if you come by train to Ghent, you can just hop on Tram 1. That tram passes the train station every 15 minutes and then it's a 5-10 minute ride to the city centre.
We are in Ghent right now and there is a huge music festival here the people are wonderful and everyone speaks English. This is a very beautiful city and we have enjoyed our visit so far. Thanks Mark for your loves and hates we have been to Paris, Honfleur, done the ww1 memorials Menin Gate , Ghent and soon to Brussels. So much history in these places it has been an amazing trip>
I totally agree on your comment that the Saint-Peter's train station is far away from the downtown area of Ghent, though I don't agree on there not being anything worth seeing on the trip from the station to the historical centre of town. If you take the most direct route, there is indeed not much to be seen... If you make somewhat of a detour you can walk by the Citadel Park where you can find two of the city's best museums (SMAK & MSK) and the botanical gardens. You can than continue on towards Saint-Peter's Square, passing the old military fortress up towards the Saint-Peter's church and abbey (the oldest buildings still intact in town). From there on one descends through the student's quarters past the university library tower and the Vooruit theatre towards the South Quarters. In the South Quarters there's some fine more contemporary architecture, as well as the Capitole theatre, the King Albert Park, the Saint-Anne's church and the Unesco heritage site of the small Ghent beguinage. From the South Quarters, the parisien style lane of "Vlaanderenstraat" takes you to the historical centre in less than five minutes... All very much worth while for someone who wishes to pay a thorough visit to Ghent, and not just sail through...
Ghent was where the Americans and British signed the treaty ending the War of 1812. The treaty was signed on 12/24/1814 by John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and others.
If you're on a train stopping in Gent-Dampoort, and especially if you're coming from Antwerp and Gent-Dampoort is your first stop, it's not such a bad idea to get of there. It is a lot closer to the centre than Gent-St-Pieters. But I agree, if you have to get of at Gent-Sint-Pieters, just take the tram, it's a lot faster and much more interesting, even if tram 1 can get a little crowded. Changing platforms, taking a 9' trainride, and you need as much time as with a tramride on line 1 to get to the city centre. And if you're not in a hurry, tram 4 can be an interesting ride, too, but you'll need a lot more time!
barvdw Well I just compared the distance from dampoort to korenmarkt with st pieters to korenmarkt. the difference is 500m. I think that in any case, the fastest way to the centre is taking tram 1 from st pieters to centre..
sinaaslight. Unless you get to Gent-Dampoort first, it's probably faster to get of at Sint-Pieters and take the tram, but I counted 1,6 km for the distance to Gent-Dampoort, and 2,5 km to Gent-Sint-Pieters. Both are easily walkable, but the first is quite a lot shorter. The price for the train ticket is the same, for the tram you pay extra, so some people prefer walking.
I was in Ghent 25 years ago and I don't remember a tram there. There were a few buses, but not many. I stayed there for 3 years. In Antwerp I often used the tram though.
I'm from Ghent. If you think Ghent is boring, you missed going to the many amazing cafe's we have. Every July there's also the Ghent festival (10 days of partying) with thousands of visitors each year!
I think for the service, you're just experiencing a culture shock. Belgians like to be left alone when eating, so the waiters don't really pay attention to serving you immediately.
I'll be moving to Belgium in about 1 month to study a master degree for 2 years. Having classes around 3 universities and 3 different cities (Gent, Brussel and Antwerp) I need to choose one of them to live in :P this video confirmed me that the safe choice is Gent! Thanx ;)
@@Jacket97 wow! hey guys! thanks for the interest and sorry for the late response. Well, my experience in Belgium was incredible, I ended up living 1 year and a half in Gent and then I moved to Antwerp for six months for academic reasons. In that time I graduated from the master's program, traveled a lot, went to many music festivals and made friends that I keep to this day. After that I went back to Bolivia, but I managed to get a "sandwich" doctoral position at the Free University of Brussels, which means that I travel every year to Belgium for a few months and the rest of the time I work in Bolivia :). Despite studying at a university in Brussels, due to the ease of public transport (trains) I have always chosen Gent as the place where I always arrive. Gent is like my home in Belgium!
* Sint Pieters is a better choice because you have all the public transportation there- take a tram to center (1.6€, 10 mins) * Ghent is a student town, so you can eat very cheaply too! For the service; we are used to hold up our hands to get attention * extra tip: during the end of July, there is a 10 day long free festival with gigs and parties all over the town ( Gentse Feesten) * For young people looking to party; thursdays are the busiest for going out - most students go home during the weekend
Why shop at all? Forget about buying buying buying, spending, spending spending. I am pleased the shops close at 5 pm. That means Gent has a good life balance for their citizens. We all consume too much. Want, want, want, greed, greed greed.
it is true ghent has a great vibe but that's also do to the fact that we are more open and like layd back then in some of the other city's in our country.
As someone who lives in Gen from Uk Gent Damport is pretty much just as long a walk to the centre. If you know the way. I would suggest Gent Sint Peters and just get the tram or walk. Fallow the tram lines
Did you visit the Gentse Feesten? Biggest street festival in Europe. Awesome. And! you have to meet up with a local. tourists usually hang around the center. there are sooooo much more interesting underground places in Ghent! And you say the service is horrible. I agree. But the locals in bars are awesome. And hot :) Check it out.
@@kva8970 I've visited around 25 countries and I agree - the people I met in Ghent are among the friendliest. Everybody spoke good English and was willing to help me out when I asked questions.
Just came back from Gent. Actually during Christmas time, many shops are open till late night. I was strolling around the main squares trying out different food stalls till 10 pm, and stores were also open, taking advantage of the throngs of people present who will of course buy stuff.
Lol, how is your number 4 of "thing you'll hate" a bad thing? It's one of the things I love the most! That everything is a lot quieter during the evening. This is one of those things I actually hated about going to NY. There's never a moment of peace and quiet. NY is quite literally the city that never sleeps, and that is extremely exhausting in many ways. Not just as a tourist, but a resident as well I reckon. Besides, if you want activity, there's plenty of it in the evening. There are club areas kind of between the center and Sint-Pieter's station. Also, the restaurants are also occupied during the evenings. There's activity if you look for it. I just don't know why you'd want to.
3 is just not a rule, the thing is that the culture around restaurants is way different, they get paid a higher base wage, but 1 people here don't like being bothered whilst eating, if you need a drink, or something extra you hail a waiter or go to the bar, they wil gladly bring you what you want, 2 perhaps you have not gone to the right restaurants
Hi Mark, I really like your straight-up videos. The reason that Gent is great is because it is a living city. There are real businesses providing services to the locals, tourists and locals and those purely for the tourists. The weekends are happening because of the locals and tourists, but not because of the students. Many students have a train ticket deal where they get to go home and back for a discount rate and they go home each weekend and get their washing done and fill up their Tupperware with home cooking to save money. Thursday night is student night and the town is happening in a different way - traditionally concentrated around Overpoortstraat. I'm not so sure about the service issues entirely - I find the Gentenaars have some personal pride as to providing good service - it may not be American sycophantic service and maybe the heavily touristed places in the centre are slow, but it is definitely okay and way better than some other places. You're unlikely to get a train from Brussels to Gent-Dampoort as that station mostly serves trains heading to and from Antwerp and the north-east regions of East Flanders, but even then most trains head to Gent-Sint-Pieters. Travelling around Gent can be pretty easy because a single ticket can be used for unlimited travel on De Lijn trams and buses within Gent for 1.5 hours - so it's pretty simple when getting from the station into town. Keep up the great work with your videos! You are one of the first ports of call that I make when looking at a new travel destination.
