An excellent buffet lunch is available at the Chateau and can be eaten at the poolside and dinner

An excellent buffet lunch is available at the Chateau and can be eaten at the poolside, and dinner is served in the more formal restaurant.The Ch?au recently changed hands and it is now family-run. There is great attention to detail, and numbers are limited for the comfort of the clients. With the Ch?au des Thermes setting the standard, the whole Spa region is set for a luxurious future.TRAVELLER’S GUIDETREATMENTSThe Thermes de Spa (Colline d’Annette et Lubin, Spa; 00 32 87 77 25 60; ) open daily from 9am-8pm, Friday and Sunday until 10pm Children under 6 are not allowed. Entrance costs €17 (£11), and allows two and a half hours’ access to the pools, including the saunas, steam rooms and relaxation rooms Treatments start at €22 (£15) for a bain carbogazeux. Half-day packages start at €70 (£47) for a massage, bain carbogazeux and access to all the pools.The Ch?au des Thermes (9 Rue Hauster, 00 32 4 367 80 67, ) is open Monday-Thursday and Saturday from 10am-8pm, Friday from 10am-9pm, and Sunday 10am-6pm Children under 12 are not allowed. Entrance costs €18 (£12) for three hours, €30 (£20) for a day.

Treatments start at €15 (£10); a session in the Spa Jet costs €45 (£30). A variety of packages is available from €80 (£53).ACCOMMODATIONThere are plenty of hotels in the region, although at the moment, the only packages that combine accommodation and treatments in Spa are available through the new Radisson SAS hotel at 39 Place Royale (00 32 87 27 97 00, ). Spa Getaway packages start at €123.50 (£82.50) per person, for one night’s half-board accommodation and entrance to the baths. Other hotels in the town can pre-book sessions at the Thermes de Spa, but these will be charged at the advertised rate. These include the Auberge at 3-4 Place du Monument (00 32 87 77 48 33, ) where double rooms start at €77 (£51) and singles at €60 (£40); there is a 5 per cent reduction on the room rate when thermal treatments are booked.

Rooms at the H? Cardinal, at 21 Place Royale (00 32 87 77 10 64, ) start at €82 (£55) for doubles, €62 (£41) for singles.From the end of May, rooms will be available at the Ch?au des Thermes in Chaudfontaine, and half-board accommodation will cost around €109 (£72) per person, including access to the pool, sauna and steam room. Visitors can be collected from the railway station in Liege, 10 miles away.. Like any major capital, Brussels has its share of imposing monuments and museums; ancient and modern arts, crafts and music; but the characteristic that sets it apart from anywhere else in the world is its celebration of the comic-strip book. Its comic creations are best known to British readers in the form of Herg? Adventures of Tintin. The improbable doings of the perpetually startled, spiky-haired reporter are filed on the children’s shelves of UK libraries. In Belgium, by contrast, comic strips are devoured by readers of all ages: exhaustively researched, politically conscious, superbly drawn examples of what has come to be known as the “Ninth Art”.Tintin is world famous, of course, having been translated so widely that you can even read about him in Swahili. Those erstwhile chart-toppers The Smurfs, and the oddball cowboy Lucky Luke have also enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame on this side of the North Sea.

But there’s a vast list of other comic book heroes who are household names in Belgium, but virtually unknown beyond its borders. Taken together, they’ve been responsible for more than half the nation’s publishing output in the last 50 years.Two dozen of these classic capers are depicted in a series of colourful, larger-than-life murals on buildings dotted about the centre of Brussels. They’re encompassed by a three-mile walking tour that’s a useful way of discovering what makes the real Brussels tick. It’s a fluid itinerary, which has to be altered from time to time when buildings are demolished – as part of the huge construction programme reshaping the city centre – or when new cartoons are commissioned.