The Antwerp Christmas market is a walk. It’s spread over seven squares between Antwerpen-Centraal and the river Scheldt, and after going last December, I’d tell anyone to do it as one long evening on foot, from the station to the water.
Now, the stalls on that walk are nothing special.
Between the nice jewellery and decorations you’ll pass plenty of the same scarves, gloves and trinkets you’ve seen at other Christmas markets. That’s a big part of why Antwerp sits at 6.5 on our Index, behind Brussels (7.4), Bruges (7.2) and Ghent (7.1).
The old town makes up for it, in some way. Once it’s dark, the guild houses on the Grote Markt and the cathedral spire above the Suikerrui are lit up, and that, more than any chalet, is why I’d go.
You also get room to stand and look at it all. Even with 1.5 million visitors last season, Antwerp gets 6 out of 10 for elbow room, against 4 for Brussels and Bruges, 5 for Ghent and 3 for Lille just over the border.
So my advice is to treat the market as your evenings rather than a shopping trip, and spend the days on the rest of the city.
When Is the Antwerp Christmas Market 2026?
The Antwerp Christmas market, officially Winter in Antwerpen, runs from Friday 4 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, and entry is free.
That’s a later start than its Belgian rivals, with Bruges opening on 20 November, Brussels on 27 November and Ghent on 3 December.
It’s open 12:00 to 22:00 from Sunday to Thursday and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. The Operaplein by the station shuts an hour earlier than the other squares. Opening day starts at 14:00, and the last day ends at 17:00.
Over the holidays it closes at 18:00 on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, stays open until 22:00 on Christmas Day, which plenty of markets don’t, and shuts completely on New Year’s Day.
On a normal day, though, the noon opening is what catches people out. Turn up at 9:00 off a river cruise and you’ll find shut chalets, and the market at lunchtime in grey daylight is the weakest version of it anyway.
Sunset is at about 16:40, so I’d aim for around 16:00 on a weekday, when the lights come on and the squares are still filling up.
Weekends are a different story. The opening weekend pulled in 170,000 people last year, and this year it falls on St Nicholas Eve and St Nicholas Day, with Sunday 6 December also a shopping Sunday in the centre. The Saturday before Christmas, 19 December, gets packed too.
If a weekend is all you’ve got, I’d go for the weekend of 12 and 13 December. Try to be on the squares by late afternoon, before the Groenplaats and the Grote Markt pack out for the night.
If you’re coming from London, that’s also the last weekend with a change in Brussels on the way out.
From Monday 14 December the Eurostar runs direct to Antwerpen-Centraal in 2 hours 41 minutes, which makes the run-up to Christmas the easiest time to come. The way home goes through Brussels-Midi all season, because Antwerp has no UK border checks.
| Date | What’s on |
|---|---|
| Fri 4 Dec | Opening day, stalls open at 14:00 |
| Sat 5 Dec | St Nicholas Eve, opening weekend crowds |
| Sun 6 Dec | St Nicholas Day and a shopping Sunday in the centre |
| Mon 14 Dec | First direct Eurostar from London to Antwerp |
| Sun 20 Dec | Cathedral closed to tourists all day |
| Thu 24 Dec | Market open 12:00 to 18:00 |
| Fri 25 Dec | Market open 12:00 to 22:00 |
| Sat 26 Dec | Not a public holiday in Belgium, shops open, squares packed |
| Thu 31 Dec | Market open 12:00 to 18:00, fireworks at midnight |
| Fri 1 Jan | Market and cathedral closed |
| Sun 3 Jan | Last day, 12:00 to 17:00, with the city’s New Year’s drink |
| From Mon 4 Jan | Closed until next season |
How to Walk the Antwerp Christmas Market
There were more than 70 stallholders last year, and the squares sit in a rough line from the station to the river with one short detour.
That means you can walk the whole market in one evening, with a couple of drinks along the way. Doing it in this order gets you to the best squares after dark.
Start at the Operaplein
The covered winter village on the Operaplein is five minutes from Antwerpen-Centraal, and it’s the first square to close each evening, so it makes sense to start here. Last year it had a nostalgic carousel and a few food and drink chalets under a roof.
From there it’s about 20 minutes on foot to the old town, along the car-free De Keyserlei, Leysstraat and Meir. Walking is the sensible option this season anyway, because works in the premetro tunnels under the centre run until July 2027 and the trams through the middle are disrupted.
The Groenplaats and the Ice Rink
The Groenplaats is where the market turns into a proper night out. The covered ice rink goes right round the Rubens statue, about 1,000 square metres of ice under a roof of lights. Last year it cost €8 for adults and €5 for under-12s, plus €4 for skates.
