A federal country, with three official languages and an intense regional rivalry, Belgium has a cultural diversity that belies its rather dull reputation. Its population of around ten million is divided between Flemish-speakers (about sixty percent) and French-speaking Walloons (forty percent), with a few pockets of German-speakers in the east. Prosperity has shifted back and forth between the two leading communities over the centuries, and relations have long been acrimonious. The constitution was redrawn in 1980, with three separate entities: the Flemish north, Walloon south, and Brussels, which is officially bilingual.

The north and south of Belgium are visually very different. Marking the meeting of the two, Brussels, the capital, is a culturally varied city at the heart of the European Union. The north, made up of the provinces of West and East Flanders, Antwerp, Limburg and much of Brabant, is mainly flat, with a landscape and architecture not unlike Holland. Antwerp is the principal Flemish city, a bustling old port with doses of high art, redolent of its sixteenth-century golden age. Further west lie the great historic cities of Bruges and Ghent, each with a stunning concentration of Flemish art and architecture. By contrast, Belgium's most scenically rewarding region, the Ardennes, an area of deep, wooded valleys, high elevations and dark caverns, sprawls across the south of the country with the attractive town of Namur the obvious gateway.

The Ardennes reach across the border into the northern part of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, a verdant landscape of rushing rivers and high hills topped with crumbling castles. The best base for rural expeditions is Luxembourg City, a pleasant town with a splendid rugged setting. The city has a population of around 80,000, which makes it one of Europe's smallest capitals.