As a resident of Ghent I can confirm all of these things! I have lived here all of my life and you have pretty much summed it up, good job! The thing I'm slightly puzzled by is the 'bad service'? Maybe I simply don't notice because I'm used to it, but I wouldn't say we have bad service. It might be because you're not a local or because you went to tourist places? No idea. But honestly, you captured it perfectly! Especially the good vibes Ghent has, I'm very glad to hear that even tourists can pick up on it! :)
+Eva A I was puzzeled about this too. I think it's just because we Belgians are not used to the kind of straightforwardness Americans are. When the waiter makes a mistake, we bring it on somewhat overpolite compared to americans. When americans say straightforwardly that the waiter brought them something wrong or whatever, they might feel somewhat attacked and react somewhat inappropiate, because they aren't used to the straightforwarness and feel attacked.
Just came home from Ghent yesterday…yes you have to be pretty picky to come up with 5 negative things about the city…especially your first one, as there is a lovely inexpensive tram from train station to town center. Also lots of bars etc stay open very late.
I lived and studies in Ghent for more than 5 years. It's funny to see what foreign people think of 'my city' :)!. A tip for people looking for partying. There are 2 major places somewhat separated where u can go if you're looking for a good night out: 1) Sint Jacobs Square (not far from city centre) - some of the more alternative 'clubs' are settled here (Charlatan, Kinky Star, ...). 2) Overpoort - on thursday, all students gather around this street to end the week. Very crowed, but also nice since you can go to over 50 little cafés. Other than that, be sure to sit near the Graslei in summer. It's a street near the waterfront where students gather to 'soak up the sun'. It has a really nice vibe - be sure to bring your own drinks though because the cafés near the waterfront can be more expensive than normal ones.
The main problem I've seen with Gent (as someone from Gent) with servers is that a lot of them just aren't proficient enough in English to be of proper service. I've seen a Brittish tourist asking for an English menu, and the restaurant didn't have any. The server then had to translate the food but he didn't know any of the dishes in English. Btw, Brugge is like 1 giant tourist trap, I find that Gent is much more genuine. There are rotten apples everywhere ofc. I share your views on Brussel btw, it has a great historic centre, but outside o that, it's just one big ugly concrete jungle.
Muscleduck I can agree with you on the bruges tourist trap. it has gotten so much more of a tourist trap over the past decade. it was sad to see on my last visit. gent did have a much more "real" feel to it.
It bugs me when we as English people go to different countries and just expect an English menu or English waiter. I always try the local dishes when I can and try to stay clear of the English traditional foods.
one we reason we (senior me, 43-year-old art historian daughter, and 18-yr-old granddaughter aspiring to become anthropologist/psychiatrist) chose Ghent as our Belgian base is "vegetarian capital of Europe" Make sure we don't need to survive on bread, cheese, and chocolate all week. :D
there is something really special about Belguim which is the eciency and Arcitecture that really takes you back to the Medieval Europe, and I guess Ghent is one of the best medieval cities so im very interested in it , one day I'll be there and Im sure that im gonna be there
Ok, here's a tip for avoiding tourist traps. Just start a conversation with someone local. Flemish people are on average very open to a little chat and nearly always have good language skills. They can tell you about the places they like to go, which is often quite interesting.
Els Verwilgen the people were cool with me, but there were a lot of "not so good" tourists there the weekend I spent there. I will definitely be coming back.
Great! If you are interested in lesser known pearls in this country, I'd love to be your guide. I'm very proud of all we have to offer in terms of beautiful architecture, food en drinks. Since you seem to like beer, there's a couple of wonderful discoveries to be made.
What do you mean with "tourist traps"? I'm from Gent and that is unknown to me so you must have "met" someone we prefer to send away. Here in Gent everyone who behaves is welcome, all the others, go away.
@@horseplop9There's no comparing. Both cities have great buildings but that's it. Brugge has become way too commercial. They care about your money, we care about you feeling well. We in Gent love life and recommend you take your time to visit us for both the buildings ànd the cultural activities. With that Brugge is dead.
You do not have to walk to the centre of town from Sint Pieters station. Take the #1 tram which is located outside of the train station and disembark at the Korenmarkt Square stop.
I live in Antwerp, 60 km from Ghent. What I don't like about Ghent is that the 2 main train stations are outside of the city center. Ghent is mainly a touristic and student town. As a Belgian I don't see why I should visit it. There are a few good concert venues but in Antwerp and Brussels there are more of them
:-) That's a typical reaction form an "Antwerpenaar", believing you're the best. We people from Gent laugh about that. We are proud of our city too but that's it.
What I said is true. I don't think Antwerp is the best btw. If I'd go to a concert in Ghent by train I wouldn't get home anymore as the stations are too far from the centre and the latest train drives at 22.30. @@feetpovlover
@@wanneske1969Dat is helemaal juist. Het centrum is 2 km verwijderd. Op dat vlak is Brugge beter. Ikzelf hou het meeste van de oude gebouwen, ook al is het Gravensteen helemaal vals. Zo vind ik Het steen ook prachtig. En eigenlijk en gelukkig enkel goeie ervaring met geboren Antwerpenaren. Dus voor een deel mijn excuses.
Als je in Antwerpen in het Centraal Station afstapt, ben je direct in het stadscentrum, heel wat anders dan in Gent. Vroeger, toen er minder concertzalen open waren in Antwerpen, ging ik vaak naar concerten in Gent. Jammer genoeg steeds met de auto omdat ik met de trein niet teruggeraakte ! Gelukkig zijn er nu Trix, Roma en zelfs rockconcerten in oudere zalen (Bourla, Elisabeth). @@feetpovlover
I'm from Ghent and I totally agree with your video. It's nice to see that more and more tourists appreciate my home town :) But what I'd do like to say to your hate #3 is that most Belgians who work in restaurants or cafés or wherever there is this 'Belgian Service', don't speak English very good (but the new generation does because the generation that now works in restaurants, etc. didn't learn English in primary or middle school! They only learned French and German) and because of that they'd become a little insecure about speaking English. And when you, speaking excellent English/American want to discuss about that they ordered chicken instead of beef (using your example) the Belgians are rather lazy to discuss. No offense or anything because I like your video but I just wanted to say this to make you love Ghent and Belgium even more :)
Helena I totally agree with your comments here. We visited Ghent in September 2014. Restaurants in Belgium I find in general are really passionate about the foods they serve. I myself am English and never judge a book by its cover if i cant speak their language why should I expect them to speak mine. Our service was fantastic all holiday and on some occasions there was some confusion regarding food orders but I personally think its a language barrier rather than laziness.
"het gravesteen" that castle-ish fort is a copy of a castle/fort in Aleppo that's destroyed a couple of years ago during the war in Syria. with a copy i mean build the same way and not a replica for tourists. it has been used from a castle to a prison to a fortress with torture chambers and other purposes. the trainstation in Sint pieters is a great place to see and you can walk the 2km to the city via a beautiful park (citadel) and has a botanic part and museums.
+WPG Deathlord looked it up.. it was based on the fortress krak de Chevalier in Damascus, Syria. A crusader named filips saw it and tried to rebuild the 'burcht' fortress/castle but it turned out 10 times smaller than the intended copy.. so technically it's unique I guess lol
A tip for public transport I am from Ghent and I think that de zuid is a better place to go with the bus as it is really close or even in the middle of the tourist side of Ghent
This was an interesting watch since we were in Ghent for 4 nights last fall and used it as a base to visit Brugge and Brussels. Glad we did, as it felt more like a real Belgian city vs tourist driven Brugge and more international Brussels. Also, regarding the service, we generally had a good experience while we were there but one time I needed to go outside and find the server to let her know we needed the check. She was on the front step of the restaurant smoking a cigarette and didn't seem to take offence that I came out to get her. We noticed that in some parts of Europe it's expected that a customer needs to be a bit more proactive than you would be in an American restaurant. We'll be in Berlin next month so of course I checked out your 5 things but not sure you have one just for Copenhagen which we'll also be traveling too. Thanks for posting.
