Ghent Travel Guide

If Bruges is the museum piece, Ghent is the city that still lives — and many travellers quietly prefer it. The same medieval grandeur is here, with a row of guild houses lining the Graslei waterfront and the brooding Gravensteen castle moated in the centre, but a large student population keeps it loud, creative, and unpolished in the best way. Street art is semi-official, the bars stay open, and the whole place feels worked-in rather than curated.

Its great treasure sits in St Bavo's Cathedral: the Ghent Altarpiece, Jan van Eyck's "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb", one of the most important and most stolen paintings in the world. See it early, then spend the rest of the day drifting between the two rivers, over the bridges, and into the cafés of the Patershol quarter. Forty minutes from Brussels and far less crowded than its famous neighbour, Ghent is the most underrated city in Belgium.