It connects Zeebrugge, the major seaport of Bruges, with Bad Oeynhausen, a German spa town located beside the River Weser at the eastern edge of North Rhine-Westphalia.

By the early 1990s, the western portion of the route, between Antwerp and the coast, was a dual carriageway with frequent intersections, the more busy of which were controlled by traffic lights and marked by 90 kilometres per hour (56 mph) speed limits.

Starting at the Antwerp end, this part of the E34 has more recently been progressively upgraded with junctions either eliminated or else replaced by motorway-style intersections.

The upgrade from National road to Autoroute quality has been reflected in a name change, from N49 to A11: in terms of national road numbers, as long as the upgrade remains incomplete, the two names are currently used interchangeably or together (N49-A11) when referring to the full length between Antwerp and Zeebrugge.

[1] The route skirts Antwerp using the southern R1 inner ring road which includes the Kennedy Tunnel: this is closed to vehicles with certain classes of dangerous loads.