Lady’s Guide to the Best Ghent Tours

Today I want to bring you my guide to the best Ghent tours in Belgium. From boat tours to cycling tours and food tours, this city has a great range to choose from.

Ghent Tours

I haven’t been on a bicycle in years. At first I’m not sure if the old rule that you never forget how to ride will apply to me, but I soon recover my skills. Following the guide, I pedal off on a cycling tour of Ghent.

Ghent Cycling Tours

Throughout the morning, this Ghent tour takes my group through the city center, passing by beautiful historic buildings and over canals.

It takes us out to the edges of town, then back through trendy neighborhoods like Patershol before returning to the heart of the city.

My cycling tour of Ghent is just one of the many tours I take during my three-day trip to Belgium.

I’m here on a tour in itself, with Eurostar having invited me on its train from London to Brussels, which is a quick 30-minute train ride from Flanders. The trip is packed with all kinds of Ghent tours, cycling being just one.

Ghent Boat Tours

Another is a boat tour of Ghent with De Bootjes van Gent. On a sunny afternoon, we settle into a brand new canal boat for a cruise past historic and modern buildings, a stone castle, and lots of open-air cafes.

Along the way we learn about Ghent’s history as a center of trade and commerce as we sip champagne in the sunshine.

Ghent Food Tours

But Belgium isn’t known for its champagne. What it is known for is revealed to us on a food tour of Ghent.

Our Nibbling through Ghent tour guide from Vizit takes us to Het Mekka Van De Kaas, a famous cheese shop where we sample organic Hinkelspel, Pas de Bleu goat cheese, and cow’s milk Orval cheese.

We then follow her to the 15th-century butchers’ hall, where we try cured ham from East Flanders and local Ferdinand Tierenten mustard.

The next stop is Julie’s House, a bakery with mouth-watering window displays where we taste everything from pear clafoutis to rhubarb crumble.

The food tour finishes with a stop at Chocolatier Van Hoorebeke, a chocolate shop in Ghent where we sample pralines of all kinds.

Vooruit Tours

The food tour isn’t the only one where we sample local produce, though. On a tour of Ghent’s famous Vooruit arts center, we’re taken to the roof by the resident beekeeper, Liesbeth, from Vizit.

She shows us her bee houses and lets us sample the honey, which is sold in the shop downstairs.

Other Tours

When the official tours end, we take ourselves off to explore more of the city on self-guided tours of Ghent.

The friend I’ve brought with me discovers a great lace shop called Kloskanthuis Home Linen and stocks up on everything from aprons to dish towels.

Nearby we find Bubbles at Home, a pretty home goods store, and Tierenteyn-Verlent, a famous mustard shop in Ghent.

In front of it is a vendor with a cart selling the famous cuberdons, or purple noses of Ghent. The cone-shaped candies are filled with a sweet raspberry-flavored liquid.

The next day we tour some of Ghent’s Sunday markets, including one that exclusively sells live animals.

Everything from rabbits and geese to chickens and fish is for sale, and it’s hard to tell whether people are shopping for pets or food (probably a bit of both). It’s one of the most unique markets I’ve ever come across on my travels.

Back on the sightseeing trail, we take a self-guided Ghent tour of the 12th-century castle. I love the views from the ramparts. Less thrilling is the medieval torture instrument exhibition.

Speaking of torture, our group meets for a cooking class at a vegan restaurant in Ghent. The demo is great, but the service afterwards is so slow and inattentive that we start to wonder if they’re trying to starve us to death.

Things look up at Brasserie Pakhuis, a restaurant in Ghent that’s housed in a former warehouse. It reminds me so much of La Quincaillerie in Brussels that for a moment I wonder whether I’ve been transported to the Belgian capital.

Also noteworthy is Salons Carlos Quinto, a traditional restaurant in Ghent where we try everything from fresh white asparagus to Waterzooi stew.

And our lunch at the sleek, modern Restaurant Belfort allows us to sample international cuisine with our lambic beers and French fries (which are actually Belgian, of course).

But the true foodie highlight of my Ghent tour is Max, a beautiful historic cafe where the Belgian waffle originated.

Overpriced and touristy, it nonetheless wins me over with its heavenly, lighter-than-air waffles covered in everything from powdered sugar to strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate.

Best Tours of Ghent

After three days of touring and eating my way through Ghent, it’s time to travel back to London.

We check out of the NH Gent Belfort Hotel, hop in a taxi, and catch a train to Brussels. There we relax in Eurostar’s lounge before traveling in Business Premier back to the UK.

The seats are the same as in Standard Premier, which we traveled out to Brussels in (and in which I traveled to Lyon once), but the menu is developed by Michelin-starred chef Raymond Blanc and there’s champagne involved.

It all serves to pleasantly numb the pain of leaving Belgium and allow me a couple of hours to rest my legs after so many great tours of Ghent.

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