OK, I literally live close enough to this hotel to hit it with a golf ball from my front yard. I have NOT stayed at the hotel ... that would be silly since I live here already.
Le Joli Bois is NOT a 45 minutes walk from the Battlefield. A quick glance at Google Maps will confirm this for anyone. My wife has done this walk with our visiting friends (and toting a 6 year old, 4 year old and 2 year old) in less than 20 minutes.
Similarly, the closest bus stop ("Les Ecoles" on the Chaussee de Bruxelles - right in front of the Mercedes dealer for northbound journeys) is 5-6 minutes max even with luggage. Frequent and inexpensive bus service makes travel up and down the Chaussee (towards the center of Waterloo for shopping and visiting the Wellington Museum) very easy. Detailed schedules are posted on every bus shelter.
I will confess that getting from the Waterloo SNCB train station to Le Joli Bois either requires a long walk down the Rue de la Station where it meets up with the Chaussee de Bruxelles, a bus transfer or a taxi ride.
HOWEVER, taking the train to "Braine L'Alleud" instead is a lot easier, with a single bus ride on the "W" line (W for Waterloo, but the bus continues to Brussels Midi train station) stopping at "Les Ecoles". Alternatively, one could just take that "W" bus (the TEC bus line) straight from Brussels Midi train station (the international station with connections via Eurostar to London and via Thalys to Paris, Cologne and Amsterdam) to Waterloo directly. But I would recommend taking the train since the bus can get stuck in traffic.
Train connections from the airport (BRU in Zaventem) are regularly scheduled on the line terminating in ("Nivelles / Nijvel") with stops in both Waterloo and Braine L'Alleud.
I can't speak for the quality of the hotel itself. I will leave that for those who have actually stayed overnight. But I just wanted to give some hope to those who are coming to Waterloo and have questioned whether or not Le Joli Bois is worth investigating.
I have never met the owners (and don't plan to tell them that I have written this commentary), so I have nothing to gain except promoting family-owned businesses. I will leave it to them to satisfy their guests once they actually arrive.




