Most travelers booking a high-speed train out of London default to the exact same three cities: Paris, Amsterdam, or Brussels. While those classic capitals are great, they are also expensive, packed with tourists, and require plenty of patience when navigating crowded transit hubs.
Starting next month, skipping the tourist traps for one of Europe’s coolest, most underrated cities is getting much easier.
On December 14, 2026, Eurostar is officially launching a direct service from London St. Pancras to Antwerp, Belgium. Known as Belgium’s second city, Antwerp has a completely different energy than fairy-tale towns like Bruges or Ghent. It is an edgy, creative port city famous for its huge diamond district, avant-garde fashion scene, industrial docklands, and a hidden network of medieval tunnels running right beneath the cobblestone streets.
The New Direct Route Details (And The One Major Catch)
Right now, taking the train from London to Antwerp means riding the Eurostar to Brussels-Midi, hauling your luggage off the train, and transferring to a local Belgian domestic rail line. That connection adds unnecessary stress and stretches the trip out to around three hours and 15 minutes.
Beginning December 14, Eurostar is cutting out the middleman by adding a direct stop at Antwerpen-Centraal on its London-to-Amsterdam line. The new direct journey takes just two hours and 45 minutes, shaving 30 minutes off the current travel time. Eurostar is running up to five services a day, with standard one-way fares starting around $58 (or 44 British pounds).
Even better, stepping off the train is an attraction in itself. Antwerpen-Centraal is widely considered one of the most beautiful railway stations on earth, featuring a massive 246-foot iron-and-glass dome and a grand marble hall that looks more like a royal palace than a transit hub.
However, there is one crucial logistical catch you need to know before booking. This direct service only works in one direction: from London to Antwerp. Because Antwerpen-Centraal does not have a secure UK border control terminal or passport-screening zone inside the station, Eurostar cannot run direct trains going back to the UK. When it is time to head home to London, you will still need to hop on a quick local Belgian train to Brussels-Midi to clear UK border checks before boarding your Eurostar.
Exploring Antwerp’s Secret Underground Tunnels
While above-ground Antwerp is packed with 16th-century guildhouses and cool indie coffee shops, the city’s best-kept secret is hiding directly beneath your feet.
Back in the Middle Ages, Antwerp looked a lot like Amsterdam, with an eight-kilometer network of open canals, moats, and waterways crisscrossing the city center. Over the centuries, as the city grew into a large trading hub, those canals became heavily polluted. Between the 1600s and the late 1800s, locals gradually vaulted over the waterways with brick-and-stone arches to reclaim space above ground, causing the entire canal system to vanish from sight.
Today, you can actually suit up and hike through this subterranean world, known locally as De Ruien.
Rather than a sanitized museum walkway, touring De Ruien feels like real urban exploration. Starting at the Ruihuis at Suikerrui 21, visitors are handed heavy-duty protective wader pants and knee-high rubber boots before climbing down into the dark brick vaults. Over a 90-minute, 1.5-kilometer walk, you trek through shallow water and mud past medieval bridges, iron sluice gates, old vaulted ceilings, and hidden chapels that served as air-raid shelters during World War II.
Interactive tablet tours run Tuesday through Sunday and cost 19 euros (around $20) for adults. Note for winter travelers: due to renovation work at the standard Keistraat exit between November 3, 2026, and February 28, 2027, all underground walks run on a loop that starts and ends at Suikerrui 21.
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If wading through medieval sewers is not your style, Antwerp has a second famous underground passage that is 100 percent free. Built in 1933, the Sint-Annatunnel (St. Anna’s Tunnel) is a vintage pedestrian and bicycle tube buried 100 feet beneath the Scheldt River. You ride down using the original, clattering 1930s wooden escalators and walk 1,800 feet under the river inside a tiled Art Deco tube to reach the Left Bank, which gives you the best panoramic view of the Antwerp skyline.
Why Antwerp Beats The Usual Belgian Hotspots
Beyond the underground tunnels, Antwerp hits a sweet spot that Brussels and Bruges often miss. Bruges is gorgeous, but it can feel like an overcrowded outdoor museum where everything shuts down early. Brussels has great food, but its sprawling layout and heavy corporate vibe leave a lot of leisure travelers underwhelmed.
Antwerp gives you historic architecture alongside a raw, lived-in neighborhood feel. You can spend the morning walking through the Diamond Quarter, where over 80 percent of the world’s rough diamonds are traded, and spend the afternoon in Het Eilandje, a gritty old port district where historic brick warehouses have been turned into waterfront bars, galleries, and the striking MAS museum.
Plus, if you catch the new direct train right when it launches on December 14, you will land right in the middle of the Antwerp Christmas Market, which runs from December 4, 2026, through January 3, 2027, stretching from the historic Grote Markt all the way to the riverfront.
London To Antwerp Direct
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