There’s an anniversary coming up, in case you hadn’t noticed. Our love affair with the Eurostar has lasted 15 (mostly) happy years — and, if anything, she’s improved with age, getting racier by the year. It now takes less than two hours to get to Brussels, two and a quarter to Paris.

By contrast, during that time, flying has got slower and more irksome: getting to the airport, parking charges, security hassles, delays, sardine-tin seats, extra charges for breathing, all to be dumped at some godforsaken airfield 30 miles from where it pretends to be, at 1am.

The contrast between plane and tunnel has never been more stark.

The thing is, like any relationship that’s lasted so long, a change is as good as a rest. Paris and Brussels, we know you all too well. We’ve climbed the Eiffel Tower, we’ve gawped at the Atomium. Call us faithless and weak, but we crave the new. So, isn’t there anything else you can do with the Eurostar? Certainly is: just go that bit further.

A simple change of trains, an hour or two more of sipping wine in a spacious, comfy seat, and you can step down in dozens more cities without the humiliating grind of air travel. We’ve picked four of the best, with journey times short enough to make a long weekend eminently practicable.

And for those who can’t bear to pass over Paris or Brussels, we’ve tracked down the latest diversions in each city — new museums and galleries, new restaurants, new shops, new hotels — so however many times you’ve been, you can easily fill a weekend with stuff you’ve never done. Whichever you choose, you’ll arrive carriage-fresh instead of airport-frazzled. Enjoy.

Ghent

3 hours

Why? It’s a bit of a chameleon, Ghent. It can do all that medieval canalside charm as well as its tourist-thronged neighbour, Bruges: it has a beautifully restored historic centre, a fine cathedral and the Gravensteen, a 12th-century castle built the way castles should be, with castellations, a moat and a full complement of spine-chilling (and spine-wrenching) instruments of torture. But it’s also a hotbed of gin- and techno-fuelled modern revelry, sustained by a big student population and a rebellious tradition: try the bars around Groentenmarkt and Vlasmarkt if you don’t believe us. Kooky little shops, a thriving cafe culture and some good markets (try the weekend flea market on Steendam) complete the picture.

Where to stay: Hotel Harmony (00 32-9 324 2680, hotel-harmony.be; doubles from £135), in the beautifully restored Patershol district, is housed in a couple of venerable buildings; the atmosphere is as warm as the decor is cool. The Erasmus (09 224 2195, erasmushotel.be) is that bit cheaper, and feels it, but it has buckets of charm and there’s a suit of armour in the breakfast room.

The journey: a doddle — less than two hours to Brussels Midi, a leisurely platform change and about 35 minutes on to Ghent. Fare from Brussels: £0. Yes, nothing. With a Eurostar ticket, you can travel on to any town in Belgium for no extra cost. Well hello, Bruges, Antwerp, Namur...

Rotterdam

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