Where to stay in Antwerp: the best neighbourhoods and hotels

Antwerp's old town huddles around the Cathedral of Our Lady, whose lacy stone spire can be seen from half the city. A few steps away is the Grote Markt, ringed by step-gabled guild houses topped with gilded statues, and beyond that the Scheldt, where the old castle guards the quay.

This is where you want to be on a first visit. The lanes are packed with restaurants, chocolate shops and old wood-panelled cafés, and the riverside museum quarter is about a kilometre to the north. Hotels range from a large, familiar name in the very middle to intimate four-star guesthouses within five or ten minutes' walk of the cathedral. Weekend nights are lively, so pack earplugs or ask for a courtyard room.

The Meir is Antwerp's great shopping boulevard, a broad pedestrian avenue of ornate nineteenth-century facades running between the station and the old town. Just to its south, around the botanical garden and the theatres, the streets fill with independent boutiques and good places to eat.

This is the smartest part of the city to sleep in. The headline act is a five-star set in a twelfth-century monastery, with a spa, serious restaurants and a cloistered calm that makes the city outside seem very far away. Nearby, an eighteenth-century city palace on one of the old merchant streets has been restored as a luxury address. There are sound mid-range hotels too, opposite the Opera and a few minutes from the Meir.

Antwerp Central is regularly named among the most beautiful railway stations in the world, all marble, glass and iron under a great dome. The zoo is right beside it, the diamond district fills the streets to the south, and De Keyserlei, lined with cafés, leads west towards the Meir.

More hotels gather here than anywhere else in the city, from dependable three-stars opposite the station to polished four-stars with courtyards, spas and, in one case, an indoor pool. It is the obvious choice if you are arriving by train, and Brussels Airport is about half an hour away by rail. The area is busy and commercial rather than charming; the old town is a 15- to 20-minute walk, or a couple of stops by tram.

A short walk south of the station, the city park is a welcome triangle of green, with a lake, winding paths and joggers doing their laps. The streets around it are a notch calmer than the station district and sit neatly between the diamond quarter, the Meir and the Jewish neighbourhood.

Hotels here suit travellers who want to be central without the bustle. There's a design-minded four-star with park views near the zoo, a quiet, traditional hotel with its own underground parking, and a larger one with an indoor pool. Trams and the pre-metro stop close by, so the old town is only minutes away.

East of the station, behind the railway line, Zurenborg is the neighbourhood locals take visitors to show off. Around the turn of the twentieth century its developers let their architects run wild, and whole streets are lined with Art Nouveau and Belle Époque townhouses: mosaics, wrought-iron balconies, turrets, the lot.

It is a residential district with a village feel, known for its restaurants and bars, and it makes a relaxed, good-value base. Accommodation is mostly aparthotels and practical three-stars, handy for longer stays or if you like a kitchen. The station is within walking distance and trams run to the centre. Stay closer in if this is a one-night dash.

Central Antwerp is a low-emission zone, and parking in the old streets is tight, so drivers often do better at the edge. The southern ring, around Berchem and the business district, has a line of big modern hotels with car parks, gyms and meeting rooms, some of them overlooking parks.

Nobody comes here for the scenery. But the rooms are spacious, the rates are often lower than in the centre, and buses and trams reach the historic heart in about ten minutes. Berchem also has its own railway station. A sound, unglamorous choice for a road trip through Belgium and the Netherlands.