Moving to Belgium in a month... haaaalp!

Triathlon Forum
1

I will be moving to Belgium by the end of August and the office is in Izegem and I’m hoping to get some advice from people living there or that have been there on where to live and where to train. I still have not decided where to live but I am considering Kortrijk, Roselare, Waregem or Izegem itself which will be very close to the office and for much that I’d like to live near Ghent it won’t make much sense since it will be around 45min from there to the office so maybe is not the best idea but thinking on my wife and son (newborn) I think they will enjoy more the life close to Ghent or even Bruges which is about 30min from the office, any advise? How is the life style there? I am planning to rent for some time maybe for a year and I we feel things are looking good we will consider buying, how does that sound? I have never been to Europe so I have no clear idea what to expect. We are considering moving some of our belongings from Atlanta to Belgium but I am not sure it is worth it, for what we will pay per box I think we can buy that stuff new, has anybody moved stuff to Europe and was it worth it? which company did you use? Pretty much we’d like to send some kitchen stuff and the TVs and some of the baby stuff and boxes with clothes, my bike and tools, etc and travel light by plane.
What about buying a car? Is it as expensive as they say? gas, insurance, etc? And what about learning the language, how did you do it?

Looking at Strava I see there are some bike paths that can easily take me to the border with Netherlands or to the coast which should be a very nice ride, also maybe something that connects to France, how safe is it to ride on the roads? I was not able to find any bike-only trail so I think I will be riding on the streets for the long rides on weekends. Also not many natural trails to run near the area I will be living, am I missing something? I am also considered joining a tri club but the ones I found everything is in Dutch which I am starting to kind of learn, so far I just can say Ik ben Jorge… anyway does anybody train with a tri club over there? how is tri life in that area?

Any advise is much appreciated!

2

I’m from Belgium myself but I live near the Dutch/German borders, so on the other end of the country.

There are a few triathlon clubs in the area you’re thinking about moving to, which you can find here:
https://www.isbapp.be/lid/triatlon/f?p=114:18

Ghent and Bruges are popular destinations for (day) tourists so might not be ideal, depending on what you’re looking for. Ghent is also very populair here for students because of their university.
Rent around that area might also be quite high (Renting a house might cost you the same every month as paying a loan on a house every month, but requirements to get a loan here are also quite high (you have to have over 20% of the amount you want to loan,…)), while it’s probably cheaper around Kortrijk, Roeselare, etc. I’m not too familiar with those area’s but there’s definitely a nice amount of countryside, not too many forests to run or ride trails on. However the southern and French speaking part of Belgium has a lot of that and you’re probably only 1-2 hours of driving away.

Belgium is only small, with going from one end to the other probably only being 250-300km so you’re right that you can cross the border to the Netherlands or France pretty easily from there. Roads and cycling infrastructure overall are okay but in the Netherlands they’re definitely better.

Hope this helps you out a little.

3

I’m from the Netherlands. But I visit Belgium regularly. Both Gent and Brugge are very beautiful cities. Not big metropolitan cities, but nice and great historical centrums. Every year you have the “Gentse 10 days” which is basically a 10 days long party. Awesome, you need to check that out.

The reason why i visit Belgium often is because the cycling there is (or can be) way better than in the Netherlands (South Limburg being the exception). The roads are not as good as in the Netherlands but that is the only thing the Netherlands has over Belgium concerning cycling. The Netherlands is pancake flat, Belgium has a lot more of hills. Also a lot more of classic cycle races thus legendary hill climbs.

Also, I believe the Belgium people are quite good in the English language, so it shouldn’t be a problem communicating

p.s.
Belgium beers might be the best in the world…

4

Thanks, do you ride any particular course?
and definitely I’m looking forward to the beer and chocolate!

5

yes it does help thanks! I did not consider that major cities will be more for tourists so probably we want to avoid that, maybe something more quiet is what we want.

6

I will be moving to Belgium by the end of August and the office is in Izegem and I’m hoping to get some advice from people living there or that have been there on where to live and where to train. I still have not decided where to live but I am considering Kortrijk, Roselare, Waregem or Izegem itself which will be very close to the office and for much that I’d like to live near Ghent it won’t make much sense since it will be around 45min from there to the office so maybe is not the best idea but thinking on my wife and son (newborn) I think they will enjoy more the life close to Ghent or even Bruges which is about 30min from the office, any advise? How is the life style there? I am planning to rent for some time maybe for a year and I we feel things are looking good we will consider buying, how does that sound? I have never been to Europe so I have no clear idea what to expect. We are considering moving some of our belongings from Atlanta to Belgium but I am not sure it is worth it, for what we will pay per box I think we can buy that stuff new, has anybody moved stuff to Europe and was it worth it? which company did you use? Pretty much we’d like to send some kitchen stuff and the TVs and some of the baby stuff and boxes with clothes, my bike and tools, etc and travel light by plane.
What about buying a car? Is it as expensive as they say? gas, insurance, etc? And what about learning the language, how did you do it?

