, as well as some truly excellent sandy beaches, Belgium beats Barcelona any day. What's more, the country's image has changed since the 1969 comedy film If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium – about a group of American tourists on an 18-day escorted coach tour of Europe, who could only tell which country they were in by consulting their itineraries. The Grand Place and the Atomium in Brussels are still major tourist attractions, but now Belgium is beginning to unveil the real scope of its charms. In just under two hours on the Eurostar, I reached Brussels before boarding a local train to the major coastal resort of Ostend, just a few miles from the French border. It makes the ideal base from which to explore this unspoilt coastline. The once-grand and now slightly fading Thermae Palace Hotel, right on the promenade, proved to be a good choice. My room was on the first floor, and from the fine terrace I had a commanding view of the huge sandy beach as well as the various comings and goings on the restaurant terrace below. At the height of summer, this is the perfect place to relax on a sunbed and breathe in the invigorating North Sea air, while topping up a suntan without burning to a crisp. The beaches stretch for miles in both directions and are topped by th){kind=link}
Give the hot and crowded Mediterranean a miss this summer and check out the seaside charms of Flanders instead
With wildfires, high winds and temperatures well above 40C flaring across the Mediterranean in recent weeks, fly-and-flop holiday favourites such as Greece, Spain and Italy are no longer as appealing as they once were. And if the extreme weather is not reason enough to reconsider your summer plans, also bear in mind the crowds. Thoughts of the busy beaches of Benidorm and the crowded boulevards of Cannes may well deter you from booking.
However, all is not lost. There is a European alternative to that pre-dawn check-in to fly south and join thousands of others for the annual beach-towel-on-sunbed contest. Closer to home and with significantly lower temperatures (a pleasant 23C is forecast for mid-August), as well as some truly excellent sandy beaches, Belgium beats Barcelona any day.
What’s more, the country’s image has changed since the 1969 comedy film If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium – about a group of American tourists on an 18-day escorted coach tour of Europe, who could only tell which country they were in by consulting their itineraries. The Grand Place and the Atomium in Brussels are still major tourist attractions, but now Belgium is beginning to unveil the real scope of its charms.
In just under two hours on the Eurostar, I reached Brussels before boarding a local train to the major coastal resort of Ostend, just a few miles from the French border. It makes the ideal base from which to explore this unspoilt coastline.