Maybe you are thinking that’s a lot of shopping when you are looking at the itinerary for GetAway Travel’s special curated Belgian Holiday Markets River Cruise , don’t be silly! It’s all in different areas, you get a great cruise and spectacular views and travel adventures. Each market is a bit different, how about carnival games — only it’s breaking water balloons using a bow and arrow? Or how about a once-in-a-lifetime experience shopping in a cave or two? Shopping and the cruise are parts of the experience, but there’s time to explore before the markets open.

Antwerp, Hasselt and Liége

 Antwerp’s market is in the heart of Old Town and the historic building facades are awash with festive light projections. More than 100 stalls are spread across several squares. The ice rink is at Groenplaats Square with the majestic Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe Cathedral in the background.

From atop the Ferris wheel the city seems ablaze with lights because of the plethora of illuminations on the facades as well as lighted illuminations.

The shopping chalets surround the skating rink, helping persuade visitors to take a closer look at the knitted products. Olive wood items are also popular.

Antwerp food options, in addition to waffles, there’s potato swirls, empanadas, appelbollen (apple dumplings) and a great variety of meats. There’s also Bolleke (Belgian amber ale), chocolates, truffles and spelculoos, a thin, crunchy heavily spiced shortbread biscuit. Cuberdons are cone-shaped candies with a crystalized outer sugar shell and a gooey center. You should bite the top off and slurp out the insides.

Antwerpse handjes are either hand-shaped butter cookies sprinkled with almond flakes, or hand-shaped white, milk or dark chocolates.

Traditionally, the first market to open in Belgium is Hasselt. The ice rink is covered here and children can visit Santa in the Santa Claus house. Santa’s house is a replica of the famous house in Rovaniemi, Finland.

The market has quite the carnival atmosphere with a grand carousel, ghost house and fun house. There’s the traditional ring toss game, but you can try out your archery skills by trying to hit the water balloons at one of the booths.

This is a market with some great food options. There’s waffles, waterzooi, shrimp croquettes and stoemp which is mashed potatoes mixed with vegetables but it can also include bacon, cream, onions or shallots.

Liége is the oldest market in Belgium. It has a great festive atmosphere and almost 200 shopping chalets. It caters more towards the Germanic traditions.  The market is centered on the Place Saint-Lambert and spreads into the surrounding streets.

There is a Ferris wheel, skating rink, sledding hill and photo booths. There is an emphasis on entertainment with opera presentations, magic shows and a European circus complete with a Big Top and a temporary motorcycle racing sphere.

This is a city celebrated for its food culture. It has its own specialty waffle, the gaufer de Liège which is a dense, caramelized waffle.Try Peket, a gin with juniper flavors, Belgian Owl: a single malt whiskey and boukétes: tasty little buckwheat pancakes.

Maastricht, Valkenburg, Aachen

Two miles from the Belgian border into the Netherlands is Maastricht. The Christmas market is located in Vrijthof Square, surrounded by lovely historic buildings such as the Basilica of St. Servatius. There’s a covered ice rink, a Ferris wheel with glass enclosed gondola seating, a carousel and a fun house.

There’s some different food options to try out including crêpes, poffertjes (Dutch batter cakes), curry sausage and flammkuchen. Flammkuchen is a thinly rolled out dough covered with cheese or crème fraîche, thinly sliced onions and crispy meat bits.

Europe’s largest underground Christmas experience is at Valkenburg where thousands of twinkling lights create a festive atmosphere in two centuries old marlstone caves, Gemeentegrot and Fluweelengrot. There are market stalls, life-size holiday sculptures and it is surely a shopping experience you will never be able to duplicate.

Gemeentegrot is the largest underground market and Fluweelengrot, a smaller underground market, is literally a one-minute walk away. There are photo opportunities galore in either market site with the vendor stalls as well a carvings and inscriptions on the walls and Christmas character decorations.

Many of the artisan items are carved of marl stone, a chalky, white rock that is the same thing that the White Cliffs of Dover are made of. You can buy carved candleholders, chess sets and nativity scenes made of marl stone.

Outside of the two markets is Santa’s Village with some additional vendors and more food! Inside or outside you can find fudge, soup, sausage rolls, apple turnovers, meats, gouda cheese and stroopwafels.

Aachen’s Christmas market is in historic Old Town by Aachen Cathedral. The more than 130 vendors are clustered around the fabulous cathedral. The oldest cathedral in Northern Europe, is is the burial site for Charlemagne and was the coronation site for more than 30 German kings.    Step inside to see the amazing Byzantine mosaics.

There’s plenty of interesting options to fortify yourself with if you get hungry while shopping.

The definite food star of the market is the Aachener Printen, a hard, spicy gingerbread that comes in a number of different varieties including chocolate covered or with nuts. You can drink mulled wine, hot chocolate with a health dollop of whipped cream, egg nog of mulled cider. Try some reibekuchen, crispy, hot potato pancakes served with applesauce.

That’s our Belgian Holiday Markets River Cruise itinerary, and you can join GetAway Travel in 2027 or our advisors can plan your very own Christmas market adventures designed to give you memories that will last a lifetime. We can be reached at:  (262) 538-2140, e-mail: sue@getaway.travel or paul@getaway.travel