Things to do in Brussels when it rains: indoor ideas

In short: Brussels is well suited to grey days. Shelter under the glass roof of the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, spend the morning at the Magritte Museum and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, follow comic strips to their museum, go inside the spheres of the Atomium, and warm up with a hot chocolate or a waffle. The centre is compact: everything is on foot or by metro.

The Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert

A short walk from the Grand-Place, the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, opened in the 19th century, are among the oldest covered shopping arcades in Europe. Under their glass roof: chocolatiers, bookshops, cafés, a theatre and a cinema. You can spend an hour there without seeing the rain.

The Mont des Arts and its museums

• The Royal Museums of Fine Arts: from the Flemish Primitives to Bruegel and Rubens, through to modern painters.
• The Magritte Museum, devoted to the Belgian master of surrealism, in the same complex.
• The Musical Instruments Museum (MIM), in a former Art Nouveau department store: you listen to the instruments as you go. Its top-floor restaurant has views over the city.

Comic strips

The Belgian Comic Strip Center, housed in an Art Nouveau department store designed by Victor Horta, tells the story of Belgian comics, from Tintin to the Smurfs. Between showers, look out for the murals of the Comic Book Route painted on façades in the centre.

The Atomium

Built for the 1958 World’s Fair, the Atomium is a giant model of an iron crystal. Its spheres can be visited inside, linked by escalators, and the top sphere has a view over the city, even under low clouds.

Dinosaurs and the Cinquantenaire museums

• The Museum of Natural Sciences, in the European Quarter, has one of the largest dinosaur galleries in Europe, with the famous Bernissart iguanodons. Ideal for families.
• In Cinquantenaire Park, under the arcades, several museums: Autoworld (vintage cars), the Royal Military Museum and the Art & History Museum.
• The Parlamentarium, free, explains how the European Union works in an interactive way.

Art Nouveau from the inside

The Horta Museum, in Saint-Gilles, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, shows Art Nouveau from the inside: staircase, glass roofs and furniture. Visits are limited: book ahead.

Chocolate, waffles and cafés

Rain is the right time for a treat: a chocolate workshop to learn to make your own pralines, a warm waffle, or a hot chocolate in a tea room in the Sablon, the district of the great chocolatiers. In the evening, Brussels cafés and their long lists of Belgian beers take over.

Our tips

• Group by area: the Grand-Place, the Galeries Saint-Hubert and the Mont des Arts are within walking distance; Cinquantenaire Park and the Museum of Natural Sciences are neighbours in the European Quarter.
• The metro links the centre with the Cinquantenaire and the Atomium.
• Save a sunny spell for the Grand-Place lit up at night, or for a day in Bruges or Ghent, about an hour away by train.

Month-by-month temperatures and rainfall are on our Brussels page. For sunny days: Things to do in Brussels and Where to stay in Brussels. Country tips: Travel in Belgium.