The 2026 plans put it in the same spot.
You don’t have to skate to enjoy it, either. The Den Après winter bar sits right by the ice, so you can stand at the rail with a glühwein and watch everyone else wobble round a 17th-century painter.
The Handschoenmarkt and the Grote Markt
On the way to the Grote Markt you pass the Handschoenmarkt, the little square at the foot of the cathedral tower, with the nativity scene and the charity chalets.
The stalls here go to charities and first-time traders, so if you’re going to buy anything at a chalet, buy it on the Handschoenmarkt.
A minute later you’re on the Grote Markt, and this is the square the whole trip is for. The Renaissance city hall and the guild houses are lit up, and the big tree stands in front of the city hall. In the middle of it all, Brabo rises out of the chalets on his fountain, mid-throw with a giant’s hand.
The story goes that a giant called Druon Antigoon charged a toll on the river and cut off the hand of anyone who wouldn’t pay. Then Brabo cut off the giant’s own hand and threw it in the water. The name Antwerp supposedly comes from it, hand werpen, to throw a hand.
The square is handsome enough by day, but after dark, in my opinion, it’s the reason Antwerp is worth the trip at all.
Part of that is the soundtrack. It comes live from the JOE Christmas House, a glass radio booth where the Flemish station JOE broadcasts, so you can watch the DJs at work and catch the odd performance between the songs.
The Detour to the Hendrik Conscienceplein
About five minutes north-east of the Grote Markt, the Hendrik Conscienceplein is the square plenty of visitors miss, and it’s worth going out of your way for. It’s a small, traffic-free square in front of the baroque St Charles Borromeo church, and last year Your Divine Xmas filled it with mistletoe, live jazz and food that goes well beyond a bratwurst.
It went down so well that even on Mondays and Tuesdays people were dancing on the square, and it’s signed up for three years, so it’s back for 2026. If you want one meal on the market that isn’t a burger, eat on the Hendrik Conscienceplein.
Down the Suikerrui to the River
Back on the Grote Markt, the Suikerrui runs down to the Scheldt under tunnels of lights, with chalets selling jewellery, decorations and warm clothes on the way. It’s the best photo on the market, as long as you walk to the bottom, then turn round and catch the cathedral spire at the far end of the tunnels.
At the bottom, the Steenplein opens out by Het Steen, the old castle on the river. Last year it had the Bar Brabo winter bar from the brewers behind Duvel, a few funfair rides and the Ferris wheel back on its old spot by the water.
There are usually fires by the castle to warm your hands at, too.
Finish Under the River
Rather than turning back from the Steenplein, I’d go under the river. A few minutes’ walk south, on the Sint-Jansvliet, is the entrance to the Sint-Annatunnel, a 572-metre pedestrian tunnel under the Scheldt that opened in 1933.
You ride 31 metres down on the original wooden escalators, among the last still in use, and since they get their maintenance on Thursdays, any other night is better for the ride.
Then you walk under the river and come up on the Left Bank, and the whole thing feels like stepping straight into 1933.
The tunnel is free and open day and night, and the reason to do it at the end of the evening is the view back.
From the far bank the whole old town lines up across the water with the cathedral spire lit above it, a picture of Antwerp none of the squares can give you.
What to Eat and Drink at the Antwerp Christmas Market
Apart from the Hendrik Conscienceplein, my rule in Antwerp is to drink on the market, eat off it. Last year’s big food names were The Rebel Smoker’s smoked meat on the Grote Markt, smashed burgers from Meatdistrict on the Suikerrui and Orbit Fried Chicken on the Groenplaats.
It’s all fine, and none of it is what you came to Belgium for.
Prices aren’t capped and the stalls aren’t cheap, so it’s worth checking the board before you order.
Everything comes in the city’s reusable cups and plates with a €2 deposit on every item, and any stall will take them back and refund you.
The refund queues at the busy glühwein stalls get long, though, so it pays to hand your cup back at a quieter chalet on the next square.
On the market itself, I’d stick to things you can hold in one hand while you walk.
- Glühwein is on every square, which makes it the obvious drink for the walk from one to the next.
- Jenever is Belgium’s grain spirit, poured by the shot, and one by the fires at Het Steen warms you up faster than any mulled wine.
- Belgian beer is the point of the bar on the Steenplein, and a bolleke, the De Koninck amber ale Antwerp drinks from a round glass, is a better end to the walk than another glühwein.
- Waffles turn up all along the route, and a plain warm one with icing sugar beats the ones drowning in toppings.
