rsmith8617

We have a trip to London late September and want to make a trip via train to Belgium. Thinking Bruges and Ghent (to see the altar piece). Any suggestions on hotels, B&Bs restaurants sites in the area?

annhig

Is this by Eurostar into Brussels? And are we talking 3 actual days [which usually means 4 nights] or 3 nights giving you 2 days?

and do you want to spend any time in Brussels itself?

menachem

Brussels for 3 days isn't bad either.

bilboburgler

how much do want to spend.

I tend to use https://www.bedandbreakfast.eu when in the low countries

mocha_dolce

All the places you mentioned in Belgium are quite close together. You can day trip from one of them to the others.

We stayed in Bruges at Hotel de Castillion (https://www.castillion.be/en), which is in the center and quite nice. We took the canal boat tour, ate lots of waffles and chocolate, and visited Ghent from there.

rsmith8617

Yes Eurostar into Brussels but planning on 3 nights in Bruges with day trips to Ghent?

menachem

Although Brugge is very nice "after hours", I'd do it the other way round, stay in Gent and do Brugge as a day trip.

alandavid

This what we did and worked perfectly. Daytrip to Brugge & stayed until last train, Day trip to Antwerp & a full day of Gent.
Gent is awesome after dark as well.

menachem

Totally. Gent has a more "real" vibe than Brugge, and it's a gorgeous city in its own right

lavandula

Ghent currently has a campaign to encourage people to stay overnight. From a logistical point of view it doesn't really matter where you stay as all the cities are close to each other (including Antwerp and Brussels). But if you only have three days I see why you'd prioritise Ghent and Bruges.

Lavandula

michaelpianko

The Art museum in Brussels entertained me for over 5 hours. I made the mistake of skipping the René Magritte museum, a section of the museum; when I was there, there were three sections of the museum; you had the option of paying for just one or two of those sections. From Brussels I took a day trip to Ghent. But maybe I could have stayed in Ghent. I was in Ghent on a Monday, which was a bad day to be there because there may be an art museum there that is closed on Mondays. In Ghent I joined a guided walking tour. When I was there you could take the train to Ghent and then another light-rail train to a stop right next to the castle. From there you cross the tracks, walk across a patio full of tables with umbrellas and the tourist information office where you can sign up for the tour was through a modern glass door in the corner formed by the L shape of two rectangular buildings joined at a corner. When I was there the walking tour was at about 1-2pm, so arrive early in the day to have enough time to sign up and then you can see the castle eat or something while waiting. The Gravensteen castle was worth seeing - give yourself at least 1-1/2 hours to see it properly. I made the mistake of entering only an hour before closing. I actually had 5 nights total in Belgium, which wasn't enough time. I spent 3 nights in Antwerp, two nights in Brussels. I skipped Bruges. I will see it if I return to Belgium.