1: you can just take the tram to the center of the city, and I think the station itself even is worth a visit. 3: sorry?! You can find really nice people and restaurants if you look for it, maybe not on the Vrijdagsmarkt, but there are nice people 4: I think that's a pro, not a con, because Ghent is also beautiful at night, and after 6 o’clock you don’t have that much people who are just doing shopping, so you have more space.
Bad service ? as someone who lives here that can't be right in my experience. You must have fallen for some really bad tourist trap. But yes, you better have your table booked sometime if you want one for dinner or just anytime in a weekend or vacation period with good weather. And yes, Brussels has some great musea, but that is about it.
I lived in Europe 2002-2010/2011 (NL and surrounding) and you must love to walk.. 2 kilometers walk is really nothing, I used to walk for fun from North Amsterdam to Southeast. Even I walked in 2009/2010 winter I walked even longer in middle of the night alone in the snow, bored from cars daily, so I wanted to know how to walk the roads I always went through cars. The same in Paris, I did long walk as well for fun, alone, but also one way, went back home with vehicle.
It might be a good idea to warn tourists about the "Gentse feesten" that take place every year in het middle of july. (No boatrides, music stages everywhere, massive crowds, ... But the festival is free)
vilijn nelis the boatrips continues at the "Gentse Feesten", they even do the boatrips until 11 or 12pm when the festival is at an buzy moment... there are Some tourist taken an boattrip at 11pm with the graslei full of people that were partying...
What is wrong with the service in Belgium? I never had any problems, I am Belgian though so it might make a difference or I am just used to it. In my experience the worst service I had in all of Europe was in the south of Spain, very unfriendly, not trying to understand, just bad. What I think is good about Belgium: beer, food, in the summer you will notice music festivals popping up everywhere, museums I think Belgium must have one of the highest concentrations of all kind of museums in the world and lots of interesting architecture. What I think is not good about Belgium: public transport, the trains are ok but for foreigners it can be difficult to navigate I think. In the cities it is not very good and can be very difficult to navigate even for me being from Belgium. Except of Brussels, I find public transport in Brussels very easy to navigate. Belgian cities tend be rather small though so a lot of times you won't really need a lot of transport. If you stay for a longer period somewhere in the Flanders, just get a bicycle.
I live in Gent and you are 100% right about this city. People are so not friendly and one shouldn't expect anything when it comes to service here. Another thing is streets become so deserted even on weekends and i hate that but this is a beautiful city anyway
I havn't been to Ghent but I'll add it to my list of places to see! I can recommend Bruges. I went on a day trip by coach from the UK. It's quite a walk from the coach park to the town centre but you pass by some interesting sights on the way. I found the people and shopkeepers there very friendly and they were happy to give directions. One place I can recommend to visit in Bruges is the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Its a beautiful church which claims to have a relic of Christ. People flock there to touch it.
Question: Should I learn to speak Flemish or will I be able to get by with French? I experienced firsthand how some Belgians can get off-put by someone speaking the language of the other "side," but I figured because it's rather touristy, that I would be okay with French. Obviously, if English is the better option, then great, I am just the type that prefers to speak the native language as much as possible, out of respect for the locals.
If you really had such an experience then I think it's rather an exception then a common thing. Maybe you'll have this in the more rural places in Flanders but in I lived in most of the bigger cities (Oostende, Brugge, Gent (currently), Antwerpen, Brussel) and we are used to communicating in English, French and Dutch every day. I think most people wouldn't even notice that you're a tourist. But if you would have to choose I would say: 1. Dutch if you really want to put in the effort, but honestly I don't think most people would care 2. English, because most flemish belgians speak English much better than French. 3. French but no flemish person is going to have the feeling you are talking to him in "his" language and you'll just make it harder on the people who don't speak french that well....
sinaaslight It was with an old gentleman in Bruges, actually. He didn't really embarrass me in front of everyone or anything like that, but he did give a curt comment on my choice of speaking in French when I am in the Flemish side of Belgium. I did apologize for it, and we went on our merry way. Thanks for the advice, I do know quite a bit of German, and some of the basic expressions are slightly similar so I'm hoping it would help.
If your native tongue is English and you have some knowledge of German, then Dutch will be very easy. Try listening to it spoken from a native speaker and you may be surprised at what you'll understand.
You don't really have to learn Flemish/Dutch. Almost everyone speaks English there and most people speak some French and they are always happy to help tourists.
I feel so honoured living here when I see foreign people posting clips of our city. ^^ Thank you for this post! I hope you had ribs at Gekroonde Hoofden and a Liqueur D'Amour at Rococo in Patershol. :) Hidden gems.
hiya, thanks for this vid of my hometown! i must admit, you are right about the shops, they close around 6pm, but it's been like this for ever. The people working there all have the same contracts as people working in offices from 9 to 5. But really, we don't go shopping at night like you can do in NY for example. It would be nice, but i don't see it happening. Another thing thats annoying is random work being done on streets or buildings. Say for example you'd like to see the Gravensteen (a big MUST btw), there's a fifty fifty chance there'll be scafolding surrounding it. But i suppose maintenance has to be done sometime right? ;) And as a tourist, there's no better time to come then in July! We have a ten days feast in the towncentre called 'De Gentse feesten' There're markets, concerts (for free), random street shops and streetperformers from all over the world. Really enjoyable. I've been to all cities in Belgium (i live here) and like you i'm not a big fan of Brussels neither. Brugge is very beautifull as well, but a third the size of Gent. So anyways, enjoy your visit! (y)
Just visited this city a few days ago. Totally agree that the vibe of the city is so much nicer and more pleasant than Brussels. Was a great pick me up after the disappointment that was Brussels. Also agree that it's a fantastic city for walking around.
Do a video on how to deal with restaurants overseas. Like in Europe they don't have hostesses to seat you like in America which can be daunting to deal with
Be careful with restaurants thought... Most kitchens close at 10pm, so if you don't order before let's say 9:30pm, you'll get stuck with McDonald's and the likes...
i spent 3 hours in brussels this summer and it was enough. in winter me and two of my buddies are visiting belgium for three days and three nights. where should we go? we are coming from amsterdam and we may spend one night in antwerp. i really like your channel btw
Everybody always goes to see Brussels, Bruges and Ghent... There are plenty of different places that are AMAZING as well! Try Namur, Dinant, Liège or Leuven for example... All different styles and backgrounds, a different face to Belgium that many don't go visit...
Ghent Sint-Pieters Station is well worth seeing. You can take the tram from the station and be in the city centre in about 5 minutes. Dampoort station is nothing special.
reginadispagna i just put it in the editing queue. i should be finished editing it in the next couple weeks (we have friends from Italy coming tomorrow so will be showing people around Chicago and such, so afterwards will be on Leuven and Bruges) so it is coming :)
As a Belgian citizen I only can recommend as cities to visit : 1. Gent. 2. Antwerpen. 3. Brugge. Forget about Brussel; it sucks really, Brussel is a place to hate really. You never feel safe or clean.
I think that's a very Flemish thing to dislike Brussels. I struggle with it too from time to time... Though from a tourist's point of view, Brussels does have some very nice points of interest and can actually be a great city to visit! Us Flemish also tend to forget there's another side to Belgium, you know, where the Walloon's are at... Namur, Dinant and Liège are great places to visit!!!
I think that Brussels was one of the nicest cities I've visited, maybe because I speak French and I kind of feel home because it is not different from where I am from (Geneva). It is a big student city and the night life is great ! However I have to agree, I don't really safe in Brussels, same goes with Paris, where I feel extremely safe in Amsterdam for example. I'm going to Ghent tomorrow so I can have my own opinion of which one is better between Brussels and Ghent. I have a question, why did you put Antwerp before Brugge ?
