Provincial Modern Art Museum (Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst), Ostende

Advantages: Good base for exploring, good selection of shops, bars and restaurants.
Disadvantages: Not as pretty as some other places. Building work is a problem at the moment.

.... Wandering along the promenade in the sunshine was wonderful! We also enjoyed looking at some of the posh boats and yachts in the marina and looking at the fishing boats and the ships with rigging that were moored in the harbour. There is a North Sea Aquarium, some art galleries (the impressionist James Ensor came from Ostende), a museum, a stunning main square with water features and sculptures, a Gothic church and a casino (the Kursaal). Most visitors are there for the beach and to use Ostende as a base for exploring the surrounding cities and countryside. ~~~CONCLUSION. Ostende is lovely and we had a really enjoyable stay there. It isn’t as pretty or interesting as Bruges or Ghent, but it is a nice place for a relaxing seaside break. It is ideally situated for getting around the area and was perfect for the kind of holiday we were... Read review

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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 of Ghent... Read review

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Advantages: English is widely spoken;Nice beaches;Clean;
Disadvantages: Some items are expensive. Wide use of the Euro

...convenient with the rail station- if you want to go to Bruges ,Bruxelles,or Liege- and the tram stops where you can conveniently catch the tram to take you along the pleasant coast line-all nicely integratd at the terminal. Oh how I wish that was the case in Dover where both the Eastern and Western Docks are a considerable distance away from the Dover rail station whilst the Stagecoach bus services only go to the Western Docks. Accommodations in Ostend- or Oostende in the local lingo- are very reasonably priced-I stayed in a two star hotel for only around 17 pounds and even if you want to move to a 3 star place... Read review

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