Travelling to Brussels in May with children - cancel??

I would not be planning on trips to Belgium, I have very little confidence in Belgian security services right now and I think almost certainly there will be more attacks. Car accidents kill more people, but when there is any terrorist attack anywhere, or even false alarms, you are going to have travel disruption, airports shutdown, train network shut down. Do you really want to be planning your trip and when over there constantly checking the news for attacks and working around disruptions?
Why expose yourself to that risk and stress unneccessarily all in the name of a holiday?

It is irrational to react to any plane accident or incident by refusing to get on any plane. It does not seem irrational to look at a country experiencing an ongoing security situation and say I'm going to go elsewhere. That said, the kid may not be as well informed about the situation and is just reacting to any attack.
This is a holiday, a discretionary trip that you do not have to make. Why drag someone where they do not want to go in the name of 'fun'. I think you need to come up with a Plan B trip so that kid A doesn't blame kid B for cancelling a holiday entirely.
 
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cremeegg said:
There is risk in every thing. In a trip to Brussels, the risk from a traffic accident is vastly greater than the risk from a terrorist attack.
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So we can conclude then that his fears are not irrational then, can we?

cremeegg said:
The point is a child living his life free from fear.
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You can't live a life free of fear! You can learn to deal with fear which is a different thing.
 
Brussels is probably the epicentre of jihadi (would-be) terrorists, Belgium was on high alert and yet still the attacks happened, & really it's very difficult for security services to prevent attacks when someone is willing to blow themselves up; if your child doesn't want to go I'd let them stay at home.
At the same time, the chance of being affected is remote, but there are good times & bad times to see a place, and at the moment it's bad for Belgium.
I don't think anyone would ever regret not going to see Brussels :) I'd say out of 10 or 15 EU capitals I've been to, it's the least interesting (though in Belgium I would recommend Bruges & Antwerp)

I was under the impression that Aer Lingus allowed you to change tickets, but I've never tried it.
 
[QUOTE="elainem, post: 1468055, member: 10067] We had thought maybe, we'd just get to Brussels Airport and take a train straight to Ghent or Antwerp and then just do the Monday in Brussels for the European Parliament Tour.[/QUOTE]

Is the European Parliament not in Strasbourg? Why go into Brussels at all?
 
Not directly relevant...although I do think you should go.. I was in New York after 9/11 and it was humbling to be there.

A place I went to once was the atonium in Brussels. Absolutely a well kept secret. Built as part of the great exhibition and has wonderful cafe at top. You can practically see all of brussels. There's also a mini airport replica beside it which was fun

Antwerp Zoo is brilliant. One v strange thing about Antwerp is u have to show your passport when purchasing something. I forgot my phone charger and had to buy one and needed my passport
 
I flew to the USA 2 weeks after 9/11 and to be honest, I never thought of cancelling. Perhaps it was because I lived for 10 years in London and heard a number of bombs go off and had my desk blown up in the Bishopsgate bomb and having seen how London reacted to those, it all gave me a "what will be will be " attitude. Normally as long as you are prudent and careful you should be ok.

Having said that, it doesn't necessarily mean you should go seeking danger and the reality is that there are specific issues in Brussels and Paris which would give me pause for thought. There are issues in both cities that perhaps don't exist in another place. You also have to deal with the irrational fear of a child. I flew to Paris with my kids 2 years ago and my then 7 year old was very nervous flying over water because she had heard stories on the news about planes crashing over the sea. The fact that we wouldn't survive if something happened over land was irrelevant to her. If your child is paranoid about going, is it really worth the hassle of having to deal with that over the next few weeks?
 
I was in Brussels a good few years ago and whilst there we took a day trip to Brugge which is only a short train journey away and was lovely. Just a thought in case you wanted to stay in Belgium and just change your accommodation.
 
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