Amazing, I lived in Evergem for two years which is a suburb of Ghent, I liked Brussels, Antwerp and Brugge better. Crepes were awesome and so were the cherry filled waffles. Yes it can be boring at times
Yeah sure, but the Dampoort Station (and the whole area) is not the most visually appealing place to start your journey. St-Pieters has a much more enjoyable area (and a way prettier station with a mix of modern and vintage 1900's), easier access to the public transport (tram 1 will get you in the busiest/historical part in about ten minutes as where the busstops at Dampoort station are spread out outside of the station and has nothing going for itself) and has a lot more options for you to start your trip. Hell, even the toilets (all two of 'em) don't even work at Dampoort Station due to 'consistent vandalism'. Something you won't see (that often) in St-Pieters station. My advice; skip the whole Dampoort advice and ignore the whole watch out for rowdy Brits part (I never encountered a drunk/annoying Brit once) and have a blast. Tip; visit 'Bier Central'. It serves over 300 kinds of Belgian bottled beer. You're welcome.
Thank you so much..,Do you have any food recommendations? And ill take your advise and just walk from st pieters i mean how long can it even be anyways right
@@horseplop9 I love Leuven. I visited there when I was a young girl many times. My father (British army) was stationed there during WW2 and I went to boarding school not far from Leuven. I haven't been back for a long while but hope to this year. I can't say I love Brussels but one of my best friends lives there. Bruges is beautiful and, to my shame, I have never been to Ghent. Pretty much everywhere else, including special summers on the Belgian coast.
Hate#1 is easily solved. Get off at gent sint pieters and take TRAM NR.1!!! Going straight to the center and only takes 10 minutes!!! Very easy, all tourists take it!
So I live in gent and I do service so here is my opinion: 1: go of at dampoort= not a good Idea. To find the right bus is harder and I'ts basically a geto soo 2: I don't like tourist's as well and try to avoid the city when I now the hordes are incoming. 3: I don't like tourist's if you can see from mile's away thy are tourists, so no nice service for you. Be modest goddamit. We don't tip, we get paid, we work for our pay. Don't expect a lot. 4: At around 8pm the bar's and café's re-open and life returns otherwise go to the student's street's to party. 5: there is more chance that it will rain everyday than that it isn't in belgium. So sit inside or wait, or sit on the ground. Don't be picky. 6: yes, go to the top. Amazing 7: Yes, but if you see nice cozy places with young people cudling: DON'T GO AND DISTURB 8: Ok 9: Apparently 10: not the tourist's or Dutch... Don't you go creeping on student's bro
Thanks man...did Brugge a while back but didn't have time for Ghent...will do this summer...so thanks for a pleasant note...agree with your 5 dislikes...same with Brugge and Brussels.
Dear Wolter, I am a Dutch student looking to study for a Master in Belgium. Which city/university in Belgium do you recommend the most for living as a student?
@@woltersworld Wtf do you know about Ghent ? You have been there for how long ? 12 hrs or maybe 24 hrs ? And that makes you an expert ? Please stop making stupid clips and more : save us your stupid comments....... about things you do not know....
I live in Ghent, its a nice city and the people are great. Bad service? You know, this is a small city, tourism is good for local economy but sometimes anoying for local life. It depends on your attitude. Try to be moddest and people most of the time wil be friendly. Make your 'Woltersworlds' but have the knowledge you're not a modest tourist. You talk About Ghent like it's some part of Disneyland. This is a ancient city with real residents, not some consumer item :-(
+Philip Gerards , as you live in Ghent, could inform me if the Gravensteen castle and Sint Baafskathedraal are still under repair? I saw them via google street view ( dated 2014) and both of them were covered for repairs.
Gravensteen indeed is beautiful again. Repairing the Sint-Baafskathedraal started in 2013 and it will be ready in 2017 or 2018. For the moment they only repairing the tower and I don't know when that will be finished. You can go inside. Greetings!
Tony Hodgkinson Sony movie maker. It is not super great but relatively easy to use. I am not high-tech enough nor do I have enough money to get a better system. So hope it is OK.
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I have been to Gent multiple times and never had a bad service experience. Also, its fantastic city to walk around.
I worked as a waiter for 3 years in the city center. We always took pride in giving an excellent service with respect and a big smile. ;)
Americans tend to have very high standards when it comes to service ha ha
@@Jacket97 But their customer service is just weird
if you come by train to Ghent, you can just hop on Tram 1. That tram passes the train station every 15 minutes and then it's a 5-10 minute ride to the city centre.
We are in Ghent right now and there is a huge music festival here the people are wonderful and everyone speaks English. This is a very beautiful city and we have enjoyed our visit so far. Thanks Mark for your loves and hates we have been to Paris, Honfleur, done the ww1 memorials Menin Gate , Ghent and soon to Brussels. So much history in these places it has been an amazing trip>
I totally agree on your comment that the Saint-Peter's train station is far away from the downtown area of Ghent, though I don't agree on there not being anything worth seeing on the trip from the station to the historical centre of town. If you take the most direct route, there is indeed not much to be seen... If you make somewhat of a detour you can walk by the Citadel Park where you can find two of the city's best museums (SMAK & MSK) and the botanical gardens. You can than continue on towards Saint-Peter's Square, passing the old military fortress up towards the Saint-Peter's church and abbey (the oldest buildings still intact in town). From there on one descends through the student's quarters past the university library tower and the Vooruit theatre towards the South Quarters. In the South Quarters there's some fine more contemporary architecture, as well as the Capitole theatre, the King Albert Park, the Saint-Anne's church and the Unesco heritage site of the small Ghent beguinage. From the South Quarters, the parisien style lane of "Vlaanderenstraat" takes you to the historical centre in less than five minutes... All very much worth while for someone who wishes to pay a thorough visit to Ghent, and not just sail through...
Exactly! And also, Saint-Peter's station is very beautiful. And Dampoort, well, it's Dampoort...
+ there is a tram every 15 minutes from the station to the city centre that takes only 5-10 minutes...
Did this walk pretty much every day for 6 years
Ghent was where the Americans and British signed the treaty ending the War of 1812. The treaty was signed on 12/24/1814 by John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and others.
the hell? at ghent sint-pieters station just take tram 1 to the centre. You have one every other 10 minutes.
If you're on a train stopping in Gent-Dampoort, and especially if you're coming from Antwerp and Gent-Dampoort is your first stop, it's not such a bad idea to get of there. It is a lot closer to the centre than Gent-St-Pieters. But I agree, if you have to get of at Gent-Sint-Pieters, just take the tram, it's a lot faster and much more interesting, even if tram 1 can get a little crowded. Changing platforms, taking a 9' trainride, and you need as much time as with a tramride on line 1 to get to the city centre. And if you're not in a hurry, tram 4 can be an interesting ride, too, but you'll need a lot more time!
barvdw Well I just compared the distance from dampoort to korenmarkt with st pieters to korenmarkt. the difference is 500m. I think that in any case, the fastest way to the centre is taking tram 1 from st pieters to centre..
sinaaslight. Unless you get to Gent-Dampoort first, it's probably faster to get of at Sint-Pieters and take the tram, but I counted 1,6 km for the distance to Gent-Dampoort, and 2,5 km to Gent-Sint-Pieters. Both are easily walkable, but the first is quite a lot shorter. The price for the train ticket is the same, for the tram you pay extra, so some people prefer walking.
+sinaaslight tram 1 comes like every 5 min
I was in Ghent 25 years ago and I don't remember a tram there. There were a few buses, but not many. I stayed there for 3 years. In Antwerp I often used the tram though.
