Best time to visit Antwerp

Belgium · Europe

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Antwerp

Tap a month for its page

Sweet spot
Good
OK
Avoid
Busy

Go in Apr, Jun, Jul, Aug or Sep — these months score within a whisker of each other; 23C max, 7 rainy days. May is the next best.

Plan this trip

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too.

Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Flights

Choose where you fly from

Where to stay

Things to do

Car hire

Rent direct

Travel insurance

SafetyWing Ad

Mobile data (eSIM)

Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.

Things to do in Antwerp

Cathedral of Our Lady One of the most impressive and largest Gothic cathedrals in Northern Europe…
Port of Antwerp Take a boat tour of the second largest port in Europe and 5th largest in the world.
Diamond District This is south and southwest of the central station.
Het Steen This is a rather small medieval castle on the banks of the river Schelde.
Boerentoren Now called KBC Tower after the company that owns it…
Museum aan de Stroom (MAS) Large museum that tells about Antwerp in the world.
Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten boasts an excellent collection of paintings from…

Tours and tickets in Antwerp

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Antwerp), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

Month	Max °C	Rain days	Humidity	Sun h/day	Verdict	Why
Jan	6°	11d	87%	3.6h	avoid	6C max, 11 rainy days
Feb	9°	10d	82%	5.1h	ok	9C max, 10 rainy days
Mar	12°	10d	77%	7.6h	ok	12C max, 10 rainy days
Apr	15°	7d	69%	9.8h	sweet spot	15C max, 7 rainy days
May	19°	9d	70%	11.0h	goodbusy	busier than usual
Jun	23°	7d	69%	11.8h	sweet spot	23C max, 7 rainy days
Jul	23°	7d	69%	11.9h	sweet spot	23C max, 7 rainy days
Aug	24°	7d	71%	10.8h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Sep	20°	9d	76%	9.0h	sweet spot	20C max, 9 rainy days
Oct	16°	11d	82%	5.9h	ok	16C max, 11 rainy days
Nov	10°	11d	87%	4.3h	avoid	10C max, 11 rainy days
Dec	8°	11d	88%	2.9h	avoid busy	busier than usual

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at the Grote Markt, 6 km from the airport (ANR): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest in August; quietest in January and February.

Then and now

Antwerp's June days now average 22.9°C, 3.6°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 8 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1981–90	5.2°	5.9°	9.5°	12.6°	17.2°	19.3°	21.8°	21.5°	18.3°	14.8°	9.5°	6.6°
2017–26	6.4°	8.8°	11.6°	15.0°	19.0°	22.9°	23.5°	23.7°	20.3°	16.0°	10.3°	7.8°
Change	+1.2°	+2.9°	+2.1°	+2.4°	+1.8°	+3.6°	+1.7°	+2.1°	+2.0°	+1.1°	+0.8°	+1.1°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

Fly into Zaventem (BRU), then drive. The flights under Where to book are to Zaventem.

Zaventem (BRU)	the drive is not measured yet
Antwerp (ANR)	the drive is not measured yet

The drive from each airport is the road's, from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT: typical, not a schedule.

How far Antwerp is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type C and E plugs at 230 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Euro. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for Belgium: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
Tipping — Not usual, as service is included; leave the change for good service.

Getting around Antwerp

Tap a contactless bank card or phone on the white terminal as you board any De Lijn tram or bus: a trip costs €3 with free changes for 60 minutes, settled with your bank at night, and one card can pay for up to five people. Otherwise buy a ticket before boarding: a day ticket (€9 for 24 hours) is sold in the De Lijn app, where it must be activated before you board, and at ticket machines and Lijnwinkel shops.

Apps — Rides: Bolt, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WhatsApp.

The public transportation company De Lijn has a dense network of buses, trams, and pre-metro (underground tram) connections in the city and wide area around it. Tickets can be purchased through the mobile app. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Antwerp, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

Emergency — 112 (any emergency).
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (15)

Antwerp in pictures

Antwerp central station level 2 track 22 (DSCF4772) — i

Trougnouf, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Antwerp central station, looking towards the main hall from level 2 track 22 (DSCF4787) — i

Trougnouf, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cathedral Antwerp July 2015 17a — i

Alvesgaspar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Stained glass Antwerp 3a — i

Alvesgaspar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Antwerp riverfront, april 2012 — i

Jahoe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Antwerp is like

Antwerp (Dutch: Antwerpen, French: Anvers) is the capital of the eponymous province in the region of Flanders in Belgium. At a population of just over half a million people (2018), it is the second largest city in Belgium (after Brussels), and it has a major European port. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing: Antwerp City Pass. With the Antwerp City Card you can visit all museums and three monumental churches over a 48-hour period. It also features a 25% discount on attractions, sightseeing and bicycle rentals. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing: St. Anna pedestrian tunnel (Sint-Annatunnel), Sint-Jansvliet. Take St. Anna pedestrian tunnel (Sint-Annatunnel) to the Left Bank (Linkeroever) of the river Schelde. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in: Antwerp Airport (ANR IATA). A small airport catering mostly to leisure travellers. More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe: Most parts of Antwerp are safe, but some neighborhoods are to be avoided in the evening, especially the area around De Coninckplein and the neighborhoods of Borgerhout, Seefhoek and the Schipperskwartier. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Antwerp, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Antwerp

Also in Belgium

Brussels best Jun, Jul, Aug

Nearby

Kind of place

Antwerp is in Belgium, Europe. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book through one, at no extra cost to you. That does not affect the scores on this page, which are computed from climate and fare data before any link is built.