Bruges: 5 Days and the Coast
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Five days is our 4-day itinerary (core, Ghent, a solemn Ypres day) with the Belgian coast added as its own fifth day, honestly framed as Bruges plus its region rather than a city trip padded thin.
Day-by-day at a glance
| Day | Focus | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Belfry, Burg, canal boat, Church of Our Lady | Timed Belfry slot |
| 2 | Groeningemuseum, Begijnhof, De Halve Maan brewery | Museum + brewery tickets |
| 3 | Ghent day trip | 25-30 min each way |
| 4 | Ypres and Flanders Fields (solemn, its own day) | 1-1.5 hours each way |
| 5 | Ostend and the Kusttram | ~15 min to Ostend by train |
Book these before you go
- A timed Belfry climb slot for summer.
- Check current Bruges hotel and B&B rates : stay inside the ring canal.
- A De Halve Maan brewery tour slot.
Day 1: The Markt, the Burg and the canals
Morning: The Belfry, about 83 meters, 366 steps, no lift, a 47-bell carillon, leaning roughly 87cm. Go before the coach groups. The Burg square next: the Gothic Stadhuis (begun 1376) and the Basilica of the Holy Blood.
Afternoon: A canal boat from a central jetty, paid on the day, roughly half an hour. Then the Church of Our Lady, its 115.6-meter tower the third-tallest brick church tower anywhere, and Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child inside, the only Michelangelo sculpture known to have left Italy in his lifetime.
Evening: Stoofvlees, beef braised in beer, then a slow canal walk once the day-trippers thin out.
Day 2: Museums, the Begijnhof and beer
Morning: The Groeningemuseum, Jan van Eyck, Bosch’s Last Judgement, Memling, Gerard David.
Midday: The Begijnhof and Minnewater beside it, part of the separate 1998 “Flemish Béguinages” UNESCO listing.
Afternoon: De Halve Maan brewery on Walplein, running since 1856, and its roughly 3km underground beer pipeline opened in 2016.
Evening: An easy dinner, save your energy for the day trips ahead.
Day 3: Ghent
Train to Ghent, 25-30 minutes each way. St Bavo’s Cathedral and the Ghent Altarpiece, Gravensteen castle, the Graslei and Korenlei quaysides. Lunch there, back to Bruges by early evening.
Day 4: Ypres and Flanders Fields, solemn and undivided
About 1 to 1.5 hours from Bruges, often via Kortrijk. The In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres’s rebuilt Cloth Hall, the Menin Gate’s nightly Last Post at 20:00 (running since 1928, resumed the day Ypres was liberated in 1944), and, with more time, Tyne Cot Cemetery. Give it the whole day and a quiet dinner back in Bruges after.
Day 5: Ostend and the Kusttram
Ostend is a short train ride from Bruges, commonly cited around 15 minutes direct. From there, the Kusttram (Coast Tram) runs the full length of the Belgian coast from De Panne to Knokke-Heist, roughly 67km with 67 stops, the longest metre-gauge tram line in the world. Ride a stretch of it for a beach afternoon, then take a look at Zeebrugge, the modern port that took over from Bruges’ own silted-up medieval harbor centuries ago. If you’d rather stay closer and cycle instead, bike rental back in Bruges runs roughly €8 for four hours or €12 for a full day, plenty for the flat towpath out to Damme.
Concrete tip: pick one coast plan, not both, either ride the Kusttram or cycle to Damme. Trying to fit both into a single day just means less time enjoying either.
Getting here: Bruges has no useful airport of its own, arrive via Brussels Airport (the airport-to-Bruxelles-Centraal leg alone runs around €11.60 second class) or Eurostar into Brussels followed by about an hour on to Bruges. For a slower, unrushed pace across even more of the region, see our 7-day itinerary .