The Best Hotels to Book in Mons, Belgium

The innovative four-course menu of fresh, local produce is a major star at this restaurant in a contemporary house with two garden-facing bedrooms. Apart from allergies and so on, there’s no choice of dishes in this private dining room with a fine-weather terrace, but they tend not to disappoint: homemade terrines and pickles, stuffed courgette flowers, seared scallops with girolles, meat-filled agnolotti or risotto with truffle. Any of these could turn up on your plate at the Table, followed by a delicate raspberry tart or light mille-feuille slices. After all that, you’ll be glad only to have to stagger upstairs. It’s tucked away on leafy Vieux Chemin de Binche just a ten-minute drive or bus ride from central Mons.

A bi-coloured modernist block, northeast of Mons in the village of Casteau, this resort has nearly 100 bedrooms, a restaurant, sauna and gym. Belgium’s most popular zoo, the Pairi Daiza, with pandas, elephants, tigers and koalas among its 7,000 residents, is a 20-minute drive north. The hotel has a choice of cosy doubles, larger executive rooms or full apartments with kitchens and living rooms. All come with spa access, whilst the hotel’s own restaurant offers a light menu featuring classic meatballs and braised endive with cheese sauce. Stroll a few steps from the door to L’Envers du Décor for a classic French feast, a decent wine list and the iconic dame blanche au bon chocolat, Belgium’s answer to a hot fudge sundae.

A neogothic convent with colourful, characterful decor, a spa and views of the historic centre of Mons, Martin’s Dream makes good use of the old chapel architecture with some rooms looking out through 19th-century stone tracery or stained glass. With the grand Metro restaurant’s adventurous Discovery Menu, you can sample dishes like octopus carpaccio with lemon mousse or white chocolate ganache with banana and passion fruit. Or this could be the place to try classic buttery sole meunière or cod with bacon.

Ten minutes drive north of the city, the Utopia’s stylish part-wooden blocks are surrounded by trees just off the Chaussée Brunehaut with the Royal Golf Club du Hainaut nearby. Wallonia’s first passive house hotel is an eco-friendly building among lakes and gardens, which offsets its energy consumption. The waterside restaurant Ô Jardin, with its outdoor terrace, has a room called Les Salines, drawing inspiration from 18th-century utopian architecture. And of course, it offers sustainable, local organic produce. Book suites with a sauna attached for a view of the swimming pool or with a jacuzzi for forest-facing balconies.

With 145 bedrooms next to the Wallonia Conference Centre and plenty of spaces for meetings, this business-oriented Mons hotel might seem to be all work and no play. But you can book suites here with jacuzzis, saunas or steam rooms attached and visit the wellness centre for treatments involving infrared heat, showers of snow or relaxing in a salt room. You can refuel in the speedy brasserie or head to Restaurant Quai 5 for a more leisurely, luxurious dinner of wild boar stew with apple and crème brûlée au cuberdon, a version of a cone-shaped sweet Belgian delicacy.

The handsome salmon-coloured façade, trees in the courtyard and beams in the attic studios are all signs that this is no ordinary aparthotel. With a central location off the cobbled Rue d’Havré, a stone’s throw from the Grand Place, these flats come with fully-stocked kitchenettes, complete with a Dolce Gusto coffee machine. There’s a dining and a sitting area, and the option of a family suite with two extra single beds on a mezzanine floor.

Belgium’s only baroque belfry, the 17th-century Beffroi de Mons, towers over this smart Mons youth hostel. With a locally sourced breakfast buffet included and a kitchen, terrace, bar and games room, it’s a sociable bargain for young people on a budget. The leafy Castle Park next door, the highest point in the city, beckons visitors onto its grassy lawns and you can see the Romanesque frescoes for free in the neighbouring Chapelle Saint-Calixte, the city’s oldest religious building.

The light-filled Museum of Fine Arts is a three-minute stroll along Rue des Echelles from this elegant mansion and the Unesco-listed Mundaneum exhibition centre is equally nearby heading in the opposite direction. Behind the hotel’s ornate stone facade, there are stylish apartments and a big grassy garden sporting rattan armchairs and bamboo plants. There are kitchenettes and, in some flats, sitting and dining areas as well. Saint Georges has a distinctly classy quality to the decor: mosaic floors in the hallway, leather sofas and fireplaces, polished wood and even the odd bay window.