Bruges

poppet84

Anyone been?

Going at the end of the month? Anything we shouldn't miss?

Looking forward to tasting all the different fruit beers but I'm more of a cider gal!Is bulmers/magners etc available there!?

Owen

Don't miss the Alcoves!

maths_student

It's fabulous!!! I lived in Luxembourg for a few months and loved Bruges so much I went to visit twice!

It's a gorgeous place to just wander around...the chocolate shops are sensational and go visit the Diamond museum, I loved it! We climbed the tower too and even though it was under construction at the time and we couldn't quite get to the top it's still fabulous! Hopefully everything still stays open during the winter because I was there in May/June! It's a quirky little spot and I loved the quiet atmosphere of the place. I never made it out there but we got a tourist map in our hostel that showed a few fun sounding places and a few people I know that went said the nightlife was brill!

Lots of cobbles, bring some good shoes and heels would be ill advised!

enda1

It's not very good. At best a couple of hours strolling, unless you are interested in staking out the pubs, where it could interest you for a bit longer. Its really a small place so if you are interested in anything a bit more metropolitan, then had to Antwerp which is a properly cool place.

Enjoy though. The beer's good. Be prepared to pay for water though...

dudara

It's a charming little place - especially nice to wander around at night when all the old buildings are lit up and you can see reflections in the canals.

poppet84

enda1 wrote: »

It's not very good. At best a couple of hours strolling, unless you are interested in staking out the pubs, where it could interest you for a bit longer. Its really a small place so if you are interested in anything a bit more metropolitan, then had to Antwerp which is a properly cool place.

Enjoy though. The beer's good. Be prepared to pay for water though...

Well going for a relaxing trip with the boyfriend for a couple of days so I'd say that will do me grand!;) We plan to do a day trip to Brussels city for a bit of shopping and that also.I believe it's only an hour on the train!

Do you mean you have to pay for water in restaurants and that?

enda1

poppet84 wrote: »

Well going for a relaxing trip with the boyfriend for a couple of days so I'd say that will do me grand!;) We plan to do a day trip to Brussels city for a bit of shopping and that also.I believe it's only an hour on the train!

Do you mean you have to pay for water in restaurants and that?

I live in Brussels. Antwerp is FAR better for shopping, or else Lille in France. (both are about 1:20 by direct train).
For a relaxing weekend then its nice. As above, its nice lit up in the evening but overall a little expensive for restaurants due to the tourist factor.

Yeah you have to pay for water in restaurants. About €5 for 500ml bottles. Really annoying. Better off on beer really, but when you're drinking wine its nice to have water with it I find.

airwaves10

Hi there, I took my work team to Bruges at end of November. We stayed two nights as we had meetings both days, however, we didn't feel that we missed too much, as it rained non stop for both days. I can recommend the Bruges Navarra hotel. Really reasonably priced, nice rooms, and excellent service. I would suggest that you only spend a max of 1 night in Bruges, as any longer than that, it gets a bit boring. Also, the nightlife is quite dull, it consists of small pubs that suffer from too many belgian beer farts, which means you probably won't stay out for very long. The smoking ban doesn't seem to be in operation there so you'll actually be thankful of those who light up in the bars as it helps to disperse the smell!

The positive points though were the relaxed atmosphere and the chocolate/sweet shops where they are happy to give out lots of free samples. The restaurants there are also nice. I'd recommend Cafedraal - its also the same restaurant featured in the InBruges movie. I think Bruges is best suited for day trips, and looking at the old buildings/architecture. If you want a more lively trip, I have heard that Ghent is very nice and has more in the way of nightlife. Both Bruges and Ghent are stops on the same train line from Brussels so they are not too far away.

Best of luck on your trip!

I am pie

I went to Ghent with herself in August, the general consensus from people we met who had been to Ghent and Bruges was that there was much more to do in Ghent. Nightlife was pretty good, some really nice bars and interesting shops.