5 Best Bars in Ghent, Ghent and the Leie

This LGBTQ+ center has information on gay and lesbian bars, events, and organizations, and also offers help and advice (website in Dutch). On the ground floor, the A-Pluss bar and café has a fine selection of gins, a new street terrace, and live music on weekends.

In this quintessential Ghent pub, there are more than 500 kinds of beer, but the specialty is the 1.2-liter Kwak (a blond 8.5% beer), complete with traditional hourglass-shape glass and stand—ask for a "Max." If you brave this beer, though, you must leave one of your shoes as a deposit when you order.

Back in the plague-ridden early 1500s, this fine estaminet was the city's main source of clean drinking water. As the years went by, it morphed from water house to brothel to barbershop, and finally an inn. Today, it remains one of the city's iconic "brown bars." Come here for the selection; with several beers on tap, including a few of their own house brews and hundreds of bottled beers, it's pretty much perfection. Its small waterside terrace fills up quickly in fine weather, though.

To taste a potent Flemish and Dutch specialty, head to 't Dreupelkot (sister bar to Het Waterhuis Aan De Bierkant), which produces its own jenever—a liquor similar in flavor to, and said to be the precursor of, gin. Here, it's all homemade and comes in a multitude of flavors, including vanilla, chocolate, and even cactus. The owner is also a character of the eccentric variety. A "barometer" behind the bar indicates his mood at any given time—it rarely points to "happy."

Yet another beer specialist, with around 300 to choose from, although this one is located in a 15th-century cellar and with an atmosphere a tad livelier than its more laid-back rivals.