Bruges: 7 Days, City and Region
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Seven days is our 6-day itinerary (core, Ghent, a solemn Ypres day, the coast, Damme by bike) with one more genuinely unhurried day added at the end, honestly framed as Bruges plus its region rather than a city trip stretched thin to fill a week.
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 |
| 6 | Damme by bike, ramparts windmills | ~€8/4h bike rental |
| 7 | Hidden gems, shopping, departure | No fixed cost |
Book these before you go
- A timed Belfry climb slot for summer.
- Check current Bruges hotel and B&B rates : a full week is worth comparing weekly rates against nightly ones.
- 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. 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. The Church of Our Lady, its 115.6-meter tower the third-tallest brick church tower anywhere, and Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child inside.
Evening: Stoofvlees, then a slow canal walk once the crowds thin.
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, part of the separate 1998 “Flemish Béguinages” UNESCO listing.
Afternoon: De Halve Maan brewery on Walplein, since 1856, and its roughly 3km underground beer pipeline from 2016.
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 before heading back.
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, the Menin Gate’s nightly Last Post at 20:00 since 1928, and Tyne Cot Cemetery. Its own day, no other plans, a quiet dinner back in Bruges after.
Day 5: Ostend and the Kusttram
Ostend, about 15 minutes by direct train, then the Kusttram, roughly 67km with 67 stops, the longest metre-gauge tram line in the world, running the length of the Belgian coast. A look at Zeebrugge, the modern port, if you have time before the last tram back.
Day 6: Damme by bike, then the ramparts
Rent a bike, roughly €8 for four hours or €12 for the full day, and ride the flat towpath along the Damse Vaart canal out to Damme. Back in Bruges, walk the eastern ramparts past the surviving windmills, quiet even on a weekend.
Day 7: Hidden gems, a slow morning, and departure
Morning: Skip a second museum and instead walk to the Jerusalem Chapel, a genuinely unusual private chapel built in 1428-29 by the Adornes merchant family, modeled on Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Follow it with Sint-Salvator’s Cathedral, Bruges’ oldest parish church, only promoted to cathedral status in 1834.
Afternoon: Shop for Belgian chocolate and lace away from the Markt itself, prices ease a block or two off the main square. If you skipped the Gruuthusemuseum earlier in the week, this is the afternoon for it.
Evening: A last, unhurried dinner and a final canal walk before an early night ahead of departure.
Concrete tip: build real buffer time into your final train connection. Belgian rail runs reliably but tightly, and a missed change at Brussels costs more time than the delay itself.
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 tighter trip that keeps the same core, see our 4-day itinerary .