Brussels

Select another city ------------------ Atlanta Chicago Houston Los Angeles Mexico City New York San Francisco Washington ------------------ Sao Paolo Santiago Buenos Aires ------------------ Amsterdam Berlin Brussels Frankfurt London Madrid Milan Moscow Paris Rome Stockholm ------------------ Bangalore Beijing Dubai Hong Kong Istanbul Shanghai Seoul Singapore Taipei Tel Aviv Tokyo ------------------ Cairo Johannesburg ------------------ Sydney

As the headquarters for both NATO and the EU (including its accompanying press corps, which is the world's largest), the European base for a multitude of international corporations (some 1,200 from the United States), and the home of about 300,000 expats, this aristocratic city is arguably the most cosmopolitan on the Continent. The zones housing the European and Belgian institutions are sharply separate from each other: The financial district and Belgian parliament are in the old center of the city, while the European institutions are just to the east of the center, clustered around the Rond-Pont Schuman and the Place de Luxembourg. Many corporations (including UPS, Proctor & Gamble, and Toyota) have headquarters on the highways leading out to the airport. Here you will also find the NATO headquarters and Eurocontrol. All this to-ing and fro-ing has given the downtown area a fabulous buzz. Suddenly Brussels need no longer defer to the more fashionable city of Antwerp and is developing an identity as an appealing destination in its own right.

Where to Sleep
Central Brussels is small; outside of rush hour, you can get almost anywhere within 20 minutes (at peak times, take the metro rather than a taxi), so hotel location is not the all-dominating concern that it might be elsewhere. Near the Gare du Midi (home of high-speed rail links to London and Paris), you'll find the city's latest sleek boutique hotel, the Be Manos, already a favorite of executives from luxury goods firms such as Cartier as well as Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Siemens. Just off the Grand'Place and as central as it is possible to be, the Hotel Amigo is in an impeccably restored late-eighteenth-century building with elegantly modern interiors, excellent service, and a lounge bar well suited for an informal chat over coffee. This is the hotel of choice for visiting heads of state. Smaller and more discreet, the Dixseptième has large suites and private apartments in the former home of a seventeenth-century Spanish ambassador. Steps away from the financial district, it is favored by Fortis Bank, Godiva, and senior representatives of the UN institutions. The Conrad has the best swimming pool and gym facilities of any hotel in town.

Where to Eat
The current rave is Museum Brasserie, which is in the same splendid Art Nouveau building as the Museum of Fine Arts. The menu, by chef Peter Goossens, who earned three Michelin stars for his restaurant Hof Van Cleve (near Ghent), elevates simple Belgian brasserie-style cooking. Much less pomp and fewer tables can be found at Inada, a favorite with Brussels's most savvy gastronomes and run by the eponymous chef who prepares French cuisine with a Japanese lightness of touch. Unfortunately, Inada is not open for lunch on Saturdays or at all on Sundays or Mondays.

Where to See and Be Seen
The young and stylish head downtown to the bars and restaurants on and around the Place St-Catherine and the neighboring Place St-Géry. Nearby, the Archiduke is the city's most famous bar, and its scuffed 1950s interior is the inevitable home away from home for rock bands passing through town. Inclement weather draws the lounging crowd to The Flat, a bar laid out like an apartment, complete with bath and bedroom. Farther south in Ixelles, bright young things gravitate to the Belga, an always-buzzing café bar in a converted radio station.

Where to Close a Deal
Beyond the office, most business takes place over lunch. Major institutions are surrounded by a moat of decent small restaurants, often open only for lunch on weekdays. The EU Quarter has two classic Italian eateries with heavy napery, an expert waitstaff, and an elite clientele: Dal Padrino and Barbanera. Downtown, in the Belgian banking and business district, Sea Grill, at the Radisson SAS Hotel, is a center of haute gastronomy.

Local Codes
Most institutions in Brussels operate in French, but more than half of Belgians speak Flemish, so before you try to charm anyone with their native language, check that you are using the right one. Flemings and Walloons are united in their passion for food and tennis—think Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin. Brussels is generally conservative and family-oriented, and Belgians tend to shy away from displays of wealth, often preferring to entertain in style at home rather than flash their means in public. This is not a dressy city, although given its garment industry heritage (Brussels is still the home of Scabal menswear), quality is appreciated. The habit of drinking at lunchtime is slowly on the way out, but if you do raise a celebratory glass, be sure to maintain eye contact as you do so.

Airport Intelligence
Brussels's airport is small and efficient. Trips into town by taxi take 20 to 30 minutes and cost as many euros; tipping is not mandatory, but many choose to round up the bill, particularly if asking for a receipt. There is an excellent bus service that stops at NATO, Rond-Point Schuman, and the Place de Luxembourg. To reach the center of town, take a train to the Gare Centrale—there are four per hour.

The Three-Hour Tour
You can walk from the Palais Royal, along the Rue Royale, through the Place du Grand Sablon, and down to the Grand'Place in less than an hour. If you have time to linger, head to the Museum of Fine Arts, which has works by Bruegel, Bosch, Rubens, and Magritte. Then, if time permits, take a ten-minute cab ride to the small and lovely Museum Van Buuren, a private villa built in 1928, furnished in splendid Art Deco style, and loaded with exquisite artwork (including The Fall of Icarus, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder). Leave enough time to wander the artfully landscaped garden.

-Hettie Judah