Our properties in the Bruges area

The Bruges area is all about travelling slowly: cycling, walking and a stop at a village café along the way. The region sits so close to Bruges that you can visit the canals and the belfry in the morning and be cycling between the meadows again that same afternoon, never far from your holiday home.

Jabbeke has a surprising link to modern art: the museum of painter Constant Permeke, set up in his former house and studio, can still be visited there. Sijsele and Zedelgem are quiet bases with village squares, local bakeries and direct cycle links to both Bruges and the coast.

Anyone who prefers walking to cycling will find kilometres of waymarked trails in the woods around Oostkamp and along the avenues of the castle estates, often passing a picnic spot or a pond along the way. In summer, more than one village holds a flea market or village festival on its square, a good chance to soak up the local atmosphere without the crowds.

Every autumn, one of the villages in the region hosts a harvest festival or fair, with local produce, music and a lively market on the village square. It is a good opportunity to get to know the local community, away from the busiest tourist season.

Damme began in the 12th century as an outer harbour for Bruges and grew into a prosperous trading town, until the silting up of the Zwin brought that to an end. Today it is best known as a book town: the small streets around the Markt hold dozens of antiquarian bookshops housed in historic buildings. The statue of Till Eulenspiegel on the market square recalls the trickster from the 19th-century novel of the same name by Charles De Coster, who set the story in and around Damme.

The Damse Vaart, also known as Napoleon's canal, was dug in the early 19th century on his orders as part of a larger military canal scheme. The straight waterway, lined with a double row of pollard willows and poplars, is today one of the most photographed cycling routes in the region, with Damme as the ideal stop for a coffee or a glass of jenever.

Besides the bookshops, Damme also has an impressive 15th-century town hall and the Church of Our Lady, with its unfinished tower that can be climbed for a small fee for a view over the polders. Anyone who prefers sailing to cycling can take a boat trip along part of the canal in summer, while the towpath along the banks remains open to walkers and cyclists all year round.

Around Oostkamp and Sint-Andries lies a string of castle estates that once served as country residences for the Bruges middle classes. Tillegem Castle, with its moat and park, is now a provincial estate with play forests and walking trails. Beisbroek Castle and d'Aertrycke Castle sit within cycling distance of each other, and the abbey of Zevenkerken offers quiet beneath centuries-old trees.

Torhout, further inland, likes to be known as the capital of the Houtland, the wooded region between Bruges, Roeselare and Tielt. The cycle node network links the castles, the woods and the villages between them with ease, and anyone wanting to spend a whole day without ever taking the same route twice will find plenty of kilometres here to do it.

Among the castle estates there are also a few lesser-known spots, such as the Rijckevelde woods and the ponds around Oostkamp, home to herons and moorhens. Anyone wanting to combine several sights in one day can plan a loop starting at Tillegem Castle, running through the woods of Oostkamp to Zedelgem and back to Bruges via Sint-Andries, plenty for a full day without rushing.

For anyone who prefers to explore by car: most of the estates are also easy to reach by car, with parking at the edge of the park. Combine a morning walk at Tillegem with an afternoon in Damme, for example, for a compact introduction to the whole region in a single day.