Trains vers Bruges

Much of mediaeval Bruges looks as though it was built last week. Belgium’s most popular tourist destination knows how to pull the crowds. Skilled restoration has created a townscape which verges on the Disneyesque, so perfect are the buildings and so manicured are the lawns. Even the spring daffodils look as though they might be fake.

Bruges is most definitely worth a visit, and it’s an ideal destination for a weekend break or longer stay. If you like charming canal scenes and picturesque cottages, then Bruges (or Brugge in Dutch) is definitely for you. Tourists flock to museums devoted to chocolate and beer respectively, but our view is that Bruges is just a fine place to wander. There are cafés where it's good to linger. And a raft of fine restaurants too, serving everything from moules et frites to local Flemish specialities such as waterzooi.

The town is an excellent base for excursions to the coast and other towns in Flanders. Definitely make time to visit the village of Damme, just five kilometres from Bruges. It’s even more picture-perfect than Bruges and boasts an improbably good selection of restaurants and bookshops.

The railway station at Bruges lies south-west of the city centre. It is a memorably ugly 1930s-era building. Yet it is a consolation that one of the city’s big-draw sights, the beautiful Begijnhof, is just a short walk from the station. Bruges railway station lies on the main rail route across Belgium, with direct trains at least twice each hour to Gent and Brussels. There are also services at least hourly to Antwerp, Brussels Airport, Liège and Kortrijk. The coast is just a short hop away, with frequent trains to Ostend taking just 15 minutes. There is also a very useful direct bus service from Bruges to the Dutch town of Breskens, connecting there with the Westerschelde ferry to Vlissingen in Zeeland. For passengers travelling to Bruges from France, there is an hourly connection from Lille; it requires an easy change of train in Kortrijk.