the area.
- We looked at staying at an [airbnb] in Baarle-Hertog itself but decided the town was small enough we didn’t need to stay overnight.
- We considered a couple of other hotels in Brussels including the Brussels Marriott Grand Place and the Hilton Brussels City
What we still need to book
We still need to book the following:
- 1 night in Billund, Denmark (home of Legoland)
- 1 night either in Billund or Copenhagen. That would depend on whether we took the train from Copenhagen to Billund on the day we arrive in Copenhagen or early the next morning
Billund doesn’t have any chain hotels so it’s likely either staying at the Hotel LEGOLAND (pictured below) or staying in an [airbnb]
The existing reservations are refundable (on points) so I could certainly change them out if there’s a better idea.
What do you guys think – any suggestions for hotels on this itinerary?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
We will book Courtyard by Marriott Brussels EU using chase UR points.
That’s an interesting idea – it’s only 20K Marriott points (and would be cheaper with UR points). It’s a little further out from the main part of the city though
around 8000 PTS per night with CSR including Breakfast For Two.
You’re looking at many of the same hotels we did before I axed the low countries from our recent Europe trip.
Do you have any Club Carlson points left? They may be useful in Copenhagen and Billund. Choice Points will get you good value in Copenhagen as well. If you have an early flight out or late flight in, there is a Clarion literally across the street from the airport.
The flight gets in at noonish and we are taking the train out. I do have some Club Carlson points but I hate spending 44K for a hotel with no breakfast
Your post is perfect timing as we too are looking at going to Brussels/Ghent area next May and I have been looking at the hotels you mentioned. I also go d it hard to use 30,000 points for an average hotel. I am also interested on other’s opinions.
After Aug 18, Marriott will have another category 4 hotel in Brussels – The Dominican, Brussels, a Member of Design Hotels – for 25,000 points/night or your credit card annual free night.
Also, do you have Discover rewards? They are selling Hotels.com and AirBnB gift cards.
from Paul Osborn, NL
Dan
I’d leave your attitude as to what are The Lowlands behind before you cross the pond. Writing here in their heart, I have long thought the phrase refers to the low-lying lands of the Rhine-river plains-delta. Those parts are in BE and NL, but do not constitute all of those countries (where you can also ski. As one can in DK). There are geographically similar low lands on the northern coast of FR, of DE (North Sea side) and DK, but they are not the Lowlands. Welcome!
Best Hilton in BRU is Garden Inn. It was earlier an independent property, based on longstays, and has better clientele and a superb staff attitude to service (very un-chainlike). Avoid the resto, Dutch word is prak. But all around, in the St Gilles area, specially 300m down the hill west, are some great local restos, of all sorts. My fave is the Algerian ‘Djurdjura’, best couscous this side of Marseilles. Tu dis au proprietaire que le guelmois-hollandais t’a proposé cette visite.
Hilton B itself is excellent (except the skimpy Lounge), but it ain’t no Bruxelles. But it’s direct train on same square to airport. Too touristy. Hilton City, very nice, but Hilton City’s are a tad lower than a real European Hilton (which as you know are about as close to the US model of H as your current temp Pres is not related to being a slobbish thug). No lounge, and too many German and US guests realising loudly the mistake they made. FWIIW, I enjoy my times there.
Hilton Antwerp, one of the top 10 Hs in the world. Drool, man. Executive level, square side. Say I sent you. As for the Hs in Rotterdam, The Hague and Schiphol (not tourist-ridden Amsterdam), let them know why you made the detour. Say I say you, as you are Dan, of Points for Crew. Bit north for your itin.
The paragon IHG mile winner (10k/n normally, can be lower) is in Hasselt which you could use as a base for a day circular trip to NL, DE, NL, BE, LU, FR and BE and be back in time for tea. Grotty spot.
You know, Dan, outside of UK and FR, we northern Euros don’t have nearly such a high density of chain properties as one finds in US. We seem to have made another civilisation.
Nowhere is independent hotellery alive and clickin’ more than in Zeeland, the south-western province of NL. Yes, I am the author-translator of the entire tourist board Website in English, and yes, it’s a great place to understand the Dutch, the low lands, the sea, the synergy, the culture … http://www.vvvzeeland.nl
Wow Paul – thanks so much for the super detailed recommendation!