Brussels in March: Shoulder Season and Early Spring

March is the month Brussels starts to come back outdoors. One sunny afternoon the café chairs reappear on the Place Sainte-Catherine, the magnolias in the Ixelles gardens pop, and half the city sits outside in its coat pretending it’s warmer than it is. Two days later it’s raining sideways again. That see-saw is the whole character of Brussels in March: a shoulder month with low prices, thin crowds and one festival that exists for no other time of year, as long as you pack for all four seasons.

This page is for people who have already picked March. It covers what’s on, what the weather really does, what’s open over Easter, the day trips that work, and what to book ahead. Prices were checked in October 2026; treat them as the right order of magnitude. The Art Nouveau festival has announced its 2027 dates (6 to 21 March), but programmes and opening times can change, so we tell you where to check.

Brussels in March: The Short Version

The Weather: Spring, Mostly

Expect highs of about 11°C by day and lows of about 3.5°C at night, with measurable rain on around 16 days of the month. What makes March tricky is its range. A mild, bright week can feel like April, and a cold snap can bring a frosty morning or even sleet. The wind is often the thing that gets you, funnelling down the boulevards of the upper town. On the plus side, the light is coming back fast. By the end of the month, after the clocks go forward on 28 March 2027, it stays light until about eight in the evening, which transforms the city after dark. For the year-round picture, see our Brussels weather guide.

BANAD: Art Nouveau Behind Closed Doors

If there’s one reason to choose March, it’s the Brussels Art Nouveau and Art Deco festival, known as BANAD. For three weekends, owners of private houses, offices and hidden interiors across the city open their doors to visitors. The 2026 edition, the tenth, ran from 14 to 29 March, with around sixty interiors that are normally closed to the public and about twenty themed guided tours. There were also talks, family activities and fairs for antiques dealers and restorers. It’s a chance to see Art Nouveau and Art Deco places that are usually closed to the public. The 2027 edition runs from 6 to 21 March, and the programme and booking are on the festival’s website, banad.brussels.

Outside the festival, the Art Nouveau houses that open all year make March a rewarding month anyway, with cool days made for interiors. The Horta Museum in Saint-Gilles costs €14 for adults, and it’s free on the first Sunday of the month with online booking. It’s closed on Mondays. The Maison Autrique in Schaerbeek is one of Horta’s earliest houses. Our Art Nouveau walking tour links the best facades, and the Art Nouveau architecture guide explains what you’re looking at.

Easter in Brussels

In 2027, Easter falls on 28 March, so the whole Easter weekend lands in March. For weeks beforehand, the city’s chocolatiers fill their windows with eggs, hens, rabbits and bells. The bells matter: in Belgium, it’s the church bells, back from Rome, that drop the eggs in the garden on Easter morning, not a bunny. Even if you’re not buying, a walk past the chocolate shops of the Sablon and the Galeries Royales in the week before Easter is one of the pleasures of the season. Our guide to the best chocolate shops in Brussels tells you which windows to seek out, and a chocolate workshop is a good rainy-afternoon plan.

On the practical side, Good Friday is a normal working day in Belgium, and Easter Monday, 29 March in 2027, is a public holiday. Shop hours vary over the holiday, and SNCB adapts its train offer on Easter Monday, so check the journey planner on belgiantrain.be before you travel. Museums vary too, so check the ones you care about before you plan the day around them.

Carnival’s Last Hurrah: Laetare in Stavelot

Easter is early in 2027, so the famous Carnival of Binche falls in February (see our Brussels in February guide). But Belgium’s carnival season has a March encore. On Laetare, the fourth Sunday of Lent, the Ardennes town of Stavelot holds its Laetare carnival. In 2027 it runs from 6 to 8 March, and it’s the 522nd edition. The stars are the Blancs Moussis, figures in white hooded robes with long red noses, and the Sunday parade brings together some 2,500 participants, a blizzard of confetti and fireworks at night. Stavelot is about two hours from Brussels, easiest by car, and it makes a long but memorable day out. For the wider region, see our Belgian Ardennes guide.

What Else Is On

• Terraces reopen. The first properly sunny days of March bring the café tables out onto the Place Sainte-Catherine, the Sablon and the squares of Saint-Gilles and Ixelles, and Brussels sits outside in its coat.
• Spring in the parks. Magnolias and the first blossom appear in parks and gardens from late March, depending on the year.
• Anemones in the Hallerbos. Late in the month, the forest floor south of the city starts to turn white with wood anemones, the forerunner of April’s bluebells. Our Hallerbos guide explains how to time a visit.
• The cycling classics. Flanders’ cobbled spring races build through March towards the Tour of Flanders in early April. Standing at a cobbled climb with a paper cup of something warm is a very Belgian way to spend a weekend.
• Quiet museums. Before Easter, the major museums are about as calm as they get all year. The Royal Museums of Fine Arts are free from 13:00 on the first Wednesday of the month, for the permanent collections only.