Looking at Strava I see there are some bike paths that can easily take me to the border with Netherlands or to the coast which should be a very nice ride, also maybe something that connects to France, how safe is it to ride on the roads? I was not able to find any bike-only trail so I think I will be riding on the streets for the long rides on weekends. Also not many natural trails to run near the area I will be living, am I missing something? I am also considered joining a tri club but the ones I found everything is in Dutch which I am starting to kind of learn, so far I just can say Ik ben Jorge… anyway does anybody train with a tri club over there? how is tri life in that area?

Any advise is much appreciated!You are going towards the area where I grew up! I was born in Ghent but lived in the Waregem / Kortrijk region for the most part. I went to high school in Waregem and to college in Kortrijk. My entire family still lives in the region including some in Izegem. One of my cousins who lives in Izegem is doing his first Ironman in 2 weeks. :slight_smile: He’s also a member of a tri club.

That whole area are mostly small towns and smaller cities with lots of farmland in between. So you will get many small roads with minimal traffic. The good thing in that region is that you can head into different directions, you can go north towards the Netherlands which will mean flat but windy roads, west / southwest towards France or Ieper with some longer hills and open roads where many battles of WW1 were fought. Or you can go east and climb tons of hills famous for the Tour of Flanders. All things you can do starting from your home. There are no bike specific trails other than those along the rivers (Schelde, Leie, IJzer). You can go mountain biking or running in parks such as the ‘Kluisbos’.

Expect that everything will be Dutch based - that’s a regulation thing. You live in Flanders you’ll get your communication in Dutch. Remember that the voltage is 230V so your TV might not work there. Plus they use PAL for signal processing whereas the US uses NTSC.

Gas price is 3x the cost of the US, cars are much more expensive, as is clothing. I think furniture is about the same as here…

I would suggest not to buy a house unless you are really sure you like it there. It can be quite different depending on which US area you live in now. Weather sucks - it rains a lot and weather is very unpredictable. Lots of gloomy days. People are attached to their region and usually don’t show much initiative or interest in adventure. But the food is great, there’s tons of cycling races… so some great stuff and some not so great stuff.

7

I go out riding with friends, most often to the Ardennes which is big enough to keep exploring for a couple of years. This is however not around the corner… well… for US proportion everything is around the corner in Belgium :wink: You will be more placed around the Tour of Flanders area. Ardennes is more the Liege-Bastogne-Liege area. You could even try the cobbles stones from Paris-Roubaix… not too far away either.

just let the Spring Classics be your guide :slight_smile: You’ve got some amazing riding ahead!

8

Please, for the love of god, buy a cyclocross bike.

9

Does that mean you are leaving your job at Univision?

I was in Halluin, France, a few miles from Kortrijk a few weeks ago on a weekend. I went for a run on the Sunday morning, randomly picking a route on small roads and was amazed at how many friendly cyclists/runners and how few cars there were.

Before shipping appliances consider the plugs will provide 220 Volts, so TV and kitchen appliances will most likely require a transformer.

Apart from that I would think a big change for you will be the weather which may seem gray and wet.

10

Traffic in Belgium is horrible so despite the sucky nature of Izegem you might want to live close to work.
Lots of nice biking routes in triangle Ghent-Kortrijk-Geraaardsbergen if you like rural and hilly but the roads are not the best. For TT biking there are nice cycling paths next to rivers like Leie, Schelde and most canals. Cars show little respect for people on bikes which is probably partly caused by the fact that some people on bikes show little respect for cars.
Ghent is the best city to work and to live in but a pain if you have to commute to work by car.
Don’t bother moving stuff. Everything is 240V here so appliances that can’t be switched work poorly.
Cost of living is very similar to USA. Some things are more expensive, some things are cheaper. Any country has its own way of robbing tax payers…
Good luck with the move. I live in Ghent and half of my family moved to the US so I have some experience with these matters.
Sam

11

Previous post aside, Belgium is the best place to live on earth :slight_smile:
Sam
.

