Ghent Travel Guide: What to Know Before You Go

The most-stolen artwork in history is in Ghent. Its upper panels are being restored in a glass-walled studio at the Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) Ghent until the end of 2026; the rest of the altarpiece is on show at St. Bavo’s Cathedral. Visitors watch the conservators work through the glass. That’s where to start with Ghent, not at the canal views, not at the castle, but at the thing that is genuinely extraordinary.

What Ghent is actually like

A working city with medieval architecture

Ghent has 260,000 people and two universities. It is not a museum. The medieval waterfront and the guild houses and the towers are all real and accessible, but they exist inside an active Flemish city with a tech sector and a nightlife district and genuine daily rhythms. That’s the main difference between Ghent and Bruges. Bruges is a medieval city preserved in amber. Ghent is a medieval city that kept going.

The towers help locate you. Ghent has three medieval towers forming a distinctive skyline: St. Bavo’s Cathedral, St. Nicholas Church, and the Belfry. They stand roughly in a line. Walk among them on your first morning. The distances between them tell you the scale of the center.

The car-free center: what that means for visitors

Ghent operates the largest car-free zone in Belgium. Private cars are excluded from most of the historic center during the day. The noise level drops considerably. The medieval proportions of the buildings become readable without traffic in the foreground.

Navigation is by foot and bicycle. Taxis and public transport operate on designated routes. Blue Bike and other rental schemes offer cycles. The center is compact enough to walk end to end in under 20 minutes.

When to go to Ghent

April through October is the comfortable window. Outdoor terrace season runs from roughly April, weather permitting.

July brings the Gentse Feesten, 10 days of street festival covering most of the historic center. Stages, performers, food stalls, and over a million visitors. The event is enormous and genuinely energetic. It’s not a tourist festival; Ghent residents attend in large numbers. Book accommodation months in advance if you plan around it. Equally, if you want a quieter Ghent, avoid that window entirely.

Winter is atmospheric and less visited. The canal reflections and the illuminated towers make December worth considering if you prefer empty streets.

Getting to Ghent and around

Ghent sits between Brussels, Bruges, and Antwerp on Belgium’s rail network. From Brussels Midi, the train takes 40 minutes. From Bruges, 25 minutes. From Antwerp Central, about an hour. All direct. Belgium’s rail network is reliable and cheap relative to most of Western Europe.

Ghent-Sint-Pieters is the main station, about 2km from the historic center. Tram 1 runs directly to the center in about 10 minutes. A 24-hour transport card covers unlimited tram and bus use in Ghent.

Once in the center, walk. The core area (cathedral, castle, waterfront, Korenlei) fits within 20 minutes on foot.

The Ghent Altarpiece: the real story

What it is and why it matters

The Ghent Altarpiece was completed in 1432 by Jan and Hubert van Eyck. It is a polyptych of 12 panels: a large hinged artwork that opens to reveal an interior scene and closes to show a secondary one. When closed: portraits of donors and the Annunciation. When open: a panorama of the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, a jewel-dense depiction of heaven with hundreds of figures.

Art historians consider it foundational to the development of oil painting technique in Western Europe. Van Eyck’s use of layered glazes to achieve depth of color and realistic light was different from anything done before. The figures look tangible. The textures (fur, velvet, gold, flesh) appear to have physical weight.

The theft record and the WWII story

The Ghent Altarpiece has been stolen more times than any other artwork in history. Napoleon had it moved to Paris. Several panels were sold to a German museum in the 19th century and weren’t returned until after WWI.

The most complex episode came in 1934, when the lower-left panel, depicting the Just Judges, was stolen and has never been recovered. A copy now stands in its place. The thief wrote letters demanding ransom and then died without revealing where the panel was hidden. It has not been found.

During WWII, the altarpiece, meant for the Vatican, was stored at Pau in France, seized by the Germans in 1942 and moved to Neuschwanstein, then the Altaussee salt mine. American forces, the Monuments Men, recovered it in 1945 along with thousands of other looted works.