I'm from Ghent. If you think Ghent is boring, you missed going to the many amazing cafe's we have. Every July there's also the Ghent festival (10 days of partying) with thousands of visitors each year!
He is American.. he can't drink lol
And lots of injured people and even dead people.
I'll be in Ghent in less than a month! We're using Ghent as our home base while touring around the country.
JumboBunny good choice. very good choice
How was your Trip?
I think for the service, you're just experiencing a culture shock. Belgians like to be left alone when eating, so the waiters don't really pay attention to serving you immediately.
I'll be moving to Belgium in about 1 month to study a master degree for 2 years. Having classes around 3 universities and 3 different cities (Gent, Brussel and Antwerp) I need to choose one of them to live in :P this video confirmed me that the safe choice is Gent! Thanx ;)
Inti Rodríguez how did it go?
7 years now... can you tell us did you complete ?
@@Jacket97 wow! hey guys! thanks for the interest and sorry for the late response. Well, my experience in Belgium was incredible, I ended up living 1 year and a half in Gent and then I moved to Antwerp for six months for academic reasons. In that time I graduated from the master's program, traveled a lot, went to many music festivals and made friends that I keep to this day. After that I went back to Bolivia, but I managed to get a "sandwich" doctoral position at the Free University of Brussels, which means that I travel every year to Belgium for a few months and the rest of the time I work in Bolivia :). Despite studying at a university in Brussels, due to the ease of public transport (trains) I have always chosen Gent as the place where I always arrive. Gent is like my home in Belgium!
Stores are open till 8 o clock in the weekend,some stores till 9.
I dont know with what kind of watch you were calculating.
* Sint Pieters is a better choice because you have all the public transportation there- take a tram to center (1.6€, 10 mins)
* Ghent is a student town, so you can eat very cheaply too! For the service; we are used to hold up our hands to get attention
* extra tip: during the end of July, there is a 10 day long free festival with gigs and parties all over the town ( Gentse Feesten)
* For young people looking to party; thursdays are the busiest for going out - most students go home during the weekend
xfgher €1.6 is for an entire hour(after you've punched in), not just ten minutes :P But you're better off buying a 10 ride card at the station.
Just got into a student exchange to ghent. Never been to Belgium before but had a gut feeling it would be great.
Ewa Jackowska I’m thinking about going to Ghent, too. What’s your experience so far?
It's fun to see how tourists experience Belgium! Never saw my country as interessting you know ...
Why shop at all? Forget about buying buying buying, spending, spending spending. I am pleased the shops close at 5 pm. That means Gent has a good life balance for their citizens. We all consume too much. Want, want, want, greed, greed greed.
it is true ghent has a great vibe but that's also do to the fact that we are more open and like layd back then in some of the other city's in our country.
Hi Mark! Might I suggest a return to Gent and an updated video about it? Gent changed so much in the past 10 years :-)
As someone who lives in Gen from Uk Gent Damport is pretty much just as long a walk to the centre. If you know the way. I would suggest Gent Sint Peters and just get the tram or walk. Fallow the tram lines
Did you visit the Gentse Feesten? Biggest street festival in Europe. Awesome. And! you have to meet up with a local. tourists usually hang around the center. there are sooooo much more interesting underground places in Ghent! And you say the service is horrible. I agree. But the locals in bars are awesome. And hot :) Check it out.
What are some Underground places?? Any would help. thanks
most friendly peopls in the world are in ghent
Syed muhammad zaheer abbas you haven’s seen lot of the world didn’t you?
@@kva8970 I've visited around 25 countries and I agree - the people I met in Ghent are among the friendliest. Everybody spoke good English and was willing to help me out when I asked questions.
exaggerated.
Just came back from Gent. Actually during Christmas time, many shops are open till late night. I was strolling around the main squares trying out different food stalls till 10 pm, and stores were also open, taking advantage of the throngs of people present who will of course buy stuff.
Lol, how is your number 4 of "thing you'll hate" a bad thing?
It's one of the things I love the most! That everything is a lot quieter during the evening. This is one of those things I actually hated about going to NY. There's never a moment of peace and quiet. NY is quite literally the city that never sleeps, and that is extremely exhausting in many ways. Not just as a tourist, but a resident as well I reckon.
Besides, if you want activity, there's plenty of it in the evening. There are club areas kind of between the center and Sint-Pieter's station. Also, the restaurants are also occupied during the evenings. There's activity if you look for it. I just don't know why you'd want to.
3 is just not a rule, the thing is that the culture around restaurants is way different, they get paid a higher base wage, but 1 people here don't like being bothered whilst eating, if you need a drink, or something extra you hail a waiter or go to the bar, they wil gladly bring you what you want, 2 perhaps you have not gone to the right restaurants
Hi Mark, I really like your straight-up videos. The reason that Gent is great is because it is a living city. There are real businesses providing services to the locals, tourists and locals and those purely for the tourists. The weekends are happening because of the locals and tourists, but not because of the students. Many students have a train ticket deal where they get to go home and back for a discount rate and they go home each weekend and get their washing done and fill up their Tupperware with home cooking to save money. Thursday night is student night and the town is happening in a different way - traditionally concentrated around Overpoortstraat. I'm not so sure about the service issues entirely - I find the Gentenaars have some personal pride as to providing good service - it may not be American sycophantic service and maybe the heavily touristed places in the centre are slow, but it is definitely okay and way better than some other places. You're unlikely to get a train from Brussels to Gent-Dampoort as that station mostly serves trains heading to and from Antwerp and the north-east regions of East Flanders, but even then most trains head to Gent-Sint-Pieters. Travelling around Gent can be pretty easy because a single ticket can be used for unlimited travel on De Lijn trams and buses within Gent for 1.5 hours - so it's pretty simple when getting from the station into town. Keep up the great work with your videos! You are one of the first ports of call that I make when looking at a new travel destination.
As a resident of Ghent I can confirm all of these things! I have lived here all of my life and you have pretty much summed it up, good job! The thing I'm slightly puzzled by is the 'bad service'? Maybe I simply don't notice because I'm used to it, but I wouldn't say we have bad service. It might be because you're not a local or because you went to tourist places? No idea. But honestly, you captured it perfectly! Especially the good vibes Ghent has, I'm very glad to hear that even tourists can pick up on it! :)
+Eva A I was puzzeled about this too. I think it's just because we Belgians are not used to the kind of straightforwardness Americans are. When the waiter makes a mistake, we bring it on somewhat overpolite compared to americans. When americans say straightforwardly that the waiter brought them something wrong or whatever, they might feel somewhat attacked and react somewhat inappropiate, because they aren't used to the straightforwarness and feel attacked.
+james qaqish Enjoy your stay!
Stores are open till 20:00 or 21:00 but only the bigger stores a little bit outside the cities. The stores like Colruyt , Carrefour, Delhaize....
Just came home from Ghent yesterday…yes you have to be pretty picky to come up with 5 negative things about the city…especially your first one, as there is a lovely inexpensive tram from train station to town center. Also lots of bars etc stay open very late.
I lived and studies in Ghent for more than 5 years. It's funny to see what foreign people think of 'my city' :)!. A tip for people looking for partying. There are 2 major places somewhat separated where u can go if you're looking for a good night out: 1) Sint Jacobs Square (not far from city centre) - some of the more alternative 'clubs' are settled here (Charlatan, Kinky Star, ...). 2) Overpoort - on thursday, all students gather around this street to end the week. Very crowed, but also nice since you can go to over 50 little cafés. Other than that, be sure to sit near the Graslei in summer. It's a street near the waterfront where students gather to 'soak up the sun'. It has a really nice vibe - be sure to bring your own drinks though because the cafés near the waterfront can be more expensive than normal ones.
