Belgium

Small enough to miss on a map and often unfairly labeled dull, Belgium’s actually one of Europe’s heavy-hitting cultural destinations.

Part of the Low Countries fronting the North Sea, Belgium’s been heavily influenced by its neighbors: the Netherlands to the north (from which Belgium declared sovereignty in the mid-19th century), Germany to the east, and France to the south. The north of Belgium is Dutch-speaking Flanders, the south French-speaking Wallonia; and the marvelous bilingual capital of Brussels sits close to the divide.

Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Liege: This is a country of many distinct and captivating cities—a place to revel in exquisite architecture, fabulous food, and veritable torrents of joie de vivre via one-of-a-kind urban safaris. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more gorgeous city than Bruges—but, then again, its Wallonian counterpart of Mons could give it a run for the money. Bruges’s belfry and Basilica of the Holy Blood, Brussels’s Grand Palace and Manneken Pis, Tournai’s Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Mons’s City Hall—Belgium easily lays claim to some of Europe’s most eye-catching cityscapes.

And out of a cuisine molded by venerable Northern European and French culinary traditions come gloriously refined, gloriously decadent dishes and confections: Belgian waffles, Belgian chocolates, moules-frites, carbonade flamande. And the beer here—well, if you’re a student of beer-making and a devotee of craft brews, Belgium’s likely hallowed ground for you. Its centuries-old monastic brewing traditions produce some of the most flavorful beers in the world: sour Lambic, light Saisons, toothsome Tripels, and too many others to name.

Bear in mind, too, that Belgium isn’t all about city sightseeing and loosen-the-belt feasting. The country may lack mountainous grandeur, but Wallonia’s Ardennes region in the southeast is a splendid tract of rolling hills and nestled valleys—and a geography resonant with World War II history, for here the Battle of the Bulge raged during the winter of 1944-1945.

Scores of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, a cuisine honed to mouthwatering perfection, architectural masterpieces—it’s hard to see why anyone would write off Belgium as bland. In reality, it’s downright seductive.