We flew from Dublin to Charleroi with Ryan Air. The airport is 1hr coach ride to Brussels, the Ryan Air Bus costs €10 one way and drops you outside Gare du Midi on Rue de France. We had no problems getting to our destination (Hotel Sabina - at Metro Station Madou), although it was a bit more complicated to find our way back to the pick up point for the Bus on Rue de France. Advice is don't be shy and ask for directions most Belgians speak excellent English and those we spoke to were quite friendly. As weekends go it was a good laugh the beer is quite strong with a very large head prices of food and drink were equivalent to Dublin. Stay clear of Rue du Boucher where the touristy restruants are - be very careful. Check the menu carefully, you may be enticed by the offer of a free drink and find the prices of everything else very high, Alternate offers were for a bargain 3 course set menu only to find the menu handed to you is a different variation! ! that costs more and portion sizes are a lot to be desired off. Other than that everything went really well - try and get hold of a street map we all managed to get a bit lost on different occasions and again don't by shy and ask directions if you do get a bit confused it saves a lot of time! Also recomend the lonely planet Brussels, Antwerp and Bruges guide book we found it quite useful.