The main problem I've seen with Gent (as someone from Gent) with servers is that a lot of them just aren't proficient enough in English to be of proper service. I've seen a Brittish tourist asking for an English menu, and the restaurant didn't have any. The server then had to translate the food but he didn't know any of the dishes in English.
Btw, Brugge is like 1 giant tourist trap, I find that Gent is much more genuine. There are rotten apples everywhere ofc.
I share your views on Brussel btw, it has a great historic centre, but outside o that, it's just one big ugly concrete jungle.
Muscleduck I can agree with you on the bruges tourist trap. it has gotten so much more of a tourist trap over the past decade. it was sad to see on my last visit. gent did have a much more "real" feel to it.
It bugs me when we as English people go to different countries and just expect an English menu or English waiter. I always try the local dishes when I can and try to stay clear of the English traditional foods.
Thanks for your amazing video and a lots of comments below is really helpful for my plan to visit Belgium
Gent has a good vibes - I absolutely agree. Once I would visit it again, I spent a lovely few days there.
one we reason we (senior me, 43-year-old art historian daughter, and 18-yr-old granddaughter aspiring to become anthropologist/psychiatrist) chose Ghent as our Belgian base is "vegetarian capital of Europe" Make sure we don't need to survive on bread, cheese, and chocolate all week. :D
there is something really special about Belguim which is the eciency and Arcitecture that really takes you back to the Medieval Europe, and I guess Ghent is one of the best medieval cities so im very interested in it , one day I'll be there and Im sure that im gonna be there
It's been a while since we had the pleasure of watching your videos! This one is good too, very informative and pleasant to watch.
thanks ithacapro! glad to have you back!
your videos are so helpful. I'm arriving in Brussels tomorrow and heading to Bruges straight away. I will certainly visit Gent.
At the Saint-Pieters station you have the tram to Korenmarkt. This stops right into the center.
This guy must be hard to please! Found great service and cheerful attitude from the people of Ghent. Good welcome in the bars and restaurants.
Ok, here's a tip for avoiding tourist traps.
Just start a conversation with someone local. Flemish people are on average very open to a little chat and nearly always have good language skills.
They can tell you about the places they like to go, which is often quite interesting.
Els Verwilgen the people were cool with me, but there were a lot of "not so good" tourists there the weekend I spent there. I will definitely be coming back.
Great! If you are interested in lesser known pearls in this country, I'd love to be your guide. I'm very proud of all we have to offer in terms of beautiful architecture, food en drinks. Since you seem to like beer, there's a couple of wonderful discoveries to be made.
What do you mean with "tourist traps"? I'm from Gent and that is unknown to me so you must have "met" someone we prefer to send away. Here in Gent everyone who behaves is welcome, all the others, go away.
There is nothing I hate about Gent. I stayed there for 5 months. It's my 2nd home. I never felt so connected to any such city as Gent . I love it
Is it better than bruges?
@@horseplop9 Way way better
@@horseplop9There's no comparing. Both cities have great buildings but that's it. Brugge has become way too commercial. They care about your money, we care about you feeling well. We in Gent love life and recommend you take your time to visit us for both the buildings ànd the cultural activities. With that Brugge is dead.
Looks like you went to Ghent from the second half of July through August...
Otherwise it's a very dynamic place
You do not have to walk to the centre of town from Sint Pieters station. Take the #1 tram which is located outside of the train station and disembark at the Korenmarkt Square stop.
Ms. Smith yep, I missed it right when I got off and then just walked... then the #1 came by right as I got to the square :)
I live in Antwerp, 60 km from Ghent. What I don't like about Ghent is that the 2 main train stations are outside of the city center. Ghent is mainly a touristic and student town. As a Belgian I don't see why I should visit it. There are a few good concert venues but in Antwerp and Brussels there are more of them
:-) That's a typical reaction form an "Antwerpenaar", believing you're the best. We people from Gent laugh about that. We are proud of our city too but that's it.
What I said is true. I don't think Antwerp is the best btw. If I'd go to a concert in Ghent by train I wouldn't get home anymore as the stations are too far from the centre and the latest train drives at 22.30. @@feetpovlover
@@wanneske1969Dat is helemaal juist. Het centrum is 2 km verwijderd. Op dat vlak is Brugge beter. Ikzelf hou het meeste van de oude gebouwen, ook al is het Gravensteen helemaal vals. Zo vind ik Het steen ook prachtig. En eigenlijk en gelukkig enkel goeie ervaring met geboren Antwerpenaren. Dus voor een deel mijn excuses.
Als je in Antwerpen in het Centraal Station afstapt, ben je direct in het stadscentrum, heel wat anders dan in Gent. Vroeger, toen er minder concertzalen open waren in Antwerpen, ging ik vaak naar concerten in Gent. Jammer genoeg steeds met de auto omdat ik met de trein niet teruggeraakte ! Gelukkig zijn er nu Trix, Roma en zelfs rockconcerten in oudere zalen (Bourla, Elisabeth). @@feetpovlover
I'm from Ghent and I totally agree with your video. It's nice to see that more and more tourists appreciate my home town :) But what I'd do like to say to your hate #3 is that most Belgians who work in restaurants or cafés or wherever there is this 'Belgian Service', don't speak English very good (but the new generation does because the generation that now works in restaurants, etc. didn't learn English in primary or middle school! They only learned French and German) and because of that they'd become a little insecure about speaking English. And when you, speaking excellent English/American want to discuss about that they ordered chicken instead of beef (using your example) the Belgians are rather lazy to discuss. No offense or anything because I like your video but I just wanted to say this to make you love Ghent and Belgium even more :)
Helena I totally agree with your comments here. We visited Ghent in September 2014. Restaurants in Belgium I find in general are really passionate about the foods they serve. I myself am English and never judge a book by its cover if i cant speak their language why should I expect them to speak mine. Our service was fantastic all holiday and on some occasions there was some confusion regarding food orders but I personally think its a language barrier rather than laziness.
Do you think it'd be helpful to know some basic words in Dutch?
"het gravesteen" that castle-ish fort is a copy of a castle/fort in Aleppo that's destroyed a couple of years ago during the war in Syria. with a copy i mean build the same way and not a replica for tourists. it has been used from a castle to a prison to a fortress with torture chambers and other purposes. the trainstation in Sint pieters is a great place to see and you can walk the 2km to the city via a beautiful park (citadel) and has a botanic part and museums.
+Rothnacum1 het gravesteen is not a copy
+WPG Deathlord looked it up.. it was based on the fortress krak de Chevalier in Damascus, Syria. A crusader named filips saw it and tried to rebuild the 'burcht' fortress/castle but it turned out 10 times smaller than the intended copy.. so technically it's unique I guess lol
WPG Deathlord is your profile picture from a oil painted segrelles?
A tip for public transport I am from Ghent and I think that de zuid is a better place to go with the bus as it is really close or even in the middle of the tourist side of Ghent
This was an interesting watch since we were in Ghent for 4 nights last fall and used it as a base to visit Brugge and Brussels. Glad we did, as it felt more like a real Belgian city vs tourist driven Brugge and more international Brussels. Also, regarding the service, we generally had a good experience while we were there but one time I needed to go outside and find the server to let her know we needed the check. She was on the front step of the restaurant smoking a cigarette and didn't seem to take offence that I came out to get her. We noticed that in some parts of Europe it's expected that a customer needs to be a bit more proactive than you would be in an American restaurant. We'll be in Berlin next month so of course I checked out your 5 things but not sure you have one just for Copenhagen which we'll also be traveling too. Thanks for posting.
1: you can just take the tram to the center of the city, and I think the station itself even is worth a visit.
3: sorry?! You can find really nice people and restaurants if you look for it, maybe not on the Vrijdagsmarkt, but there are nice people
4: I think that's a pro, not a con, because Ghent is also beautiful at night, and after 6 o’clock you don’t have that much people who are just doing shopping, so you have more space.