Seeing it now at St. Bavo’s Cathedral

The upper panels are being restored in a glass-walled studio at the Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) Ghent until the end of 2026, and visitors can watch conservators at work there. The rest of the altarpiece is on show at St. Bavo’s Cathedral. The restoration project has been ongoing since 2012; after the final phase ends on 31 December 2026, the altarpiece returns to the cathedral.

The split means that panels under active restoration are visible while others are displayed in their finished state. What you see depends on which panels are currently in the restoration cycle.

Admission to see the altarpiece in the cathedral’s visitor center is separate from the cathedral entrance and involves a modest fee. The cathedral itself is free. Allow about 90 minutes for both.

Gravensteen Castle

Gravensteen, the Castle of the Counts, was built in 1180 by Philip of Alsace, inspired by Crusader castles he had seen in Syria. The architecture is deliberately intimidating. It worked.

The interior houses a collection of instruments of torture and judicial punishment. It is darker in content than the building’s fairy-tale silhouette suggests. The audio guide is deliberately irreverent; it describes the castle’s history with specific reference to the violence that occurred there, without euphemism. Some visitors find the tone jarring; others appreciate it.

Practical: allow 1 to 1.5 hours. Book tickets online; summer queues can be long. The view from the top of the towers is excellent.

The Graslei and Korenlei waterfront

The Graslei and Korenlei are the twin banks of the Leie River in the old city harbor. Guild houses line the Graslei bank, dating from the 12th to 17th centuries. Each house belonged to a different trade guild: grain measurers, corn merchants, boat builders. The facades have been well-restored.

The view from Korenlei toward the Graslei guild houses is one of the most photographed in Belgium. This is accurate. The photogenic quality shouldn’t deter you; the actual architecture is worth looking at closely. Stand on the Graslei side and examine the stonework details.

Canal boat tours depart from this area. They run through the historic center and provide a different perspective on the towers and bridges. Tours last about 40 minutes.

Graffiti Alley and street art Ghent

Werregarenstraatje, the Graffiti Alley, is a short lane near the center where the city officially permits graffiti. The agreement is that anything in the alley can be painted over by anyone at any time. The result is a constantly changing layered canvas. High-quality work appears regularly.

The alley is narrow, easy to miss, and worth finding. Look for it between Hoogpoort and Onderstraat, near the City Hall.

Belgian beer in Ghent

Dulle Griet and the shoe tradition

Dulle Griet is a bar near the Friday Market square. The specialty is the house beer, Max van ‘t Huis, served in an oversized coachman’s glass (about 1.2 liters), a large bulbous glass with a round bottom that can’t stand on its own. The bar requires you to leave a shoe as deposit for the glass holder. You surrender the shoe at the bar, collect the glass, and retrieve the shoe when you return it.

The beer is good. The ritual is fun. The bar has been running this tradition for decades. Go.

What to order and why

In Ghent, look for Duvel, Chimay Tripel, and the Trappist ales Belgium produces in quantity. Steedje is a local Ghent pale ale worth trying. Tripel Karmeliet is brewed nearby in Buggenhout and is excellent.

The approach: order something unfamiliar, ask what it pairs with, and go slowly. Belgian beers are often higher in alcohol than they taste.

Eating in Ghent

Cuberdons: the nose-shaped candy

Cuberdons are Ghent’s signature sweet: small, nose-shaped, raspberry-flavored candies with a hard outer shell and a soft liquid center. The stands on Vrijdagsmarkt sell them by the bag. There are rival vendors with a decades-long commercial dispute that has become a genuine Ghent story. Buy from both stands if you want to participate in the argument.

Waterzooi: Ghent’s own stew

Waterzooi is a thick stew that originated in Ghent. The original version used freshwater fish from the rivers that once ran through the city. The fish version is now harder to find; most restaurants serve a chicken version (kippenwaterzooi). Both are correct. The dish is mild, cream-based, and substantial. It works well in cold weather.

