Bruges Travel Guide

Bruges looks the way the rest of medieval Europe only does in paintings: a near-perfectly preserved web of canals, step-gabled brick houses, and cobbled lanes that has barely changed in five centuries. The whole centre is UNESCO-listed, and the easiest way to feel it is from the water — a short boat trip slides you under stone bridges and past the backs of houses no street reaches. Climb the 83-metre Belfry over the Markt for the view, then lose the day to the quiet almshouse courtyards and the swan-filled Beguinage.

It earns its "chocolate-box" reputation literally — the chocolatiers here are among Belgium's best — but the trick is to stay the night. Most visitors come as a day trip from Brussels and leave by five; linger past dusk and the floodlit canals empty out, and the city becomes yours. Small enough to cross on foot, rich enough to fill two unhurried days.