Bad service ? as someone who lives here that can't be right in my experience.
You must have fallen for some really bad tourist trap.
But yes, you better have your table booked sometime if you want one for dinner or just anytime in a weekend or vacation period with good weather.
And yes, Brussels has some great musea, but that is about it.
I lived in Europe 2002-2010/2011 (NL and surrounding) and you must love to walk.. 2 kilometers walk is really nothing, I used to walk for fun from North Amsterdam to Southeast. Even I walked in 2009/2010 winter I walked even longer in middle of the night alone in the snow, bored from cars daily, so I wanted to know how to walk the roads I always went through cars. The same in Paris, I did long walk as well for fun, alone, but also one way, went back home with vehicle.
It might be a good idea to warn tourists about the "Gentse feesten" that take place every year in het middle of july. (No boatrides, music stages everywhere, massive crowds, ... But the festival is free)
vilijn nelis the boatrips continues at the "Gentse Feesten", they even do the boatrips until 11 or 12pm when the festival is at an buzy moment... there are Some tourist taken an boattrip at 11pm with the graslei full of people that were partying...
Been to Belgium twice. Once was treated average and the second, years later, was great and friendly.
What is wrong with the service in Belgium? I never had any problems, I am Belgian though so it might make a difference or I am just used to it. In my experience the worst service I had in all of Europe was in the south of Spain, very unfriendly, not trying to understand, just bad.
What I think is good about Belgium: beer, food, in the summer you will notice music festivals popping up everywhere, museums I think Belgium must have one of the highest concentrations of all kind of museums in the world and lots of interesting architecture.
What I think is not good about Belgium: public transport, the trains are ok but for foreigners it can be difficult to navigate I think. In the cities it is not very good and can be very difficult to navigate even for me being from Belgium. Except of Brussels, I find public transport in Brussels very easy to navigate. Belgian cities tend be rather small though so a lot of times you won't really need a lot of transport. If you stay for a longer period somewhere in the Flanders, just get a bicycle.
I live in Gent and you are 100% right about this city. People are so not friendly and one shouldn't expect anything when it comes to service here. Another thing is streets become so deserted even on weekends and i hate that but this is a beautiful city anyway
Are you even belgian??
We're planning to go there in Dec for a video on my channel. Thanks for the great tips as always.
+Dutchified glad I can help out another youtube traveler! one day we will do something together my friend.
Gotta love Ghent, prettiest city in Belgium. Brussels is beautiful too though, you just have to know where to go ;)
very true :)
Ghent is terrible. Are we talking about the same place ?
@@002lisamarie Whats Bad about it bro?
Where should I go in Brussels
To me there's nothing nice about Brussels, all of those pretty buildings are a result of colonization and capitalism.
I live in Ghent. For people in their 20's: there are LOTS of amazing parties in the city.
I could tell that the student life looked pretty dang fun :)
Kan ik alleen maar mee eens zijn!
I havn't been to Ghent but I'll add it to my list of places to see! I can recommend Bruges. I went on a day trip by coach from the UK. It's quite a walk from the coach park to the town centre but you pass by some interesting sights on the way. I found the people and shopkeepers there very friendly and they were happy to give directions. One place I can recommend to visit in Bruges is the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Its a beautiful church which claims to have a relic of Christ. People flock there to touch it.
Fantastic video - I'm going to Gent tomorrow. I personally love Belgium (:
Jack Voda it is fantastic! have a great time! I am jealous!
Question: Should I learn to speak Flemish or will I be able to get by with French? I experienced firsthand how some Belgians can get off-put by someone speaking the language of the other "side," but I figured because it's rather touristy, that I would be okay with French. Obviously, if English is the better option, then great, I am just the type that prefers to speak the native language as much as possible, out of respect for the locals.
If you really had such an experience then I think it's rather an exception then a common thing. Maybe you'll have this in the more rural places in Flanders but in I lived in most of the bigger cities (Oostende, Brugge, Gent (currently), Antwerpen, Brussel) and we are used to communicating in English, French and Dutch every day. I think most people wouldn't even notice that you're a tourist. But if you would have to choose I would say: 1. Dutch if you really want to put in the effort, but honestly I don't think most people would care 2. English, because most flemish belgians speak English much better than French. 3. French but no flemish person is going to have the feeling you are talking to him in "his" language and you'll just make it harder on the people who don't speak french that well....
sinaaslight It was with an old gentleman in Bruges, actually. He didn't really embarrass me in front of everyone or anything like that, but he did give a curt comment on my choice of speaking in French when I am in the Flemish side of Belgium. I did apologize for it, and we went on our merry way.
Thanks for the advice, I do know quite a bit of German, and some of the basic expressions are slightly similar so I'm hoping it would help.
If your native tongue is English and you have some knowledge of German, then Dutch will be very easy. Try listening to it spoken from a native speaker and you may be surprised at what you'll understand.
Cameron Hewett Thanks, Cameron. Yes, English is my native tongue.
You don't really have to learn Flemish/Dutch. Almost everyone speaks English there and most people speak some French and they are always happy to help tourists.
I feel so honoured living here when I see foreign people posting clips of our city. ^^ Thank you for this post!
I hope you had ribs at Gekroonde Hoofden and a Liqueur D'Amour at Rococo in Patershol. :) Hidden gems.
Daan Jossels had a great time in Gent. loved it there.
I always loved G(h)ent, lived there for 10 years and I will return, it is a great please to be 'home' - for me.
1:00 Nono, don't go to Dampoort. You really should take the tram to the center! It only takes 10 - 15 minutes.
hiya, thanks for this vid of my hometown!
i must admit, you are right about the shops, they close around 6pm, but it's been like this for ever. The people working there all have the same contracts as people working in offices from 9 to 5. But really, we don't go shopping at night like you can do in NY for example. It would be nice, but i don't see it happening.
Another thing thats annoying is random work being done on streets or buildings.
Say for example you'd like to see the Gravensteen (a big MUST btw), there's a fifty fifty chance there'll be scafolding surrounding it. But i suppose maintenance has to be done sometime right? ;)
And as a tourist, there's no better time to come then in July!
We have a ten days feast in the towncentre called 'De Gentse feesten'
There're markets, concerts (for free), random street shops and streetperformers from all over the world. Really enjoyable.
I've been to all cities in Belgium (i live here) and like you i'm not a big fan of Brussels neither. Brugge is very beautifull as well, but a third the size of Gent.
So anyways, enjoy your visit! (y)
Just visited this city a few days ago. Totally agree that the vibe of the city is so much nicer and more pleasant than Brussels. Was a great pick me up after the disappointment that was Brussels. Also agree that it's a fantastic city for walking around.
Love watching these videos because you are so informed and inspirational! Thanks for sharing, as always, Mark :)
you are very welcome Carson. Glad for all of your comments :)
Do a video on how to deal with restaurants overseas. Like in Europe they don't have hostesses to seat you like in America which can be daunting to deal with
Bang on the money, just came home and every point made in this video is everything we found whilst visiting.
Adam Valente Thanks Adam!
So the shops close early...I assume the bars and restaurants are still open past that?
Chris Jones of course
Be careful with restaurants thought... Most kitchens close at 10pm, so if you don't order before let's say 9:30pm, you'll get stuck with McDonald's and the likes...
i spent 3 hours in brussels this summer and it was enough. in winter me and two of my buddies are visiting belgium for three days and three nights. where should we go? we are coming from amsterdam and we may spend one night in antwerp. i really like your channel btw
do Ghent and Brussels and Antwerp.
thanks a lot
Everybody always goes to see Brussels, Bruges and Ghent... There are plenty of different places that are AMAZING as well! Try Namur, Dinant, Liège or Leuven for example... All different styles and backgrounds, a different face to Belgium that many don't go visit...
i do that walk like every week twice, it is good for your health, and honestly the citadel park is not bad either
how long is that walk sir?