Vegetarian Ghent: Thursday Veggie Day

In 2009, Ghent became the first city in the world to officially designate a weekly vegetarian day. Every Thursday, the majority of participating restaurants offer vegetarian menus or feature vegetarian dishes prominently. The policy is voluntary but widely followed. Ghent’s vegetarian restaurant scene is better than most Belgian cities as a result.

Practical information

Currency, language, and basics

Belgium uses the Euro. In Ghent, Dutch (Flemish) is the primary language. English is spoken well by most people in the center and service industry. French is understood but not preferred in Flanders; use English before French if you don’t speak Dutch.

How many days Ghent deserves

One day covers the Altarpiece, Gravensteen, the waterfront, a beer, and a canal tour. This is enough to understand why Ghent has the reputation it does.

Two days adds a slower pace, a proper meal, the street art, and more time at St. Bavo’s Cathedral. Ghent doesn’t need more than two days unless you’re drawn in by something specific: the university collections, the design museum, the contemporary art scene.

Ghent vs. Bruges: make the call

Bruges is a medieval city that has been preserved as a monument. It’s extraordinary in physical terms. It’s also extremely tourist-heavy in the center, and the resident population has largely moved out of the historic core.

Ghent is a working city that has its medieval monuments. The streets are lived in. The cafés serve locals. Most visitors who spend time in both prefer Ghent for general atmosphere and Bruges for the visual uniformity of the medieval streetscape. If you want one: go to Bruges. If you want both: go to Ghent, and take the 25-minute train to Bruges for a half day.

Amsterdam sits a further 2.5 hours by train and makes a logical regional extension from either Belgian city.

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce Ghent? In English: “Ghent” (rhymes with “bent”). In Flemish Dutch: “Gent” (approximately “KHENT” with a hard G). Either is understandable to locals. Using the Flemish pronunciation is appreciated but not expected.

Is the Ghent Altarpiece currently on display? Yes, though the display changes as panels cycle through restoration. Some panels are always visible. The upper panels are being restored in a glass-walled studio at the Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) Ghent until the end of 2026, where visitors can observe the process directly; the rest is on show at St. Bavo’s Cathedral. Check the official restoration project website before your visit for current panel status.

What is the Gentse Feesten? Ten days of street festival in July covering most of the historic center. Over a million visitors across the event, multiple stages, free performances, and food and drink stalls throughout the city. It is large, loud, and worth planning around, either to attend or to avoid. Accommodation books out months in advance.

Do I need a Ghent city card? The Visit Ghent Card (a flat fee covering 48 hours) covers public transport, the canal tour, Gravensteen, and several museums. If you plan to use public transport and visit Gravensteen, it pays for itself. If you’re walking everywhere and skipping the castle, calculate individually.

What’s the difference between the Graslei and the Korenlei? They are the two banks of the Leie River in the old harbor. The Graslei (east bank) has the guild houses, the architecturally important facades. The Korenlei (west bank) is where most people stand to photograph the Graslei. Walk along both.

Can I visit Ghent as a day trip from Brussels? Yes, 40 minutes by train. A day gives you the Altarpiece, Gravensteen, the waterfront, and a meal. It’s a full day but achievable. The main limitation is that the city’s evening atmosphere (quieter streets, lit-up towers, canal reflections) is missed entirely on a same-day return.

Is Ghent or Bruges better? Different more than better or worse. Ghent is a working city with medieval monuments intact. Bruges is a medieval monument with a small residential population inside it. Both are valid. Ghent is generally less crowded in the historic center. Bruges is more uniformly medieval in its streetscape. Most visitors who spend time in both prefer Ghent for general atmosphere.

What language should I use in Ghent? Dutch/Flemish is the official language. English is the practical alternative for most interactions. French is understood but not the first choice in Flanders. Start with English if you don’t speak Dutch and you’ll be fine.