What March Costs

March is one of the cheaper months to visit. Hotel rates are low to mid-range for most of the month, and good deals are easy to find in the weeks before Easter, especially at weekends in the business-heavy upper town. Prices firm up around the Easter weekend, when Flemish school holidays begin and Bruges and Ghent fill with day-trippers. If you plan to see several museums in a short trip, work out whether the Brussels Card pays back. It costs €41 for 24 hours, €53 for 48 hours and €59 for 72 hours, and visit.brussels says it usually pays off from two museum visits. Our Brussels Card guide does the sums, and our hotel booking tips cover timing.

School Holidays and Easter Crowds

Belgium’s two main school systems take their breaks at different times. French-speaking schools have their winter break from 22 February to 7 March 2027, and Flemish schools have their two-week Easter holidays from 29 March to 11 April 2027.

Day Trips in March

March is a good month for the Flemish cities, before the spring coach tours arrive in force. Bruges and Ghent are quiet on weekdays, and cheap trains make them easy: adults get 30% off at weekends, and under-26s and over-65s get 40% off all the time. Our Belgium by train guide explains the fares. Many of the seasonal castles reopen at the end of the month or in early April; our Belgium castles guide has the opening seasons. The Sonian Forest on the city’s edge is lovely on a bright March day before the leaves come out. See our Sonian Forest guide for the gateways, and day trips from Brussels for everything else.

What to Do When It Rains

It will rain at some point, so have a plan ready. The Magritte Museum and the Old Masters at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts can fill a day on their own. The Musical Instruments Museum, the Belgian Comic Strip Centre and the Natural Sciences Museum, with its dinosaurs, are all excellent under grey skies. The Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert keep you dry between chocolate shops and cafés. Our guides to rainy-day Brussels and the Brussels museums have the full list.

What to Pack

• A warm, waterproof jacket, plus a jumper or fleece to layer underneath
• A compact umbrella that survives wind
• Comfortable waterproof shoes for cobbles and puddles
• A scarf for the windy days
• Sunglasses, because the sunny spells are bright and low

Is March a Good Time to Visit Brussels?

Yes, if you’re after culture rather than sunshine. March has low prices, calm museums, the BANAD festival’s rare interiors, the chocolate windows at Easter and the first terrace days, which feel like a reward after winter. The honest downside is the weather. It’s unreliable enough that anything outdoors needs a plan B, and if your trip is mainly about parks, gardens and long evenings outside, April and May are better bets. For help comparing months, see our Brussels month by month guide and the best time to visit Brussels.

If you can push your trip into April, the trade is simple: slightly higher prices for a much greener city. April brings the Hallerbos bluebells, the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken’s short spring opening, a million tulips at Floralia and the great cycling classics. Our Brussels in April guide covers what to book and how to dodge the school-holiday crowds.

Related Brussels Guides

• Brussels Month by Month
• Brussels in February
• Best Time to Visit Brussels
• Brussels Events Calendar
• Art Nouveau Walking Tour
• Saint-Gilles Guide
• Brussels on a Budget

Useful Resources

• banad.brussels: the Art Nouveau and Art Deco festival programme and bookings.
• hortamuseum.be: timed tickets for the Horta Museum.
• laetare-stavelot.be: the Stavelot carnival programme.
• visit.brussels: the city’s events listings for the month.

Photo Credits

• The Hôtel Hannon in Saint-Gilles: Hotel Hannon 01 by Oxyman, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

• The skylight of the Maison Autrique: Maison Autrique – Verrière 01 by Anne Jea., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

• A chocolate shop window at Easter: Laika ac Leonidas Chocolate (6320775572) by Laika ac from USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

• Wood anemones in the Hallerbos: Anemones in Hallerbos Belgium by Sally V, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Final Thoughts

March in Brussels is a month of small, satisfying moments rather than big set pieces. There’s a coffee on the first sunny terrace of the year, an afternoon inside a private Art Nouveau house during BANAD, and a walk past chocolate windows filling up with eggs and bells. You’ll also get museums you can see properly and hotel prices that leave room in the budget for a good dinner.

Pack for rain and hope for sun, book BANAD the moment the programme appears, and aim for the quiet middle of the month if you can. Visit in March and you’ll see the city waking up from winter, before the spring crowds arrive and while it still feels like Brussels’s own.