Is Antwerp safe?

Most trouble a visitor meets in Antwerp is theft, not violence. The Meir is the pedestrian shopping street between Teniersplaats and Groenplaats, and teams tend to work it on Saturday afternoons, when the crowd shuffles shoulder to shoulder and the air smells of warm waffle batter. The escalators down to the premetro at Groenplaats and Opera are the other pinch point, so keep your phone in a front pocket when you use them. You may have read about grenade attacks and shootings tied to the cocaine trade through the Port of Antwerp, and those are real, but they are aimed at specific front doors in residential Borgerhout, Deurne and Merksem, mostly in the small hours. Our read is that a visitor sleeping near Grote Markt is very unlikely to cross paths with one.

Antwerpen-Centraal and Koningin Astridplein stay busy and well lit until the last trains, with the hiss of brakes echoing under the iron and glass roof. The mood changes about 400 metres north. De Coninckplein and the streets of postcode 2060 behind it still have open dealing and street drinking after dark, and we would not walk them alone past 11pm. Franklin Rooseveltplaats, the bus hub nearby, tends to feel edgy late on Friday and Saturday. The Schipperskwartier is the regulated red-light zone around Verversrui, and it is policed, but solo women report it as leery after 1am. To be fair, none of these is a no-go zone at 3pm. For a late drink, our pick is Marnixplaats in Het Zuid, Dageraadplaats in Zurenborg, or the quays of Het Eilandje beside the Museum aan de Stroom.

De Lijn trams and premetro lines thin out around midnight, and the night timetable has changed more than once, so check the De Lijn app before you count on a 1am ride. Licensed taxis wait on Astridplein and Groenplaats, and Uber currently operates in the city. The walk from Centraal to Grote Markt takes about 20 minutes along the Meir and is lit the whole way. The Sint-Annatunnel is a different matter: it runs 572 metres under the Scheldt, the 1930s wooden escalators clack on the way down, the tiled air is cold on your arms, and after 11pm you may be the only person in it. We would save it for daylight. On a red Velo share bike, cross the tram rails on Nationalestraat at a wide angle, because the groove is the width of a tyre. The cobbles on Hoogstraat turn slick as soap after rain.

Eating alone is easy in Antwerp, since brown cafes seat you at the bar without a second glance. Den Engel on Grote Markt pours a bolleke of De Koninck, malty and faintly bitter, for about €4, and Frites Atelier on Korte Gasthuisstraat hands you a hot paper cone you can eat standing, salt on your fingers. For a bed, Antwerp Central Youth Hostel on Bogaardeplein, known locally as Pulcinella, has private rooms alongside dorms, and Yust in Berchem mixes hostel beds with a lobby bar where long-stay guests tend to talk. A small-group walking tour that starts at Grote Markt, usually capped near 12 people, is the quickest way we know to find dinner company on day one. For insurance claims, a stolen phone needs a police report: the non-urgent police line is 101, and the main police building stands on Oudaan, a 5-minute walk from Groenplaats.