There’s a new guidebook that helps you explore Belgium purely through the best of its beers

an image of the guidebook's front cover in a circle frame, next to a picture of a selection of belgium beers both bottled and draught — (Image credit: CAMRA / Alain RIVIERE-LECOEUR and Gamma-Rapho via Getty)

Travelling to a new country is always exciting, and whilst you're obviously there for the culture – the galleries, the museums, the architecture, if most people are being totally honest, it's just as much about going to a supermarket, hunting down a restaurant in a cave you saw on TikTok, and mostly, drinking your way through each new stop. Luckily for anyone planning a trip to Belgium, there’s a new Guidebook from CAMRA which will help plan your journey, purely based on the best of the country’s beers.

Spending the night with a nice Belgian blonde is probably quite an idyllic way to spend an evening abroad for most men, and CAMRA’s fully revised version of the Good Beer Guide Belgium showcases over 1,500 beers and 400 brewers for you to explore.

Interior of La Cuve &agrave; bi&egrave;re. Rustic bar interior with a wooden curved bar, high stools, leather sofas, and artistic graffiti. A vintage motorcycle hangs on exposed brick, lit by warm bulbs

As well as beers, brewers, and blenders, most importantly the book shares the top 650 places to actually sit down and enjoy them. The book explores all regions of Belgium, including Brussels, Antwerp, Flanders, Brabant (Flemish and Wallonian), Luxembourg and Liege, with useful travel tips and recommendations on what to eat and where to stay. All this really means is that you can be one of the few people who can confidentially claim you didn’t use ChatGPT to plan your trip.

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Beer is as historic and culturally important as the somewhat more traditional tourist activities, which is probably one of the reasons the guidebook is in its ninth iteration, this time with two forewords. The first has been written by Tim Webb, original creator and long-time curator of the guide, and the other by Yvan De Baets, co-founder of the famous De La Senne Brewery in Brussels.

The ninth edition has been written by beer and travel guide writer Tim Skelton, set to be published on 14th May. On writing the book, Tim explained: "I’ve lived in Benelux for over 30 years, visited Belgium more than 100 times, and thought I knew everything about the country. But researching this new edition of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide Belgium still led me to find undiscovered beer-y gems that I’d never previously been aware of." Sounds like you could almost out-expert a local…

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Hermione Blandford is the Content Editor for Shortlist’s social media which means you can usually find her scrolling through Instagram and calling it work, or stopping random people in the street and accosting them with a mini mic. She has previously worked in food and drink PR for brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Gordon's, The Singleton, Lagavulin and Don Julio which means she is a self confessed expert in spicy margaritas and pints, regularly popping into the pub in the name of research.