Leuven is a quintessential Flemish university town located just a 15 minute train ride from Brussels International Airport. Home to around 100,000 residents, it is the 8th largest town in Belgium. Known for its breweries, it makes for a great day trip from Brussels, as well as a relaxing weekend getaway destination.
A highlight of Leuven is its 15th-century town hall, adorned with tall spires. Hundreds of statues of local figures, biblical characters and saints decorate the building. Surrounded by centuries old guild houses, it is a typically charming Flemish town.
Unlike Brussels, Leuven is not overrun with tourists and bureaucrats. We love Brussels, but some people find the city to be too large and bustling (albeit it is significantly smaller compared to Paris and London). While hotels can be reasonably priced on weekends, weeknights in Brussels can be pricey when there are major events taking place.
Brugge is slightly prettier than Leuven, and its abundance of chocolate shops are delicious. But it is further from Brussels if you need to commute back and forth.
So if you need to be in Brussels and hotels are too expensive during your stay, Leuven makes for an easy 20 minute commute. Trains between Leuven and Brussels are frequent, running every 30 minutes. It also offers a great opportunity to experience a non-touristy smaller Belgium town.
Leuven Cafes and Beer Halls
Cafe Leffe
In Leuven we enjoyed delicious and reasonably priced pasta dishes in the main square, topped with a generous portion of quality Belgian cheese. We also savored tasty dishes cooked in beer at Cafe Leffe. The abbey style beer themed restaurant is affiliated with the largest brewery in the world, Anheuser Busch-Inbev.
We recommend their pork cheeks over the beef stew. Both dishes were tasty, but we thought the beer sauce in the beef was a little too sweet. We found the beer sauce in the pork to be more balanced and flavorful. It was a Tuesday night when we ate at Leffe, but it was still surprisingly quiet as there were just a few other tables occupied in the large restaurant. Perhaps too many people were hung over from the previous night’s festivities!
We were a little worried Cafe Leffe would only have Anheuser Busch-Inbev products but to our surprise they had extensive alternatives including a large Trappist beer selection (monk made beer), with great offerings like Westmalle Tripel, Achel and Orval. We typically don’t dine at chain restaurants, but Cafe Leffe turned out to be a worthwhile exception.
You can also find Cafe Leffe in Brussels and many towns around Belgium. Incidentally, Anheuser Busch-Inbev is headquartered in Leuven and now accounts for a whopping 25% of the world’s beer production!
Renting Bicycles in Leuven
We also rented bicycles from the train station, which is a great deal. It’s lovely to cycle through town and a bit safer than cycling through Brussels because it’s smaller and less congested. It was also quicker to bike into the countryside and enjoy peaceful forests, streams and wheat fields. From Leuven, It’s only about 9 miles (15km) to the border of Wallonia, which is the southern French speaking area of Belgium, making this a doable trip for anybody who’s in moderate shape. We didn’t plan ahead to do this, but we wish we had!
Consider Staying in Leuven Over Brussels
On our recent 12 day trip to the Netherlands and Belgian, which saw us spending more time in the Netherlands for work reasons, we flew back to Boston out of Brussels Airport and had just a short time in Belgium on the return. We had previously spent time in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Brugge, which are all fantastic. We then discovered that Leuven offers both beauty and convenience because of its close proximity to Brussels Airport.
Leuven Hotels
Begijnhof Hotel offers charming accommodation near the 13th-century Grand Beguinage. Rooms at Begijnhof Hotel offer views of the Dijle River, hotel garden, the city or parking. The property features a sauna and a secluded garden with a terrace. Their on-sire bar Ten HoveIn, offers a delicious selection of Belgian beers. Breakfast is served in a restored part of the Grand Beguinage.
We stayed at Huize Rafael which was pretty average. We neither recommend it nor do we disapprove of that guest house. The Monday night we arrived in Leuven was actually very busy because university was just starting and there was a big festival taking place. In our case, we didn’t stay in Leuven because it was cheaper than Brussels. It just suited our plans of experiencing a smaller Belgian town close to Brussels Airport.
More on Belgium
Asides from Leuven, Antwerp also offers a great alternative stay to Brussels. It’s just 30 minutes by train, with a very frequent schedule. It’s also really close to Brussels airport. Antwerp is a beautiful town with lots to do. Antwerp is a larger city than Leuven, but smaller than Brussels. Read our article on Romantic Day Trips from Brussels for more ideas on where to go in Belgium!
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I’d love to visit Leuven, especially if there are such gorgeous woods to explore nearby. You two were especially lucky to visit during a carnival!
Haha, yeah the carnival was a stroke of luck! And the cycling was great. Bell will sometimes cycle the streets of bigger cities but I’m not very comfortable with it. I was really comfortable cycling through Leuven though!
I was curious out of all the cities in Belgium which one would you recommend to stay in if you only had a few days?
Hi Joey. Tough one. Depends what you’re looking for- Brugge is wonderful but it’s a little touristy so if you want to avoid that and a big city (Brussels) then maybe Ghent or Antwerp which are medium sized. All the Belgian cities are great for beer and every place we mention has great architecture, but Brugge and Brussels are especially great for chocolate shops. The canals in Brugge are also lovely and it’s an especially romantic town so maybe Brugge. We do love Brussels as well (The Grand Place is amazing) and Leuven is a super short train ride to check out a cool town that isn’t touristy. Please let us know if you are looking for something specific or have any more questions. Thanks for commenting!