What's a good 3-day itinerary for Antwerp?

The Oude Stad is compact enough that Day 1 works on foot, about 7 kilometres total. Get to Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal by 9am. The nave is still cool and half-empty at that hour, and the morning light hits the four Rubens altarpieces from the east windows. Construction on the cathedral started in 1352, and the 123-metre spire still anchors the skyline from every direction. Walk 5 minutes north to Grote Markt for coffee at one of the guild-house terraces. Coffee runs about €4, but by 10am the southwest corner of the square smells like hot waffles. Head east to Rubenshuis by 11am. Rubens designed the garden courtyard himself around 1615, modeled on an Italian palazzo, and it is the best room in the house. Lunch at Frites Atelier on Korte Gasthuisstraat, where Sergio Herman's double-fried frites with truffle mayo run about €8 a cone. Spend the afternoon at Museum Plantin-Moretus on Vrijdagmarkt. The museum became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005, and the old typesetting rooms still smell of ink and leather. Dinner at Het Elfde Gebod on Torfbrug, a bar packed with hundreds of religious statues, where a Flemish carbonnade with frites costs about €18.

Day 2 splits between Het Eilandje in the morning and the Zuid in the afternoon, about 9 kilometres with one tram ride connecting them. Museum aan de Stroom opened in 2011 on the old harbour docks. The building is 60 metres tall, clad in red sandstone and curved glass that catches light off the Scheldt. Take the escalators to the free rooftop terrace for a 360-degree view over port cranes, the cathedral spire, and the river bend toward the North Sea. Back at ground level, walk along the Bonaparte Dock to Cadixwijk for lunch at Dokzaal, where a three-course weekday menu runs about €22. After lunch, catch tram 4 or 9 south to the Zuid quarter. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts reopened in 2022 after an 11-year renovation. The ground floor holds the Primitives and the top floor the moderns, but the middle gallery with Van Eyck, Memling, and the full Ensor collection is the draw. End the evening on the Scheldekaaien, the renovated quay promenade along the river, where locals gather with takeaway beer from a nearby night shop.

Day 3 heads east to Zurenborg, a neighbourhood of art nouveau townhouses clustered around Cogels-Osylei. The houses date mostly from 1894 to 1906 and mix Moorish arches, Egyptian columns, and Flemish stepped gables on the same block. Tram 11 from Centraal Station gets you there in 8 minutes. Walk the full loop of Cogels-Osylei, Waterloostraat, and Transvaalstraat, then cut back west to Antwerp Zoo, which sits directly beside Centraal Station and has been open since 1843. The Egyptian temple housing the elephants and the 1880s iron-and-glass winter garden are worth the €29 entry on architecture alone. Spend the late afternoon on the Meir, the main shopping boulevard, where the Stadsfeestzaal mall occupies a restored 1908 marble hall with a glass dome. Dinner at Bourla on Graanmarkt, an old stock exchange turned brasserie, where a steak-frites with béarnaise costs about €28. The three days cover roughly 24 kilometres on foot and you will not need a car or bike rental to reach anything on the list.