Ostend by Train

Belgium’s city by the sea: beach, fish stalls, serious art, and a tram that runs the entire coast.

The short version

• Direct trains run from Bruges to Ostend several times an hour and take about fifteen minutes — timetables at belgiantrain.be.
• The Kusttram is the day’s second act: the world’s longest tram line, 67 km from De Panne to Knokke-Heist along the entire Belgian coast, with Ostend at its midpoint. A day pass is €7.50 at delijn.be.
• James Ensor lived and painted here. His house on Vlaanderenstraat is a museum, and Mu.ZEE holds the deep Ensor and Spilliaert collections.
• Eat grey shrimp croquettes at the Vistrap, the quayside stalls where the boats land their catch.
• The Albert I promenade and the beach fill everything in between.

Serious Day Tour Man saysWalk to the Vistrap first. Buy grey shrimp from a stall, eat them standing up, then decide the rest of your day. If the weather turns, put the €7.50 day pass to work and ride the coast tram instead — the whole seafront goes by the window.

Getting there

Trains leave Bruges several times an hour and take about fifteen minutes; Ostend station stands beside the marina, five minutes on foot from the promenade and the Vistrap. The Kusttram stops outside the station — buy tram tickets in the De Lijn app for €1.70 a ride, €2.50 from the driver, or €7.50 for the day pass that covers every stop on the coast.

The day

Ostend is Bruges’s opposite: a working port city that happens to own the best art on the coast. The James Ensor House keeps the painter’s rooms and his masks; Mu.ZEE, a fifteen-minute walk inland, hangs Ensor and Léon Spilliaert properly. The Vistrap stalls sell the North Sea catch each morning, and the promenade runs long in both directions. The tram turns the afternoon into a coastal sampler — De Haan, two stops east, keeps a whole quarter of belle-époque villas, and Fort Napoleon sits in the dunes at the edge of town. In high season trams come every ten minutes through the center; end to end, the line takes about two and a half hours.

When to go

July and August are beach months, crowded and warm; May, June, and September keep the light and lose the density. The art works year-round, and a bright winter day on the promenade has its own following. The tram runs every day of the year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Ostend worth a day from Bruges?
Yes, and precisely because it is nothing like Bruges: a real port city with a beach, a fish market, and two serious art stops, fifteen minutes away by train.

How does the Kusttram work?
Line 0 runs 67 km from De Panne to Knokke-Heist — the longest tram line in the world, operated by De Lijn since 1885. Tickets are €1.70 in the app, €2.50 from the driver, €7.50 for a day pass; high-season frequency is every ten minutes around Ostend.

Who was James Ensor?
Ostend’s painter of masks, skeletons, and carnival crowds, a bridge between the 19th century and modernism. His house museum and the Mu.ZEE collection are both in town.

Can you swim?
In summer, in the lifeguarded zones off the main beach. The North Sea stays cold; locals treat it as a plunge, not a soak.

What is the food order?
Grey shrimp — croquettes in the cafés or a paper cone at the Vistrap stalls. The boats land them here; nothing on the menu is more local.