Self-Guided Tours in Brussels

Every one of Brussels's self-guided games plays out on the same compact patch of old centre around the Grand Place, just dressed up differently each time. A straight scavenger hunt covers the guild houses and the Manneken Pis roughly as a first-time visitor would find them anyway. A gold-quest treasure hunt, built as a sailor's story, sends players down side streets a straight hunt would skip. A mystery walking game reframes the centre as something to crack rather than a route to follow, working in Karl Marx's old prison stay at the Hotel Amigo and the square where Jacques Brel stands in bronze. A fourth pairs the old town with its beer culture, tying clues to the bar famous for its thousand-plus beer list.

Three different engines drive these four walks. A ticket number is all the general hunt asks of the World City Trail app; its GPS takes the navigating from there, and every stop can be listened to instead of read if you'd rather — close to three hours end to end. The mystery game and the beer walk unlock through the Questo app and a texted access code respectively, working through binary codes, ciphers and riddles at real landmarks in well under an hour and a half each; the mystery game allows up to three players on one phone before extra licences are needed. The gold-quest hunt, also unlocked by a code, sits in between at close to two hours. Streets around the Grand Place fill up fast after midday, whichever one you pick.

Practical. Grey skies and short showers turn up through most of the Brussels year — July sits around 22-23C, January nearer 5-6C — and a light rain shell earns its keep more often than a proper winter coat does. The Grand Place and its side streets are cobbled and get slippery fast in rain; flat shoes matter more here than in the newer parts of the city. None of the four cancels for weather, so a wet morning still suits any option, and the beer-themed walk works best paced around lunchtime or early evening rather than on an empty stomach.