Boutique Hotels in Belgium: Where to Stay City by City

This guide to boutique hotels in Belgium covers six cities, from the capital to the canal towns of Flanders and the river city of Liège in Wallonia. Every one has its own city guide with picks rated 9 or higher by Booking.com guests, so use this page to choose the city first and then the hotel.

Brussels and Bruges suit a first visit, Ghent and Antwerp reward a weekend of food, design and canals, and Mechelen and Liège are easy rail stops with small, owner-run places to stay.

Boutique Hotels in Belgium by City

• Brussels: first-timers and food lovers who want a converted historic building near the Grand-Place
• Bruges: couples who want canal views and the medieval streets on the doorstep
• Ghent: city-break travellers who want a historic building in a medieval river port
• Antwerp: design lovers and shoppers on a weekend away
• Mechelen: rail travellers and anyone who prefers a small owner-run B&B
• Liège: food and museum weekends, or a rail stop between Brussels and Germany
• Sustainable Stays: what the eco labels on Belgian hotels mean

Brussels

Brussels rewards a central base: the best boutique hotels sit within a short walk of the Grand-Place, so the museums of the Mont des Arts and the bars of Sainte-Catherine are both on foot. Our picks range from a converted bank to a 1902 Art Nouveau townhouse, grouped by district, from the busy Ilot Sacré to the quieter Sablon and the leafier streets near the European Quarter.

Top Pick: Hotel Fleur de Ville, a 19th-century bank turned 51-room hotel in the Monnaie district, near La Monnaie opera house, rated 9.4/10 on Booking.com. Check Availability

Three of the Brussels picks hold environmental certifications: Happy Boutique Hotel and the Stanhope have Green Key, and Hotel Amigo has Ecostars. All six of our Brussels boutique hotels are organised by district, from the Grand-Place to the Sablon.

Bruges

Bruges is small enough to cross on foot in half an hour, so the real choice is which canal you want outside your window. Day-trippers fill the Markt by late morning and leave by early evening, which makes an overnight stay worthwhile. Our picks sit inside the old centre, in mansions, carriage houses and guild buildings, around the Markt and Burg, the Dijver canals and quieter Sint-Anna.

Top Pick: The Pand Hotel, 26 rooms and suites in a converted 18th-century carriage house on a quiet street by the Dijver and Rozenhoedkaai, rated 9.3/10 on Booking.com. Check Availability

The other four boutique hotels in Bruges include an 1869 mansion just off the Markt, which holds Green Key certification, and a guests-only canal house.

Ghent

Ghent is a medieval river port and a quieter alternative to Bruges. All of our picks are within about 600 m of the centre, in converted buildings, historic mansions and design-led interiors, which suits couples and city-break travellers who want to walk everywhere.

Top Pick: 1898 The Post, a neo-Gothic former post office with 38 rooms and suites on the Graslei waterfront in the historic centre, rated 9.4/10 on Booking.com. Check Availability

Most of our Ghent boutique hotels sit in the historic centre, and all are within about 600 m of it.

Antwerp

Antwerp makes an easy weekend away. Its old town is compact, walkable and full of design shops, and the best boutique hotels sit in restored merchant houses within a few minutes of the cathedral. The historic centre is the obvious base, with the fashion quarter of Sint-Andries and the old docklands of Het Eilandje close by.

Top Pick: Flora, seven gemstone-themed suites in a 15th-century merchant’s house in the historic centre, about 300 metres from the Cathedral of Our Lady, rated 9.8/10 on Booking.com. Check Availability

The full list of boutique hotels in Antwerp runs to six design-led picks, from a three-room B&B to suites in a 15th-century merchant’s house.

Mechelen

Mechelen sits halfway between Brussels and Antwerp on the main rail line, with direct trains from Brussels Airport, but it rewards an overnight stay rather than a quick stop. The old town is small and quiet after dark, and the best places to stay are tiny, owner-run B&Bs in historic houses rather than big hotels.

Top Pick: Lunatree, an Art Nouveau house with a rooftop treehouse lounge on the Melaan, about 150 metres from the Grote Markt, rated 9.3/10 on Booking.com. Check Availability

All six Mechelen boutique hotels are small, and five are B&Bs or guest houses. Porta Superia, a B&B on an old city gate, holds Green Key certification.

Liège

Liège is a river city with a compact old centre and hilly quarters rising above it. Few hotels here clear our bar, so most of our picks are B&Bs, on the slopes of Mont Saint-Martin and Sainte-Croix or near Liège-Guillemins station. It suits a weekend of food and museums, or a stop on the rail line between Brussels and Germany.

Top Pick: Hotel Neuvice, a small design hotel on an old lane in the historic centre, 350 m from the Prince-Bishops’ Palace, rated 9.2/10 on Booking.com. Check Availability

Our four boutique hotels in Liège cover the old centre, Mont Saint-Martin, Sainte-Croix and the station area.

Sustainable Stays in Belgium

• Green Key is the label you’ll see most: it’s the Foundation for Environmental Education’s international hotel label. In Flanders it’s run by GoodPlanet with Toerisme Vlaanderen, and more than 200 businesses there hold it. In Brussels it’s run by GoodPlanet and Inter-Environnement Wallonie.
• What it checks: every site gets an on-site inspection by an environmental expert and a review by a national jury. It has dozens of mandatory criteria on water, energy, waste, cleaning products and staff training, and hotels have to show improvement every year to keep it.
• What it doesn’t tell you: Green Key says nothing about size or style. In Flanders, chain hotels such as Motel One and Ibis hold it too, which is why our picks still have to pass our boutique and 9+ tests on their own.
• Brussels has its own label: the region’s free Ecodynamic Enterprise label rates a business’s environmental management with one to three stars, so the star count tells you how far a hotel has gone.
• Ecostars: the certification Hotel Amigo holds rates a hotel’s environmental impact per stay, and its standard is recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.

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Hotels are chosen on guest reviews, Booking.com review scores, style and central location. This post contains affiliate links to Booking.com; if you book through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.