In August 2018, my son and I spent a few days in Europe together. Going back through my trip reports, I realized I never reported on our time in Bruges, Belgium. Naturally things may have changed in the time since we’ve been there, especially if you are planning to visit during COVID. So check on these attractions to see if they are still open and how COVID has adjusted their operating hours or procedures. Still, I wanted to take some time to show what we did in Bruges and things that are fun to do in Bruges for kids and families.
Getting to Bruges
There is an airport in Bruges (OST), but it does not handle much passenger traffic. You’re much more likely to fly into Brussels or another city and then drive or take the train to Bruges. Bruges is about an hour from Brussels, about an hour and 15 minutes from Antwerp and about 3 hours from Amsterdam. We had flown into Brussels and visited Antwerp and the enclave towns of Baarle-Hertog, Belgium; and Baarle-Nassau, Netherlands.
(SEE ALSO: Baarle-Nassau / Baarle-Hertog review: 1 city in 2 countries)
We had stayed the night before at the Holiday Inn Express Antwerp City North, and then made our way to Bruges early in the morning. As I mentioned, it was about an hour drive, so we got to Bruges fairly early in the morning. Bruges is a city best explored on foot, so we parked our car at the train station on the south side of the city. There is also a Radisson Blu hotel here if you’re looking to stay near the central city on points.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Our first stop was exploring some of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in Bruges. I’m a sucker for checking things off lists, so of course I track the number of World Heritage Sites that I’ve been to. There are many sites that allow you do to this — personally I use Most Traveled People, which tracks UNESCO sites in addition to countries and other travel-related things.
(SEE ALSO: Most Traveled People and tracking places you have been)
(SEE ALSO: Most Traveled People gets a face lift!)
The city center of Bruges is itself a World Heritage site, but there are also two other UNESCO World Heritage sites that you can visit in Bruges. The Belfries of France and Belgium consist of 56 different belfries, one of which is in Bruges. Also, there are 12 Flemish Béguinages that are also inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage sites.
A Béguinage is a complex of buildings similar to a convent or nunnery. The Béguinage of Brugge is one of those, and it was a quick detour on our way from our parking spot to the city center.
The belfry of the cathedral of Bruges / Brugge (pictured above) is on the list of the belfries of France and Belgium UNESCO site.
Chocolate Museum
After exploring the city center and central square, we made our way to Choco-Story, a museum about the history of chocolate. They had a variety of informational signs and exhibits about the history of chocolate, along with chocolate sculptures
We also attended a demonstration about the making of filled chocolate
Our favorite part, which sadly is probably a COVID-casualty, were the dispensers of literal all you can eat chocolate. They actually had 3 different ones on the 3 different floors of the museum – white, dark and milk chocolate.
The signs next to the dispensers said that you really could eat as much as you wanted, but asked that you please not fill any bags or pockets. I ate probably more chocolate than I needed to. 🙂
Canal Ride and the Sculpture Made Out of Plastic Garbage (Yes, Really)
We then took a canal ride through the city. There are a variety of places that you can get a canal ride, and I believe they’re all run by the same company (different stops throughout the city). It was 10 euros for an adult, with lower prices for children. We got on in the center of the city at the Nepomucenusbrug bridge.
There was a short wait before we were able to get onto a boat with enough capacity for us.
Again, it seems likely that this may operate differently with COVID. The canal boat ride was interesting itself, with the guide pointing out the various architecture and history of Bruges. Towards the end of our tour, he pointed out a gigantic 38-foot-tall whale sculpture made completely from plastic waste from the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.
5 tons of plastic waste were used to make this sculpture, which was made for the Bruges triennial celebration in 2018, so I’m not 100% sure that it’s still there. Kind of a depressing commentary on the state of the world…
The Bottom Line
After having a picnic lunch, it was time to head to our car as we were staying the night in Brussels before our flight back to the United States. Still, it was a great trip with great memories of Bruges.
Have you been to Bruges, Belgium? What are your best things to do? Leave them in the comments.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Visited Bruges some 30 years ago. Arrived via train from Brussels, and took the canal tour, so relaxing I actually nodded off. As I recall, there was a cathedral that had been damaged by bombing in World War II. Agree that Bruges is best explored by walking, and that the chocolate is fantastic.
I loved the three days I spent in Bruges — lots of art and history. But how in the world did I miss a chocolate museum? I will definitely have to go back.
We took one day to do a tour of Flanders Fields and other WWI sites with a guide in a van. It was one of the most informative and interesting (and sad) tours I’ve ever been part of. People are still finding shrapnel and shells from over a century ago. When that happens, they place the artifact in the holes of their multi-holed old telegraph poles, and someone comes along to collect them.
Here’s what the poles looked like: https://felixfeatures.photoshelter.com/image/I00002SOPxZ3tXSg
We walked through the trenches and visited several memorials to the dead. It was fascinating, and horrifying. At one point we visited a lake and were standing around talking about the history of what happened there. It turned out not to be a lake at all, but a man-made crater from a WWI explosion that had filled with water and algae. Very sobering day, but an unforgettable travel experience.
Thanks for sharing this great information about Bruges! I’ve been to Brussels and have been on the fence about Bruges, but article has changed that. I’ll be looking to visit the city after the pandemic is behind us.
We visited Bruges last spring. We were looking for things to do as we booked for 2 days on weekend. We fing through a famous travel site an activity called
worldcitytrail.com and we got really satisfied. This is a city game and city tour that allows you to make the best walk of Bruges, connecting the best attractions in one walk. We used a mobile app and started walking through the city. We received many info about the attractions and it was really fun. This game is provided in many cities of Europe.
The other day we went on a boat trip, which is a really must do when in Bruges. With these two things we were totally amazed of this beautiful city!
Free chocolate and the whale sculpture make it a must-see for me.