12

I did a bike race on the Liege Baston Liege course a few years ago. One of the best places I have ever ridden a bike. Really pretty ride. Crazy steep hills in the Ardennes south of where you will be. Windy and flat where you will be. There are a ton of bike races and they are not expensive. I found the drivers were really polite to cyclists. Great food too.

13

Awesome, this helps a lot thanks!
Which city would you think is best to live in with family Izegem, Waregem or Kortrijk? For what others have mentioned I think Bruges and Ghent are not the best idea due to traffic considering they are not very close to Izegem.

14

Does that mean you are leaving your job at Univision?

Hahaha!

15

Awesome, this helps a lot thanks!
Which city would you think is best to live in with family Izegem, Waregem or Kortrijk? For what others have mentioned I think Bruges and Ghent are not the best idea due to traffic considering they are not very close to Izegem.The thing with places like Bruges and Gent is that in Belgium freeways typically do not run straight through city centers like they do in the US. There tends to be a ‘ring’ around each city and the freeways start from there. So if you live in, say, the center of Ghent, part 1 of your journey will be to get to the ring. Part 2 will be to drive on the ring in the direction of the freeway you want (and here traffic can be a problem) and part 3 is to get onto the freeway towards the place you’re going to. However if you live just outside the ring you don’t have to deal with parts 1 and 2 and your journey could be much easier.

Kortrijk has 75000 residents and Waregem has 35000 and Izegem 26000. So they are very small compared to American towns. Kortrijk is the most city-like, has some nice squares and parks and is a hub for public transportation making it easy to explore the country by train. It’s a student town. I connects with the river Leie which you can follow south towards France or north towards Gent on the bike trail.

Waregem would be a smaller version of that - less squares, parks, less entertainment. There are several high schools but no colleges and that means if you have older kids there’s less entertainment for them. It’s in between the small towns like the one I grew up in (Anzegem, right next to Waregem) and cities like Kortrijk. It’s close to the river Leie and a little closer to the river Schelde (which also has a bike trail) than Kortrijk. It’s also a bit closer to the Flemish ardennes than Kortrijk meaning you get into the hills quicker.

Izegem is the most rural. Unless that’s what you’re looking for expect that there’s very little to do there. I wouldn’t consider that.

Ultimately it depends on what you’re looking for, and how long you expect to live there. I don’t mean to scare you but it’s just a rural part of the country in general. The people that live there are the people that grew up there. There is absolutely zero cultural diversity so everything that looks different, thinks different, speaks different will be an outlier. Damn the more I think about it the more I’d say don’t do it :smiley:

16

It’s not that bad. Ok, you’re not in a metropole or the most exciting town centers but if that’s not what you’re looking for even Izegem is quite charming. If you want the size of Waregem, perhaps Roeselare is an option. It’s about the size of Waregem and right next to Izegem.

This part of Belgium is indeed quite rural but this isn’t all negative. Peope are friendly, most roads are not busy and good for cycling or running, you’re within cycling range of both Vlaamse Ardennen and Heuvelland which have the typical short and steep climbs. Above that Izegem has a really good and accessible tri club (EFC-ITC) ranging from absolute beginner to (semi) pro level athletes.

17

It’s not that bad. Ok, you’re not in a metropole or the most exciting town centers but if that’s not what you’re looking for even Izegem is quite charming. If you want the size of Waregem, perhaps Roeselare is an option. It’s about the size of Waregem and right next to Izegem.

This part of Belgium is indeed quite rural but this isn’t all negative. Peope are friendly, most roads are not busy and good for cycling or running, you’re within cycling range of both Vlaamse Ardennen and Heuvelland which have the typical short and steep climbs. Above that Izegem has a really good and accessible tri club (EFC-ITC) ranging from absolute beginner to (semi) pro level athletes.I think Izegem, I say… “zeg ne keer oe laat est” :wink: (one of my favorite bands)

18

I just moved from London and middle east to france

For international move we used pickfords. Really professional

I will let you know about learning the language - french - but have been here since July 12th and managed to get mobiles, internet, empty septic, bike serviced ;), shopping etc

I crack on with speaking to be honest. Grammatically and tense wise i think i am all over the place but so far i can sort of muddle through

19

I just moved from London and middle east to france

For international move we used pickfords. Really professional

I will let you know about learning the language - french - but have been here since July 12th and managed to get mobiles, internet, empty septic, bike serviced ;), shopping etc

I crack on with speaking to be honest. Grammatically and tense wise i think i am all over the place but so far i can sort of muddle throughOP is moving to Flanders region where the language is Dutch, not French.