January is a decent shoulder option for Antwerp: fewer crowds, some trade-offs. Expect daytime highs around 6°C, nights near 1°C and roughly 12 rainy days across the month. Cold, grey and damp with highs near 6C and short daylight, though the Winter in Antwerpen market and its ice rink usually run into the first week of the month before the lights come down. After that it is the quietest and cheapest stretch of the year, with the KMSKA galleries and the Plantin-Moretus press rooms almost empty.
Day high
6°C
Night low
1°C
Rainy days
≈ 12
Verdict
Fair
January is quieter, which makes it the right month to afford the splurge picks.
Couples€€€Monastery turned five-star · Het Zuid
A walled complex of former convent and hospital buildings on Leopoldstraat, converted in 2022 into the city's only five-star hotel with its own herb garden and four restaurants. The botanical garden next door is public and free, and the cathedral is a twelve-minute walk north.
from ~320 EUR/night
Check prices
Couples€€Quiet townhouse boutique · Historic Centre
Two linked 16th-century houses on Korte Nieuwstraat with a courtyard, an honesty bar and a rooftop terrace that looks straight at the cathedral tower. There is no sign on the door beyond the house number, which tells you how much the owners care about keeping the place quiet.
from ~195 EUR/night
Check prices
First visit€€Big reliable station hotel · Diamond Quarter and Centraal
Long known as the Radisson Blu Astrid, it stands on Koningin Astridplein facing the domed front of Antwerpen-Centraal, so you can be off a Brussels or Amsterdam train and in your room in five minutes. The indoor pool, sauna and gym come with the room and look out over the station roof, with the pool open 7am to 10pm.
from ~130 EUR/night
Check prices
Budget€Official Flemish youth hostel · Historic Centre
A purpose-built hostel on Bogaardeplein in the Sint-Andries quarter, two streets from the Plantin-Moretus printing museum and the fashion shops of Nationalestraat. Breakfast is included in the dorm rate, which is rare at this price in Belgium, and there is a bike shed for arrivals on two wheels.
from ~32 EUR/night
Check pricesReal hotel photos · prices are indicative from-rates, not live quotes · booking links support the site at no extra cost
With 12 rainy days and highs of 6°C, build your January days around indoor anchors and treat sunny windows as a bonus.
Rubenshuis
TipRubens bought this house on the Wapper in 1610 and rebuilt it as an Italianate home and studio, working there until his death in 1640. It closed to visitors in early 2024 for a long renovation that includes a new entrance building on the Wapper, and the reopening date has moved more than once, so check the museum's own site for the current status instead of turning up and hoping. While it is shut, the Rubens you can reliably see in Antwerp are the four altarpieces in the cathedral, the Rubens rooms at the KMSKA and his burial chapel in Sint-Jacobskerk on Lange Nieuwstraat.
Museum Plantin-Moretus
TipThe Plantin-Moretus house, printing works and bookshop went onto the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2005, the first museum inscribed as a site in its own right, and the press room holds the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world. It closes on Mondays, entry is around 12 EUR, and the Antwerp City Card pays for itself if you plan three museums or more. Allow two hours and do not walk past the library and the courtyard garden on your way to the presses, because they are the quietest rooms in the building.
Sint-Annatunnel
TipThe pedestrian tunnel under the Scheldt opened in 1933, runs 572 metres at about 31 metres below the river and is free and open around the clock, with the original wooden-step escalators still carrying people down at each end. Enter at Sint-Jansvliet, walk across in roughly ten minutes and come up on the left bank for the classic view back at the Antwerp skyline, the one postcard shot you cannot take from the city side. Lifts run alongside the escalators when those are out of service.
Diamond Quarter and DIVA
TipThe trade sits in a handful of bourses on Hoveniersstraat, Schupstraat and Rijfstraat right beside Centraal station, behind bollards and cameras: you can walk the streets, but the trading floors are closed and photographing people there is not welcome. To actually see stones, go to DIVA on Suikerrui near the Grote Markt, the city museum of diamonds, jewellery and silver, where the route with its included audio guide takes about 90 minutes. Check its opening days before you set out, because its weekly closing day is not the usual Monday.
Ready to plan the full trip? Start from the 2-day Antwerp itinerary.
January is a decent shoulder option for Antwerp: fewer crowds, some trade-offs. Expect daytime highs around 6°C, nights near 1°C and roughly 12 rainy days across the month. Cold, grey and damp with highs near 6C and short daylight, though the Winter in Antwerpen market and its ice rink usually run into the first week of the month before the lights come down. After that it is the quietest and cheapest stretch of the year, with the KMSKA galleries and the Plantin-Moretus press rooms almost empty.
Typical January days in Antwerp reach about 6°C, dropping to around 1°C at night. Layers work best.
Count on roughly 12 days with rain in January. Plan one indoor block per day and keep museum tickets as your fallback.