One day three ways: Brussels

PENNY PINCH

Grab a $3 fruit salad from fresh fast-food chain Exki (exki.be) opposite the glamorous Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. Then pick up a couple of fold-out self-guided walking tour maps from the tourist office (visitbrussels.be). The most fun creates a trail linking the city's comic book-style murals, while another joins the most impressive art nouveau and art deco architecture. On the way round, join the queue at the semi-legendary Au Suisse (ausuisse.be) for a spicy tuna sandwich ($8) and finish the afternoon in Grand Place - arguably the most impressive city square in Europe. Look for visual clues and statues on the old guildhalls that give away which guild is based there. After a juicy burger dinner at cartoonish Houtsiplou ($22, Houtsiplou.be), bed down for the night at the '60s-tinged, coolly monochrome Hotel Retro ($90, retrohotelbxl.com).

TOTAL: $123

EASY DOES IT

After picking up a 24 Hour Brussels Card ($36) to cover all public transport and museum entries, try Natural Caffe (Naturalcaffe.com) on the grandiose Mont Des Arts for breakfast. An orange juice, coffee and two pastry combo costs $9. The Belvue Museum (Belvue.be) should be the first cultural fix - it covers Belgium's surprisingly feisty history inside a handsome old palace. For lunchtime linguine, enjoy the views and dodge the arrestingly domineering modern art installation at Kwint ($24, Kwintbrussels.com). Music and art should fill the afternoon, with the Museum of Musical Instruments (Mim.be) being great fun and the Musee Magritte (musee-magritte-museum.be) offering a reverent view of the surrealist painter's life and work. Try the mustard-coated lamb shanks at the gorgeously old school Brasserie rue de L'Or ($35, resto.be/rouedor) and sleep soundly in the sleekly contemporary Pullman Brussels Midi ($149, pullmanhotels.com).

TOTAL: $253

SPLASH OUT

Slink downstairs from your room at the elegant and centrally located Hotel Amigo ($389, hotelamigo.com) to tuck into the full English breakfast ($44). Save space, however, for chocolate - Global Enterprises (globalenterprises.be) runs a four-hour, $105 tasting jaunt around the city's best chocolatiers, finishing with a DIY choc-making workshop. Lunch, it's fair to say, will not be required. In the afternoon, walk to Grand Place where half-hour horse and carriage rides ($59) can show you the best of the historic lower town. Then delve into the labyrinthine Belgian beer scene on an educational - and extremely tasty - tour of breweries and craft beer bars ($68, Brusselsbeertours.com). For dinner, make sure you reserve a table at young and buzzy Alexandre (restaurant-alexandre.be) where TV chef Alexandre Dionisio serves up multi-course tasting menus for from $113.

TOTAL: $778

The writer was a guest of Visit Brussels