How do I get around Brussels?

The historic center sits inside the Pentagon, a ring road roughly 2 km north to south. Grand-Place to the Marolles flea market is a 15-minute walk downhill over cobblestones worn smooth and slippery after rain. Wear flat, grippy shoes. For anywhere beyond this core, the STIB/MIVB network runs metro, tram, and bus on one fare system. A single ride costs 2.10 EUR loaded on a MOBIB card, which carries a 5 EUR deposit from any metro station kiosk. Day passes run 8 EUR. Contactless bank cards and phones work at every validator, charged at 2.10 EUR per tap with a daily spending cap at the day-pass price. The MOBIB kiosk menus default to French. Tap the flag icon in the top-right corner to switch to Dutch or English before you start feeding it coins.

STIB runs 4 metro lines (1, 2, 5, 6) and a pre-metro network where several tram lines dip underground through central stations. The trams share platforms with metro trains and look confusingly similar, but the doors open differently. Google Maps sometimes labels a pre-metro stop as a metro station, so don't be surprised when a tram pulls up to what you thought was a subway platform. For visitors, Line 1 (Gare de l'Ouest to Stockel, through De Brouckère and Arts-Loi) and Line 5 (Erasme to Hermann-Debroux, through Gare Centrale and the EU district stop at Schuman) cover nearly every destination worth reaching. Trains run every 5 to 6 minutes until around 00:30. After that, the Noctis night bus network takes over on Friday and Saturday, with buses every 30 minutes until 03:00. You'll hear the high-pitched squeal of tram wheels on tight curves at Montgomery and Louiza before you see the headlight.

Bolt and Uber both operate in Brussels. Bolt tends to run 15 to 20% cheaper for the same route. A ride from Gare Centrale to the Atomium costs 10 to 14 EUR by app versus 18 to 22 EUR in a metered taxi. Taxi flagfall is 2.40 EUR plus 1.80 EUR per km inside the Brussels-Capital Region, but cross into Zaventem or Tervuren and the tariff doubles. For the airport, the train from Gare Centrale to Brussels Airport takes 17 minutes at around 14 EUR, including a 6.40 EUR Diabolo surcharge on every airport rail ticket. That beats the 45 to 55 EUR taxi crawling the E40 in rush-hour exhaust for 40 minutes. Download Bolt before you land and save it for after-midnight returns when the metro stops at 00:30.

The biggest first-timer mistake is buying a multi-day metro pass and then barely using it because the center is so walkable that you cover it on foot without meaning to. Grand-Place to the Royal Palace of Brussels is 800 meters. The Magritte Museum sits 200 meters past the palace. The Sablon antiques quarter is another 600 meters south, past chocolatiers selling pralines at 40 to 60 EUR per kilogram where the smell of melted couverture drifts through open shop doors on cool mornings. Mind you, the city is not flat. The upper town around Place Royale sits on a ridge about 30 meters above the lower town near Grand-Place. You feel it in your calves by day two. A free glass elevator behind the Palais de Justice connects the Marolles at street level to Place Poelaert at the top, saving the full 30-meter climb.