Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Good base, nice marina, near to the UK ! |
| Disadvantages: |
Not exactly picturesque, lot of scaffolding . |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Having just returned from a 7 day holiday to Ostend on the Northern coast of Belgium, I thought I'd share some of my experiences.
I'm generally the one who makes the decision as to where we go on holiday (with some discussion between hubby and kids of course.....I'm not THAT bossy!!) My main reason for choosing Ostend was it's location (lots of other places of interest nearby and close proximity to the UK). As we are a fan of coaching holidays,
Ostend was the shortest trip we have done so far. We were picked up by coach in Manchester at 8.30am and after travelling to Dover, a short ferry ride and another quick bout on the coach and we arrived at our hotel (Hotel Ostend- see my other reviews) at 9pm the same day (yes, I can hear some of your horrified exclamations, but it can be quite fun to
travel overland as opposed to flying!)
Ostend is located on the North Western coastal side of Belgium. It was a 15th century medieval fishing village which has now grown into a large town. A ferry crossing from Dover to Calais in France takes about 1 hour and 15 mins to 1 hour 30 mins (depending on wind direction) and then once in Calais it's only about an hours drive to Ostend so it's very accesible from the UK. It's definetely made it's name as a tourist town now and many Brits visit there. It reminds me of a British seaside resort, but not quite as tacky as say Blackpool.
Our hotel was a stones throw from the beach and near to the marina. The beach really comes in 2 sections. The manmade part near to the marina (you can't swim there!!) and the section further to the left that stretches the length of the promenade and where you can swim in designated areas. Look out for the round red signs which show a cross through someone swimming, this means you can't swim between these points. When we stayed in Ostend, the weather was mixed. Certainly not blistering like it had been the week before, so the beaches were empty. There are no dogs allowed on the beach but we saw people taking theirs on and doing their mess (the dogs, not the people!) The sand is reasonably soft with just a few crushed shells making it a little rougher. The sea isn't the cleanest in the World either! Had the weather been hot, I wouldn't have liked to take a dip in it. There is a swimming complex located at the opposite end of the marina going towards the casino however.
Thursday is market day until around 1pm. Nothing special here. You can buy the same sort of tat that you can buy on our markets in the UK. There are quite a few shops on the main shopping street, many of these are famous names (C&A, Spar, Etam, M&S etc) although I found the clothes in Belgium are MUCH more expensive than in the UK. I did find some cheap shoes though, but you do have to look.
To be honest, I found Ostend was more of a haven for restaurants. Certainly along the promendade it is just wall to wall restaurants and most of these are quite posh ones! I found getting snacks was a bit of a problem. As we had had a fairly decent breakfast we didn't want a large lunch. However, virtually all of the restaurants serve large meals and their snacks consist of spaghetti bolognese, cheese toasties, or mussels. Mussels feature prominently in Belgium!! In fact, the capital should be renamed from Brussels to Mussels!
Most restaurants seem to have their menus in Flemish too, although you will find some in English.
We ventured into an Irish cafe/bar on the sea front (which shall remain nameless) as it looked the least restauranty of the selection. We ordered 3 beers and a coke and 4 portions of frites (chips!) and some garlic bread. We reckoned that would be sufficient to tide us over until our evening meal. The waitress asked us if we'd like a pot of mussels (yep, those mussels again) for 36 euros!!!! Now, I wouldn't pay 36 pence for mussels as I think they are vile so we kindly declined the offer.
So me and our daughter took a trip to the ladies (as you do) and on our return saw my hubby and son looking a bit shell shocked. Apparantely when we were in the loo, the manager shouted "garlic bread!" in a rather unfunny Peter Kay type moment and then stormed to our table and barked at my hubby "we're not a chip shop!!" (Funny that as there were fish and chips on the menu for 14.50 euros!!!!!!) He was, however, quite happy to serve us with just our drinks and was willing to do himself out of 12 euros due to his snobbery on providing "just chips".
I can sort of understand a high class restaurant getting hacked off when someone orders egg and chips but if your name isn't Gordon Ramsey and you don't own a top class restaurant, my advice is to leave your delusions of grandeur to your night time dreams and serve your customers what they ask for........or put up a sign which reads "WE DON'T SERVE JUST CHIPS".
Anyway, we left after our beer (didn't want to be petty and refuse) but the manager went up to my hubby on the way out and shook his hand and told him simperingly that he would have served us if he'd have seen we had a child. Yeah, course you would love.
However, we'd remembered being told about a bar that sold beer and chicken roasted on a spit 24/7 so went in search of that. We found it easily, it's located down the back streets just further up from Ron's bar and not far from the Hotel Ostend. For 5.50 euros you got a half chicken and a pile of bread in a basket and it was out of this World! I'd highly recommend it!!!!!
You can also buy a great range of seafood from the fish market on the prom near the marina. They are also great for snacks as the platters range from about 3 euros to around 10 euros and they are delicious! There is also an ice cream van type thing that serves chips!!!
Every Monday in Ostend there is a firework display on the beach at the far end near to the casino. It starts at 11pm and all the beach side bars and restaurants were packed with people. There were hundreds of people from all age ranges who sat and watched the spectacle either in a bar or on the beach. It was lovely warm night and there was a really nice family atmosphere. The fireworks were really good and it lasted about 20 minutes.
Ostend is nicely located for a number of other great places. Our coach took us on trips out to Bruges (half an hour by coach) Ghent (an hour away) Brussels (an hour and a half) Ypres (about 40 mins) and Sluis in Holland (about 40 mins) but these are all very easy to get to on the local trams or trains and very reasonably priced too.
A nice thing to do in Ostend is take a horse and carriage ride. They cost 13 euros for 15-25 mins or 25 euros for 40-50 mins per carriage. We did the longer option and we were taken all around Ostend, with commentary, even through the park at the back (not the park in the middle of Ostend which is called Leopolds park) where there is a dog rescue centre! Speaking of Leopolds park, there is a boating lake, crazy golf and a rather nice cafe in there.
Bikes are THE way to get around in Belgium and have right of way over everything else. In fact, if you were to have an accident involving a bike, it will be your fault!!
We hired one of those 4 seater bikes with canopy (similar to the ones you used to get in Butlins!!) for an hour at a cost of 13 euros and managed to ride the whole length of the prom and back again. There are several shops along the prom where you can hire these bikes and similar. All you need to leave is some form of ID such as a driving licence for security.
There are some nice squares in Ostend that have some nice little bars. Our favourite square was near to the marina, on the promenade (no idea what it was called) which had a nice little fountain/water feature which all the kids played in. There is some entertainment on in this square (I believe there are street entertainers near to the high street in the evening too, but we didn't see these) it usually only last for a couple of hours around 8pm ish. One night we saw singers (dreadful! Sounded like a cat being mauled) one night there was a group of street dancers similar to Stomp and one night there was a guy teaching Salsa and Merengue. These were great to watch while you were having a nice beer.
SUMMARY:
Ostend and Belgium in general is roughly priced the same as the UK. Clothes are more expensive though as Belgians pay high tax (40%!!!) the fuel is very cheap though (about 20-30 pence per litre!) The cost of food and drink is comparable with the UK although the beer is much nicer!
Ostend is in a great position for other places of interest. Public transport is cheap.
Belgium in general is ok for people with mobility problems as it is very flat. You will have to watch out for the cobbled streets though.
Ostend is not pretty, but it still has a certain charm. Close your eyes to the scaffolding and cranes though as with all developing resorts in
Europe there is lots of building work taking place.
More information about Ostend can be found on the town's official website: http://www.ostend.be/
