Visiting Bruges, Belgium: The Rain Improves It

Belgium is small and dense. You can cross it by train in about two hours, which is why so many people treat Bruges as a day trip from Brussels.

That is the mistake. Bruges empties in the evening, and the evening is when it is best, so visiting Bruges well is mostly a question of where you sleep.

What visiting Bruges after six looks like

Brussels to Bruges is roughly an hour by train, running frequently through the day. Day-trippers arrive around eleven and leave by six.

Between six and ten the medieval centre is close to empty, the canals go still, and the streets are lit rather than crowded. Anyone who has only done the day trip has seen a different, busier town.

Two nights is right. Three if you want a slow one.

Twenty minutes across, and worth getting lost in

The historic centre is largely intact medieval, laced with canals and reachable entirely on foot. You can cross it in about twenty minutes.

The Markt is the main square with the belfry above it. The climb is 366 steps, narrow, and the view justifies them.

Beyond that, the town rewards getting lost. Arched stone bridges, courtyards, and the Begijnhof, a walled former religious community that is now quiet gardens and the calmest place in the centre.

Rain genuinely helps. Wet cobblestones and low cloud suit the place in a way sunshine does not.

Describe what you drink and let the barman choose

Belgium's beer culture is UNESCO-listed and Bruges takes it seriously.

The useful move in a cellar bar with a long list is to describe what you normally drink and let the person behind the bar choose. That conversation is how you find the ones you would never have picked, the Trappist ales, the lambics, the sours, and they arrive in glassware specific to the brewery.

Pace it. Belgian beers commonly run 7 to 11 percent, which is roughly double what most visitors assume from the glass size.

The two waffles are not the same thing

Chocolate shops are everywhere and the quality is genuinely high across the board.

On waffles, there are two types and they are not interchangeable. The Brussels waffle is light, rectangular and served with toppings. The Liege waffle is denser and uneven at the edges, with pearl sugar caramelised into the dough, eaten in the hand and needing no toppings at all.

Order one each rather than sharing. Sharing is a false economy.

Where Bruges fits

Bruges works as two nights inside a longer Northern Europe itinerary. It sits comfortably between Amsterdam and Paris and the rail links to both are straightforward.

It is a small town, and three days is the upper limit before you have seen it. Pair it rather than extending it. This is one for couples and for anyone who would rather walk a town than tick off a capital.

If that is the kind of trip you are after, Edinburgh in two days is the same shape of city break, and stitching several of them into one route is what our custom itineraries service does.

Call Exquisite Travel Group on (916) 757-6300 and we will work out where Bruges sits in the wider route, which is the question that actually matters.