- Hot chocolate with whipped cream is the best thing going without alcohol, and the cafés round the Grote Markt do proper cups too.
The flavours that are really from Antwerp are in its bakeries and chocolate shops, starting with Antwerpse handjes, butter biscuits or chocolates shaped like the hand Brabo is throwing on the fountain.
They were first baked in 1934, you’ll find them all over town, and they make a far better souvenir than most of what’s on the chalets.
Some of the chocolate ones are filled with Elixir d’Anvers, the golden herbal liqueur that’s been made in Antwerp to the same recipe since 1863. A small glass of it in a warm café after an evening by the river is exactly what it was made for.
Things That Catch People Out in Antwerp
Five things catch out first-time visitors to Antwerp in December.
- Dutch is the language here, not French, because Antwerp is in Flanders, and if you don’t speak Dutch, English is the safer choice.
- Cars with foreign plates, Dutch ones aside, have to be registered online, once and for free, before they enter the low emission zone, which covers the whole centre round the clock. Street parking in the historic core is for residents only, so a car park or a park-and-ride is the way to go.
- The weather is wet more often than white. Days sit around 7°C and nights around 2°C, it rains on a lot of days, and an umbrella is hard work in the crowds, so bring a waterproof jacket. Our snow odds study puts snow on just 6% of Antwerp’s market days, the same as Strasbourg.
- Toilets are on the Grote Markt, the Groenplaats and the Hendrik Conscienceplein, and they cost €0.50 in 2024, so keep a coin or two.
- Shops in the centre opened every day in December last year, Sundays included, which is handy for Christmas shopping on the Meir.
Antwerp Beyond the Christmas Market
Rubens in the Morning
The first morning belongs to the Cathedral of Our Lady. It’s open 10:00 to 17:00 on weekdays, 10:00 to 15:00 on Saturdays and 13:00 to 17:00 on Sundays, but it’s closed to tourists all day on Sunday 20 December.
A ticket is €12, free for under-18s, and it gets you four Rubens paintings, including The Raising of the Cross and The Descent from the Cross, hanging a few steps apart. That’s a lot of Rubens for twelve euros, and The Descent from the Cross alone would be worth it.
Seeing more of him is harder than most people expect. Rubens’s own house is shut until 2030 for restoration, so what’s open is the new entrance building with the Rubens Experience, the library and the baroque garden. It’s worth an hour if you’re keen, but the cathedral is where the real Rubens is.
The MAS Roof
For a view over the whole city, the MAS, the red stacked museum on the Eilandje, has a tenth-floor panorama roof that’s free, up a long run of escalators. It’s best just before sunset, so I’d save it for an evening you’re not doing the walk.
Day Trips from Antwerp
With a couple of nights, I’d give one afternoon to another of the Belgian Christmas markets.
Ghent gets my vote, 46 to 63 minutes by direct train, with a higher Index score than Antwerp and a market that runs to 3 January.
Brussels is closer, 34 to 57 minutes away, and Bruges is 85 to 89 minutes on one direct train an hour, which makes for a long day unless you break it in Ghent.
Christmas and New Year in Antwerp
If your trip covers the holidays, Antwerp makes it easy, because the market stays open on Christmas Day, and so does the cathedral, from 14:00 to 17:00.
It’s one of the busiest days on the squares, and the restaurants that do open book up early, so it’s worth reserving well ahead, with the Chinese quarter by the station as the fallback.
The day after is just as busy, because Boxing Day isn’t a public holiday in Belgium, so the shops open and the squares fill right up again.
New Year’s Eve is the big night. The market shuts early, and at midnight the city puts on fireworks to welcome the new year. Last year they went up from a barge on the Scheldt, with around 120,000 people watching along the river, so if they’re on the river again, get to the quayside early.
New Year’s Day is a write-off, with the market and the cathedral both closed. The season then wraps up on Sunday 3 January with the city’s New Year’s drink. Last year that meant a sing-along on the Grote Markt to De lichtjes van de Schelde, Bobbejaan Schoepen’s old song about the lights on the river.
Is the Antwerp Christmas Market Worth It?
Yes, as long as you come for Antwerp and let the market be your evenings.
The Grote Markt after dark, the room to actually enjoy it and the ride under the Scheldt at the end are what I’d go back for.
If it’s chalets full of crafts you’re after, Cologne (7.5 on our Index) or Strasbourg (9.1) will be a better fit. Antwerp suits couples, first-timers on the direct train from London after 14 December, and anyone who’s done Bruges or Brussels and found them a crush.
I’d give it two nights, with the walk on a weekday, so the other evening is free for the MAS roof at sunset and one more glühwein under the guild houses.
