When's the best time to visit Antwerp in 2026?

We'd book late May, June or September. Daytime highs run from about 17°C to 22°C, warm enough to sit outside on the Grote Markt with a bolleke of De Koninck, Antwerp's own amber ale, served in its round goblet. In June the sun sets close to 10pm, so you can finish the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal by mid-afternoon and still have four hours of light for the Scheldekaaien and the walk south to Het Zuid. For a first trip, September is our pick: Belgian schools go back on 1 September, the domestic crowds thin out, and the wait to see the Rubens altarpieces in the cathedral tends to drop to a few minutes. You'll hear the carillon over the Groenplaats without a tour group talking over it. The catch in both windows is rain. Antwerp gets roughly 800 mm a year, spread across all twelve months, so pack a light jacket even in June.

July and August are warmer, with highs near 23°C and the odd spell above 30°C, and many older hotels around the Meir and the Grote Markt have no air conditioning, so ask before you book for those weeks. Antwerp Pride usually falls in mid-August and fills the city: come for it if you want it, but if you don't, book your room two months ahead. Late July is also when Belgium's construction holiday starts, and a fair number of family-run brasseries in the Schipperskwartier and around the Vrijdagmarkt close for two or three weeks. If you have your heart set on a particular Antwerp restaurant, check which days it opens before you travel in July.

November through February is the stretch we'd steer first-timers away from. The wind off the Scheldt bites along the quays by Het Steen, and in December the light is gone before 4.45pm. December does have one real draw: from early December into the first days of January, the Christmas market fills the Grote Markt and the Groenplaats, and the smell of hot glühwein and smoutebollen, Flemish doughnut balls dusted in powdered sugar, drifts across both squares from the wooden stalls. If winter is your only window, build each day around an indoor anchor. The Museum Plantin-Moretus is a UNESCO-listed printing house whose wood-panelled rooms stay warm and dim, and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Het Zuid is the other strong option.

One timing mistake catches first-timers in every season: the Museum Plantin-Moretus and most city-run museums close on Mondays. If you arrive on a Monday, spend that day at the cathedral, which opens on weekdays from 10am, and at Antwerp Zoo next to Antwerpen-Centraal station, which opens every day. Leave the museums for Tuesday, when the jet lag has eased and the galleries are quieter.