This guy is amazing without even trying. Loved the video 💕
Belgium has the worst service...Germany: hold my beer.
Almost all of the shop are closed on Sunday as well. It's the oddest damn thing.
You should do a video about top university towns in Europe. Thanks for the info, thumbs up.
Ghent Sint-Pieters Station is well worth seeing. You can take the tram from the station and be in the city centre in about 5 minutes. Dampoort station is nothing special.
How to get to dampoort from amsterdam
Nice video. Do you have any about Bruges?
reginadispagna i just put it in the editing queue. i should be finished editing it in the next couple weeks (we have friends from Italy coming tomorrow so will be showing people around Chicago and such, so afterwards will be on Leuven and Bruges) so it is coming :)
woltersworld
That's great! Thank you so much and have a nice time with your friends ;-)
Shops ( supermarkets excepted they generally stay open until 8 or 9 pm) close at six because shop workers have the right to a personal life too.
As a Belgian citizen I only can recommend as cities to visit : 1. Gent. 2. Antwerpen. 3. Brugge. Forget about Brussel; it sucks really, Brussel is a place to hate really. You never feel safe or clean.
I think that's a very Flemish thing to dislike Brussels. I struggle with it too from time to time... Though from a tourist's point of view, Brussels does have some very nice points of interest and can actually be a great city to visit! Us Flemish also tend to forget there's another side to Belgium, you know, where the Walloon's are at... Namur, Dinant and Liège are great places to visit!!!
I think that Brussels was one of the nicest cities I've visited, maybe because I speak French and I kind of feel home because it is not different from where I am from (Geneva). It is a big student city and the night life is great ! However I have to agree, I don't really safe in Brussels, same goes with Paris, where I feel extremely safe in Amsterdam for example.
I'm going to Ghent tomorrow so I can have my own opinion of which one is better between Brussels and Ghent. I have a question, why did you put Antwerp before Brugge ?
Do the restaurants and cafes close early too?
No, they stay open really late.
MsCuberdon thanks!
As someone who lives near ghent we take the train to sint Pieters and then take a tram.
Amazing, I lived in Evergem for two years which is a suburb of Ghent, I liked Brussels, Antwerp and Brugge better. Crepes were awesome and so were the cherry filled waffles. Yes it can be boring at times
Yeah sure, but the Dampoort Station (and the whole area) is not the most visually appealing place to start your journey. St-Pieters has a much more enjoyable area (and a way prettier station with a mix of modern and vintage 1900's), easier access to the public transport (tram 1 will get you in the busiest/historical part in about ten minutes as where the busstops at Dampoort station are spread out outside of the station and has nothing going for itself) and has a lot more options for you to start your trip. Hell, even the toilets (all two of 'em) don't even work at Dampoort Station due to 'consistent vandalism'. Something you won't see (that often) in St-Pieters station. My advice; skip the whole Dampoort advice and ignore the whole watch out for rowdy Brits part (I never encountered a drunk/annoying Brit once) and have a blast. Tip; visit 'Bier Central'. It serves over 300 kinds of Belgian bottled beer. You're welcome.
Thank you so much..,Do you have any food recommendations? And ill take your advise and just walk from st pieters i mean how long can it even be anyways right
Do you have a favorite city in Belgium between Antwerp, Bruges and Gent?
In one of his other videos, he says Bruges is his favorite.
i love Gent so much ,everything so amazing and very beautiful
Brugge For Sure
@@horseplop9 I love Leuven. I visited there when I was a young girl many times. My father (British army) was stationed there during WW2 and I went to boarding school not far from Leuven. I haven't been back for a long while but hope to this year. I can't say I love Brussels but one of my best friends lives there. Bruges is beautiful and, to my shame, I have never been to Ghent. Pretty much everywhere else, including special summers on the Belgian coast.
Hate#1 is easily solved. Get off at gent sint pieters and take TRAM NR.1!!! Going straight to the center and only takes 10 minutes!!! Very easy, all tourists take it!
I love Ghent and Bruges but I disagree that Brussels isn't worth it. I think Brussels is a great city too.
Bang on with everything, what a great town!
Brad Kirby Thanks Brad!
So I live in gent and I do service so here is my opinion:
1: go of at dampoort= not a good Idea. To find the right bus is harder and I'ts basically a geto soo
2: I don't like tourist's as well and try to avoid the city when I now the hordes are incoming.
3: I don't like tourist's if you can see from mile's away thy are tourists, so no nice service for you. Be modest goddamit. We don't tip, we get paid, we work for our pay. Don't expect a lot.
4: At around 8pm the bar's and café's re-open and life returns otherwise go to the student's street's to party.
5: there is more chance that it will rain everyday than that it isn't in belgium. So sit inside or wait, or sit on the ground. Don't be picky.
6: yes, go to the top. Amazing
7: Yes, but if you see nice cozy places with young people cudling: DON'T GO AND DISTURB
8: Ok
9: Apparently
10: not the tourist's or Dutch... Don't you go creeping on student's bro
So you left one week before the Gentse Feesten? Poor guy...
Stijn Bossuyt I know! totally sucked missing it :(
Thanks man...did Brugge a while back but didn't have time for Ghent...will do this summer...so thanks for a pleasant note...agree with your 5 dislikes...same with Brugge and Brussels.
Yes u need to visit south(zuid) rodelicht lichtstraat xD
Dear Wolter, I am a Dutch student looking to study for a Master in Belgium. Which city/university in Belgium do you recommend the most for living as a student?
For students I would say Leuven.
i'm from belgium and i wouldn't say that only leuven is a good city. ghent, brussels and antwerp have some fine universities and colleges.
+Danica 3 Gent is The city of students.... ask them
@@woltersworld Wtf do you know about Ghent ? You have been there for how long ? 12 hrs or maybe 24 hrs ? And that makes you an expert ?
Please stop making stupid clips and more : save us your stupid comments....... about things you do not know....
What to do in Utrecht
I live in Ghent, its a nice city and the people are great. Bad service? You know, this is a small city, tourism is good for local economy but sometimes anoying for local life. It depends on your attitude. Try to be moddest and people most of the time wil be friendly. Make your 'Woltersworlds' but have the knowledge you're not a modest tourist. You talk About Ghent like it's some part of Disneyland. This is a ancient city with real residents, not some consumer item :-(
+Philip Gerards , as you live in Ghent, could inform me if the Gravensteen castle and Sint Baafskathedraal are still under repair? I saw them via google street view ( dated 2014) and both of them were covered for repairs.
+John P. Gravensteen is finished, The cathedral isn't but you can visit. Only the outside get's a makeover
Gravensteen indeed is beautiful again. Repairing the Sint-Baafskathedraal started in 2013 and it will be ready in 2017 or 2018. For the moment they only repairing the tower and I don't know when that will be finished. You can go inside. Greetings!
+Philip Gerards , thank you very much!
+Geralt of Cyrodiil , thanks a lot !
where do you come from?????
Least friendly in Europe ? Try Budapest, Hungary. They treat tourists like shit.
Thanks for the tips, Woltersworld.
+apeep92 you`re right
That's not true, budapest was great!
what software do you use?
Tony Hodgkinson Sony movie maker. It is not super great but relatively easy to use. I am not high-tech enough nor do I have enough money to get a better system. So hope it is OK.
Thanks great really appreciate your help
Born and raised in Ghent ✌️
7 realy, the stores stay open until 7, sometimes 8
So one of his pet hates is tourists....and he is a tourist suggesting we visit there...Oh the irony