My wife and I are planning a trip to Europe that will involve 3-4 days in Bruges/Ghent, and maybe an additional day travelling around Belgium at the end of March 2026. Any thoughts/comments/suggestions about places to stay, things to see, and things to avoid would be most welcome! Thank you in advance.
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We went to the Netherlands and Belgium in September. We stayed at an AirB&B in Ghent for 6 of us and that worked out well. Try the waffles and all the alternative toppings- street food in the evenings. We totally enjoyed Amsterdam to nice Maastricht, loved Utrecht, nice Delft and Harlem all in the Netherlands. Lots of boat rides and tours in the Netherlands were fun. We walked a lot in Belgium and met some friends there at the library in Ghent.
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Definitely take a boat tour. Try all the chocolate. Soak it in! I adored Bruges.
Hope you like beer!
The Musical Instruments museum in Brussels is one of a kind.
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Belgium has great food, so definitely make meals, snacks, and tastings an intentional part of your itinerary. Beer, chocolate, frites! Brussels is lovely, and the NYT “36 hours” has some great ideas. If you visit the Grand Place, you might want to check out the Toone puppet theater. (Short show, more familiar to locals, interesting history!)
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And mussels! Don’t forget the mussels ; )
OP - We were in Ghent, Bruges, and Brussels two decades ago at the same time of year and it was wonderful! Don’t miss Gravensteen Castle in Ghent!
My daughter was there last spring for a work trip (actually to Maastricht but she took time off before and after to explore Brussels and then Amsterdam). She did a super fun beer and chocolate tour in Brussels and loved it! She did caution that she expected tasting portions of beer but they got full pints at all six stops so plan accordingly if you do that ; ).
Public transportation was easy, fast and safe.
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We’re going in a couple of weeks. Looking at the recs here and will report back with any more when we get back! Been to Brussels before but many years back, the rest of Belgium will be new.
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The Ardennes are interesting, especially for a war buff. Definitely a quieter experience, but it has,the advantage of being a bit off the beaten tourist track. I’m not sure how it would fit into OP’S itinerary, but there are some very charming little towns and castles. Fwiw, DH found this to be the highlight of a trip a few years ago.
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We visited Belgium last year and loved it. Bruges is worth visiting, but it’s packed with tourists and the food is ok. I preferred Ghent. It has a vibrancy with all of the students, and has better restaurants. Oysters and champagne at the Blauwe Kiosk was unique. Great city!
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My wife and I just spent two weeks overtipping our way through the Low Countries, and doing our best to boost the local economy in Belgium and the Netherlands. Thanks to all who provided suggestions for the part of our trip that we had in Belgium! Due to logistics, we were unable to take some in (according to our travel agent, the Blauwe Kiosk was only open on the weekends – and we were not in Ghent on a weekend – and the Ardennes was a bit too far out of the way – but so was the battlefield at Waterloo, which I had an interest in seeing after reading a number of books on that battle). But here is a summary of our recent excursion:
(1) We started off our trip in Bruges, which we loved! Because the weather was a bit cool – we wore sweaters every day in the Low Countries except for the very last day – we probably avoided excessive amounts of tourists. (Although we did see a lot of high school students on school trips, swarming around the Market Square.) We did a walking/canal tour of Bruges, which was very nice; afterwards we walked around the old part of the city. One of the places we visited was the Church of Our Lady, which had a Michelangelo sculpture of Madonna and Child (and which, I learned, had been rescued by the “Monuments Men” from the Austrian salt mine where Hitler had stored a bunch of stolen artworks – I may have to watch that movie again!).
We stayed at the Duke’s Palace Hotel in Bruges for several nights; I highly recommend it.
(2) We took the train to Ghent for a day trip; we did a canal tour, and walked around the center city, taking in the architecture. We visited St. Bavo’s Cathedral, which had – among other artworks – the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb of God; there was a very interesting VR tour of the cathedral and the Mystic Lamb exhibit. (I learned that the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb had also been rescued from the collection of Hitler’s stolen artworks found in the Austrian salt mine.)
As far as the food in Bruges and Ghent, I had the best sparkling water there that I have ever had in my life! I don’t know why, but it was just wonderful! The restaurants always served cheese croquettes and frites, which I would usually sample (my wife mostly avoided them). We also had a lot of very fine chocolates in Bruges, and I had many different types of beer – quite good!
All in all, a lovely trip to Belgium! Thanks to all for your suggestions!
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