Chocolate & Markets Guides

29 guides

Chocolate in Belgium is easiest to grasp in Bruges, where dozens of shops sit within a short walk and the praline makers stand apart from the novelty counters. Antwerp offers a shorter trail of its own, running from The Chocolate Line inside the Paleis op de Meir to ChoFleur by the Cathedral of Our Lady. Between the two, the museums diverge sharply: Choco-Story in Bruges is object-led history with a hand-made demonstration, while Chocolate Nation beside Antwerpen-Centraal takes a larger interactive approach.

Markets tie the same cities to particular days and squares. Ghent runs one every day of the week and six at once on a Sunday morning; Leuven's biggest fills Ladeuzeplein and Hooverplein on Friday; Liège's La Batte stretches along the Meuse quays on Sundays. Smaller stops repay a detour, such as Ostend's fish stalls on the Visserskaai and the Saturday stalls on Ypres's Grote Markt.

The usual slip is timing. Visitors arrive on the wrong morning or assume a shop and a market share the same hours. Pair a chocolatier with the square it faces, check which day the stalls come, and the two fit into one walk.