Planning a family trip to Belgium? TripNest turns it into its own app: 10 narrated story podcasts about Belgium for the drive, games and a quiz for the kids, an audio phrasebook, and the day-by-day plan and map the whole family shares.
Start your Belgium trip - free
Tintin, the Smurfs and walls full of comics
A young reporter with a white dog, and a village of small blue characters - both were dreamed up by Belgian artists. In Brussels, whole house walls are painted with comic panels several storeys high. We follow the ink from a drawing board to a building the size of a block of flats.
Why Belgian food comes in paper cones
Why does a small chip stand have a queue out the door, and why is there a fork stuck in the top of the cone? We look at the difference between a Brussels waffle and a Liège waffle, and find out how a filled chocolate is made. Listen before lunch at your own risk.
Bruges, boats and medieval trading
Eight hundred years ago, ships from all over Europe sailed towards Bruges loaded with wool and spices. Today you can take a low boat under stone bridges that those traders would recognise. We find out what happened when the water to the sea slowly silted up.
A young country with an ancient square
Belgium is younger than the Grand-Place at its heart, which is covered in gold decoration and guild houses. We look at how the country came together in 1830, and why so many European offices ended up here. There's also a very small, very famous statue to explain.
Inside a belfry and its carillon
Climb hundreds of narrow steps and you reach a room full of bells, some bigger than a bathtub. A carillon player uses fists and feet on a wooden keyboard to make music the whole town can hear. We find out what the bells used to tell people before anyone had a clock or a phone.
Shrimp fishers of the Belgian coast
At Oostduinkerke, fishers ride strong horses into the shallow water, dragging nets behind them to catch tiny grey shrimp. It's the only place left on Earth where people still fish this way. We meet the horses, the nets, and the long beach they work on.
Forests, caves and wild boar
In the south of Belgium the land folds into hills covered in beech and spruce, with rivers cutting through the middle. Underneath, water has carved out caves with rooms the size of churches. We listen for woodpeckers and look for the muddy signs that wild boar have passed by.
Belgium's strangest, best festivals
In Binche, dancers called Gilles wear tall feather hats and toss oranges into the crowd. In other towns, giant puppets several metres tall are carried through the streets by teams of people. We find out who makes them, and why the same day comes round every single year.
Big ships, small diamonds
Antwerp sits on the River Scheldt and handles enormous container ships stacked like building blocks. A few streets near the station are where a huge share of the world's diamonds are bought and sold. We compare the biggest cranes with stones smaller than a fingernail.
How Belgium does sport
Belgian bike races run over bumpy cobbled roads and short, steep hills that riders train on for years. The national football team is nicknamed the Red Devils, and match days turn whole towns red. We find out why a rough old farm track can become famous across the world.
One / Two / Three / Five
A snowflake / A crystal of iron / A football / A raindrop
Antwerp / Liège / Bruges / Namur
The Belgium podcast has 10 narrated story episodes for the car or the plane: A Country That Draws, Chips, Waffles and Chocolate, The City Built on Water, Brussels: A Very New Old City, Bells Over the Rooftops, Horses in the Sea, Deep in the Ardennes, Masks, Giants and Confetti, Antwerp: Port and Sparkle and Bikes, Cobbles and the Red Devils.
"Dank u wel", said dahnk oo vel. It's one of the phrases in the Belgium audio phrasebook, recorded so the kids can hear it before they try it.
112 (Emergency (all services)). TripNest puts it in your trip's contacts page next to your own contacts.
Every trip starts free: the day-by-day plan, map and contacts. Premium adds the Belgium podcasts, kids' games and the audio phrasebook for $24, once per trip - no subscription.
No. Your trip is one link that opens on everyone's phone, grandparents included, without an account. You can add it to your home screen so it works offline once you land.