Kraanlei, Ghent

Advantages: clean, tidy, good service and price
Disadvantages: need a taxi to get into town

...I have been on two different Christmas Shopping bus trips and both times have stayed at the Ghent Holiday Inn. The price of each trip was £99 inclusive of bus travel, ferry crossing and two nights accomodation at the Holiday Inn. LOCATION +++++++++ The Holiday Inn Ghent is around 60km from Brussels and is situated in central Belgium which makes it ideal to explore the country. It is near the intersection of the E17 and E40 motorways. It is 65km from Ostend airport in Holland and 62km from Antwerp airport . On the first trip that I went on we visited Valkenburg and Ostend in Holland, and Aachen in Germany and each day we made good time and were not rushed at all. The nearest town is Gent which is around 3km away. There are plenty of restaurants, shops and bars in Gent. FACILITIES +++++++++ The hotel is used... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Wonderful buildings, great bars and lots to do.
Disadvantages: Not quite as pretty as Bruges.

...During our recent jaunt to Ostende we decided to go off on the train for the day. In my previous review about the wonderful beer dark beer called Zatte Bie I mentioned that we drank it while in Ghent. This has prompted me to tell you all about our grand day out in this lovely city. We were only there for one day and did kind of just do a glorified bar crawl….but we did get the chance to explore in the process! After getting over the shock of the train leaving on time we settled back for the 45 minute journey from Ostende ~ through some extremely pretty, but extremely FLAT scenery! ~~~USEFUL INFO. Ghent is in an area of Belgium called East Flanders (Ostende is in the neighbouring region of West Flanders…Ned Flanders is a character in the Simpsons and shouldn’t be confused with any of these areas!). The main language... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Sweet Belgian city with some interesting unique things to see
Disadvantages: Not booming out of season

......pretty and witty and bright...charming, oh, so charming ... Ghent was our the other city we spent time in during our recent trip to Belgium, and I think I preferred it to Antwerp. Your initial feeling when entering a foreign city for a first time can often be an indication of how much you'll enjoy your stay - it's not about how good a city is on paper, or how other people perceive it, but what you think of it that really matters, and Ghent and I got on like a house on fire. Ghent has a rustic Italian feel to it, without being either rustic or Italian. I think what I mean is that it feels traditional, properly-European, complete with old cobbled streets, gaudy cathedrals and churches and a sweet old castle. It's a nice quiet place to look around at times, such as Sunday morning when all good natives are at Mass... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful