Belgium

Licence plates in Belgium use red text. You can recognise this distinct colour even through the blur.

Belgium uses white bollards with a yellow rectangular reflector on the front and white on the back. A second type of bollard is dark brown with two red stripes at the top. Occasionally, other bollards can be seen.

NOTE: Denmark uses similar white bollards, but they have a red stripe at the top and the reflector is not rectangular. The dark brown bollard with two red stripes can also be seen in the Netherlands.

Belgium uses A-type guardrails with yellow reflectors.

NOTE: In Europe, only Spain, Andorra, and Belgium use these reflectors. For a good overview of European guardrails, see this infographic.

Most poles in Belgium are concrete, square shaped, and have tiny holes running up them. They often have small metal wrappings around them. The second most common type of pole has oval-shaped holes. You can find many different types of concrete poles in Belgium.

NOTE: The small metal wrappings can be found in France as well.

Directional signs in Belgium are most often blue or white.

Road signs often have an additional small blue sign. In other European countries, these small signs are usually just white.

Belgium uses pedestrian crossing signs without any stripes, but with two horizontal dotted lines. The man on the sign has a square head.

NOTE: France and the Netherlands use a pedestrian sign with a regular zebra crossing with five vertical stripes.

Kilometre markers in Belgium are often green, but can have red text as well.

Belgium uses white chevrons, with a red arrow.

NOTE: The Netherlands also uses this chevron. You will not see these in France.

A lot of rural roads in Belgium are made out of concrete slabs, almost like you would see in the Philippines or Thailand.

NOTE: The Netherlands almost never uses concrete slabs for roads.

Belgium uses all white road lines. These can be continuous or broken. Roads are often accompanied by bike lanes on both sides.

NOTE: Bikes and cycling lanes are most common in the Netherlands, but they can be often seen in Belgium as well.

A lot of houses in Belgium are made of distinctive red bricks.

NOTE: This is more common in the North and West of the country.

Houses in the South of the country use a lot of stone, have gray tones and generally look more French.

Signposts in Belgium are often orange. The backs of signs are also sometimes orange. This is unique to Belgium.

Street name signs in Belgium are very diverse, and often unique to a city. Most common colours are white and dark blue. They often have the town or city name written on them.

NOTE: These signs often have variable designs, but most of them are fairly short and tall. In comparison, Dutch street signs are almost always much longer than they are tall.

Town entry signs in Belgium are white with a black border. They also mention the name of the city or municipality in bold, black text.

Priority signs in Belgium have an orange diamond and are much smaller than in other countries.

Bus stops are always marked by yellow signposts. Bus shelters often have yellow roofs.

Traffic lights are most often supported by black and yellow striped poles.

Belgium uses these red water hydrants signs with the letter H on top.

NOTE: You can also find these in Germany.

Almost all roads (big or small) in Belgium use gutters on both sides. This is much less common in neighbouring countries.

Belgian bicycle paths have short dashed outer lines.

After Germany, Belgium is the next country in which you can find the most blurred houses.

Coverage with a red car and a long antenna can rarely be seen in Belgium.

NOTE: This is much more common in Ukraine.

Belgium is generally flat in the northwest of the country, especially near the coast. The further south east you go, the hillier.

Belgium has 3 official languages.

• Dutch (Flemish), spoken in Flanders, the Northern part of Belgium. There is an abundance of letters and combinations like z, w, ee and ij.

• French (Walloon), spoken in Wallonia, the Southern part of Belgium. You can see letters like ç, é, è and à.

• German, spoken in Ostbelgien, a small region in the east of the country. You can see letters like ä, ü, ö and ß.

Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is bilingual. You will see both French and Dutch on signs.

Bus stop signs in Flanders (and Brussels) have a white rectangle at the top. In Wallonia they will have a yellow top.

In Flanders (and Brussels), 95% of warning signs have a thick red outline, without a white border. Contrarily, you will most often find warning signs with a small white outline in Wallonia.

NOTE: The signs found in Flanders are the same as the Spanish ones.

Phone codes in Belgium are very useful to determine the region you are in. They are 9 digits long. The 1 or 2 number(s) after the leading 0 indicate the area code.

0X XXX XX XX (Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, Ghent.)

0XX XX XX XX (Other cities.)

NOTE: Mobile numbers start with 04 and are 10 digits long.

You can click on the image to enlarge it.

As mentioned before, municipality names are often mentioned on street signs, usually in smaller font than the street name. The map shows a selection of recognizable street signs in the bigger cities.

NOTE: Of the big cities, Bruges (Brugge) is an exception to the rule of signs usually mentioning the municipality name.

You can click on the image to enlarge it.

The Ardennes, located in the southeast part of Belgium, have a very distinct landscape. You can see a lot of steep hills, dense forests, and valleys.

NOTE: The Ardennes extend partially into France, Luxembourg, and Germany.

The coastal plain is extremely flat and consists of so-called polders, which are man-made fields at or below sea level, surrounded by many waterways. This landscape is situated near the North Sea coast, as well as near the western part of the border with the Netherlands, particularly around Antwerp.

NOTE: This part of Belgium is especially often confused with the Netherlands. Carefully look around for clues to distinguish the two countries if you find yourself in this landscape.

Many parts of the Belgian North Sea coast are lined by apartment blocks, in a manner that is often derisively referred to as a “wall” of buildings by locals. 

Near the coast, you will also sometimes be able to spot a dune landscape, with low bushes, long grass and sandy soil.

Baarle-Hertog, located north-east of Antwerp, is composed of several exclaves and enclaves of Belgium and the Netherlands. You can often see the country's borders in this city (indicated by small white crosses). Street name signs tell you whether you are in Belgium or The Netherlands.