Antwerp in 2 days, on foot

This 2-day self-guided walking plan for Antwerp covers 22 narrated sights in an easy day-by-day order. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon loop, and every stop has a two to three minute audio story in the Gingerguide app.

You set the pace: this is a suggested order, not a schedule. Walk it in 2 days, or stretch it out. Reorder freely; Antwerp rewards a detour.

Day 1

Morning

1. Cathedral of Our Lady: Belgium's largest Gothic cathedral with a 123-metre spire, housing two monumental Rubens masterpieces, the city's supreme spiritual and artistic landmark.
2. Grote Markt: Antwerp's grand central square, dominated by the stunning Renaissance Town Hall and flanked by ornate guild houses, with the Brabo Fountain at its heart.
3. Rubens House: The palatial Baroque home and studio of Pieter Paul Rubens, where he lived, worked, and trained his pupils from 1610 until his death in 1640, one of Europe's great artist houses.
4. Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA): One of the great art museums of the Low Countries, housing 7,000 works including Rubens, Van Dyck, Bruegel, and Ensor in a magnificent 19th-century building, reopened 2022 after major renovation.
5. MAS: Museum aan de Stroom: A striking 10-floor tower museum in the Eilandje district, exploring Antwerp's port history and world cultures, with spectacular free panoramic rooftop views over the Scheldt.
6. Plantin-Moretus Museum: A UNESCO World Heritage printing house, the oldest printing presses in existence and a Gutenberg Bible in a 16th-century family home, one of Belgium's most extraordinary museums.

Afternoon

1. Antwerp Central Station: The 'Railway Cathedral', Antwerp's stunning 1905 Neo-Baroque train station, consistently voted the world's most beautiful, with four underground levels and a soaring glass dome.
2. Antwerp Diamond District: The world capital of rough diamonds, four square blocks around Central Station where 80% of the world's rough diamonds and 50% of cut diamonds are traded.
3. Port of Antwerp & Red Star Line Museum: Europe's second largest port and the original departure point of the Red Star Line, from which two million Europeans emigrated to America between 1873 and 1934.
4. Meir: The Grand Boulevard: Antwerp's magnificent main shopping boulevard, a pedestrian street of grand 18th and 19th century buildings, anchored by the Rococo Royal Palace now used as a shopping centre.
5. Handelsbeurs: The World's First Stock Exchange: Built in 1531, Antwerp's Handelsbeurs was the world's first purpose-built stock exchange, the building that gave the word 'bourse' to most European languages.

Day 2

Morning

1. Antwerp Zoo: One of the world's oldest zoos (1843), adjacent to Central Station, with magnificent Victorian animal houses, 5,000 animals, and serious conservation breeding programmes.
2. St James's Church: Rubens' Burial Place: The richest interior of any church in Antwerp, and the burial place of Pieter Paul Rubens, whose grave is marked by one of his own most personal paintings.
3. Scheldt Riverfront & Het Steen: Antwerp's restored Scheldt waterfront, anchored by the ancient Het Steen fortress, offering sweeping river views and serving as the city's most dramatic public space.
4. FoMu: Photography Museum Antwerp: Belgium's leading photography museum, in the vibrant South district, with a major historic collection and acclaimed temporary exhibitions of both classic and contemporary photography.
5. Eilandje: The Regenerated Dock District: A former warehouse district transformed into Antwerp's most exciting cultural quarter, home to the MAS museum, Red Star Line Museum, and a thriving community of cafes and galleries.
6. Antwerp Fashion District & MoMu: The world-famous fashion quarter around Nationalestraat, home to boutiques by the Antwerp Six designers and MoMu, Belgium's premier fashion museum, in the vibrant Zuid district.

Afternoon

1. Cogels-Osylei & Zurenborg: Antwerp's most extraordinary residential street, an eclectic Belle Époque boulevard where Art Nouveau, Neo-Gothic, and Renaissance Revival mansions create one of Belgium's most theatrical streetscapes.
2. Vleeshuis: Sound of the City: A magnificent 1504 Gothic meat hall with striped brick and stone, now a museum of music and sound celebrating Antwerp's rich musical heritage from medieval instruments to carillon.
3. Sint-Annatunnel: Pedestrian Tunnel Under the Scheldt: A remarkable 1933 Art Deco tunnel running 572 metres under the Scheldt, wooden escalators, tiled walls, and a walk that crosses under one of Europe's great rivers.
4. Antwerp Culinary Culture: Chocolate, Beer & Bolleke: From artisan chocolate ateliers to the iconic Bolleke De Koninck beer, Antwerp's culinary identity is distinctive, celebrated, and deeply connected to its port trading heritage.
5. Antwerp's Baroque Heritage Walk: Walk in the footsteps of Rubens through the Baroque churches and palaces of Antwerp's 17th-century golden age, the city where Baroque art and architecture reached its northern European peak.

Full Antwerp guide and all stops → · Other itineraries: 3 days