Ghent day trip from Brussels: the underrated pick

Ghent: the Belgian city that belongs to the Belgians

Here’s the argument for Ghent over Bruges: on any given Saturday in summer, the Gravensteen castle and the Graslei quay are busy but not overwhelmed. You can walk into a brown café without queuing. The restaurants cater to students and locals first, tourists second. And the train from Brussels takes just 30 minutes.

Bruges is magnificent. Ghent is magnificent and functional — a university city of 260,000 that happens to have one of Europe’s finest medieval cores. That combination produces something rarer than preserved beauty: a city that feels genuinely alive.

Getting there by train

Brussels-Midi (Zuid/Sud) to Gent-Sint-Pieters runs every 30 minutes, all day. Journey time: 30–35 minutes. A single ticket costs around €10.60; a return is roughly €21. First trains leave Brussels around 06:00; service continues past midnight.

From Gent-Sint-Pieters station, take tram 1 or 2 to Korenmarkt (12 minutes, €1.80 on De Lijn or free with a day pass). Walking from the station is possible — about 30 minutes through fairly unremarkable residential streets — but the tram is worth the €1.80.

This is one of the cheapest and easiest day trips from Brussels. There is no rational case for a €60+ organised transfer from Brussels when the train deposits you in the heart of Flanders for €10.60 and 32 minutes.

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The unmissable: Ghent’s medieval core

Korenmarkt and the three towers

Stand on the Korenmarkt and look east: you’ll see the spires of Sint-Niklaaskerk, the Belfry, and Sint-Baafskathedraal lined up in a row. This view — three Gothic towers of different heights, different centuries, different purposes — is one of the defining images of Belgium and one that photographs cannot fully convey.

The Belfry (free UNESCO site, tower entry ~€10) houses the enormous Roland bell and offers the best elevated view of the city. Unlike Bruges’s Belfry, queues are rarely more than 15 minutes.

Gravensteen — the castle that survived everything

The Castle of the Counts (Gravensteen) sits in the middle of the city like it never got the memo that the medieval period ended. Built in 1180, it was subsequently a court, a prison, a cotton mill, and is now a museum. Entry is around €14. The audioguide is irreverent and funny — genuinely worth using.

Sint-Baafskathedraal and the Ghent Altarpiece

This is the single most important reason to visit Ghent. The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (1432) by Jan and Hubert van Eyck is one of the oldest and most complex oil paintings in existence — 12 panels, hundreds of figures, and more art historical significance than most national museums. Entry to see it is around €4; the separate museum wing around it is worth the extra €7.

Go in the morning when light is better and crowds thinner. A guided walking tour of Ghent that includes the Altarpiece is well worth the price — the iconography is dense and most of it will wash over you without context.

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Water and bikes: getting around Ghent

Canal boats

Ghent’s canal boat tours run from the Graslei and Korenlei quays — the two most beautiful stretches of medieval guild houses in Belgium. A 40-minute boat tour costs around €9–10 per person and gives you views of the city that are simply inaccessible on foot.

The 40-minute canal boat tour is one of the most efficient uses of €10 in Belgium. Departures are frequent from April to October.

Cycling

Ghent is one of Belgium’s most cycle-friendly cities — there are more bicycles than residents. Renting a bike for half a day (~€10–12) lets you cover the outer neighbourhoods including the Design Museum and STAM (the city history museum), which are slightly outside the medieval core but easily reachable.

A guided bike tour of Ghent makes particular sense if you want to go beyond the medieval centre and see the 19th-century working-class districts that tell the other half of Ghent’s story.

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Food in Ghent: a proper student city

Ghent has the best food scene of any comparable Belgian city outside Brussels, partly because 70,000 students demand value and variety. Vegetarian and vegan options are unusually strong — Ghent declared itself Europe’s first “Veggie Thursday” city in 2009 and that culture stuck.

Where to eat:

• Vrijdagmarkt area: several solid traditional Flemish restaurants clustered around the Friday Market square. The square itself hosts a Saturday morning market worth arriving early for.
• Walpoortstraat / Overpoort: student café strip, cheap and cheerful, not designed for tourists.
• Pakhuis: in a converted 19th-century warehouse, good moules, excellent draft beer selection.

A Ghent food tasting tour is a worthwhile splurge if Belgian regional specialities are a priority — Ghent has its own mustard, its own syrup (gentse stroop), and a local nose-cheese tradition that requires explanation.

Beer in Ghent

The classic Ghent choice is Gruut — a brewery using herbs (gruit) instead of hops, reviving a pre-hop brewing tradition. Their tavern near the Gravensteen serves all five Gruut varieties. The Ghent beer and sightseeing tour pairs a walking route with stops at the city’s best known beer spots — good if you want the history alongside the glass.

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Ghent vs Bruges: the honest verdict

See our Bruges vs Ghent comparison guide for a full breakdown, but the short version:

• Choose Bruges if it’s your first time in Belgium, if you want the most visually perfect medieval city, or if a canal boat and chocolate shops are the priority.
• Choose Ghent if you’ve been to Bruges, if you want art (the Altarpiece is world-class), if you prefer a city that breathes, or if you’re visiting in July or August and want to avoid the worst crowds.

If you have three days, the Brussels–Bruges–Ghent itinerary does both properly and doesn’t require rushing either.

The Bruges and Ghent in one day route is possible if you start very early — Ghent is only 30 minutes from Brussels, making it feasible to add as a 3-hour evening stop after a full day in Bruges.

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Practical Ghent logistics

Tram is the fastest way from Gent-Sint-Pieters station to the centre. Day passes on De Lijn cost €7.50 and cover all buses and trams in Flanders — worth it if you plan to use public transport more than twice.

Luggage storage is available at Gent-Sint-Pieters station (coin lockers, €3–5 depending on size). There’s also a storage point near the Korenmarkt for tour groups.

Evening: Ghent’s nightlife is genuine — the Overpoortstraat strip is lively until late, but even the Graslei area has enough bars to justify staying until the last train. Check SNCB timetables: trains back to Brussels run until around 23:30 from Gent-Sint-Pieters.

The full logistics breakdown — including tram routes, bike hire locations, and museum opening hours — is in the Ghent day trip guide.