Belgium

Antwerp turned out to be our favorite beer city in all of Europe, and we did not see that coming. The reason is the Kulminator — a bar you could walk straight past, with a beer list of more than 5,000 in a binder six inches thick and a room piled so high with boxes, bottles and old magazines that it feels more like your grandparents’ living room than the best beer bar on the continent. Brussels gave us Le Poechenellekelder across from the Manneken Pis, which became our daily hangout, and Au Bon Vieux Temps, open since 1695 and hidden down an alley. In Ghent it rained all day, so we spent the whole day inside ’t Gouden Mandeke — low ceilings, low light, exactly the kind of cozy we wanted. Here’s the full list.

We stayed in Antwerp at Boulevard Leopold, and it is still the best-decorated place we have ever slept in. Someone clearly spent years at markets hunting down the exact right piece for each corner. Breakfast was simple and posh, and we kept lingering in the dining room just to keep looking at everything.