Day trip from Bruges to Coastal tram

You can get the train from Bruges to Ostend, Blankenburge, Zeebrugge, or Knokke, and pick up the tram there. You can get a De Lijn day ticket which gives unlimited travel on the coastal tram and also on buses in Dutch-speaking Belgium.

Ostend is nice, but other bits are a bit more modern after getting the **** blown out of them during WWI and again in WWII. A personal favourite sight is the Paul Delvaux museum in St Idesbald - the former home of a Belgian surrealist artist who was obsessed with trams and nude women - often in the same paintings.

Yes, as Philip says best is to buy a day ticket for unlimited travel with De Lijn (trams and buses, but not the train) and costs €6 per person. The driver of the tram sells and also validates them, if not use the yellow boxes inside at each entrance of the tram. With the train (some 15 min.) you can travel to Blankenberge and take the coasttram to De Haan, halfway to Oostende. Going further south-west to Middelkerke the tram runs along the beach and there is a stop close to Atlantikwall museum Raversyde.

If you like surrealist paintings the museum of Paul Delvaux is indeed worth a visit. I did this a few years ago, it is not big but interesting and outside the summer season a quiet place to enjoy the paintings. From Sint-Idesbald you can take the bus (some 10 min.) to nearby Veurne, lovely town centre there. For going back to Brugge a train ride from Veurne needs about an hour.

In Oostende you can visit also the house of artist James Ensor, well known for his Symbolism. You must be a bit lucky as the museum has limited opening hours.

It's a bit out of the center (by coastal tram!), but you can also visit the Ensor family's church, which has his tomb beside it, Our Lady of the Dunes. There is a modern art museum with a few minor Ensors in Ostend, which has longer hours than the house. IMHO, the house is a must-see disappointment, since it has so many reproductions of art and so little actual art. It's the real place, but a rather synthetic experience.

I had hoped to see the bronze statue, at a piano, of a famous past (American) resident, Marvin Gaye, in the Ostend Casino. But the Casino tends to be open only at night.

Did you give the month of your visit? The coast is jammed in the summer and desolate in the winter. Local trains in Belgium are frequent, affordable, and unreserved. No planning is needed, especially if you are starting in Brugge. Some students use them for school, so they are especially busy at school dismissal hours, before the regular rush hour.

Give De Haan a look. It's a beautiful little coastal town. A nice little promenade runs along the beach, lined with restaurants, ice cream parlours and such.

We're doing the coastal tram from our base in Bruges April 6. Any preference north to south or vice versa?

Thanks,
P.

I'd take the train from Bruges to Blankenberge--they are fast and run frequently. The coastal tram stops right in front of the train station, and there's a transit office right there where you can buy your day pass. I'd probably head south towards Ostend, but that's because I'm a World War II buff and would like to see the Atlantic Wall Museum.

I'd take the train from Bruges to Blankenberge--they are fast and run frequently. The coastal tram stops right in front of the train station, and there's a transit office right there where you can buy your day pass. I'd probably head south towards Ostend, but that's because I'm a World War II buff and would like to see the Atlantic Wall Museum.

Have no high expectations about the beauty of the Belgian coast, most places look with all those appartment blocks a bit the same. There are a few exceptions like De Haan.

Knokke is posh and nice but no guarantee it will impress you, a good place if you like (fashion) shopping along the Kustlaan and Zeedijk (beach). There are hourly trains from Brugge, you have to take the bus from the station to the Albertplein. If you like bird watching you can take the bus to Het Zwin, a former sea inlet.
Skip industrial seaport Zeebrugge unless you like to see the old Russian submarine and the lightship there. Blankenberge is more a working class seaside resort with the only pier on the coast and a sea aquarium which receives mixed reviews.

Oostende, also a whole lot of appartment blocks. Worth a visit is the sailing and former training ship Mercator and the Atlantikwall museum. There are also remains north of the harbour (free ferry) just visible from the fence around it but not accessible, Fort Napoleon is open to public but worth only if you have the interest for this kind of things. Best part to walk around to my opinion is between the racecourse and the casino along the beach. There are a lot of seafood restaurants in Oostende.

Go only to the Belgian coast if the weather is fine and the best time is shoulder season, not too crowded but enough people to bring some atmosphere. Another place worth a visit is Lissewege halfway between Brugge and Zeebrugge, there is a train and bus stop. Worth a visit too is the big medieval barn of former abbey Ter Doest, it has a bus stop too but a bit in the middle of nowhere. You can take the train or bus from Lissewege to Zeebrugge for catching the coasttram.

This in addition to my other post.

Thanks Wil. Very helpful advice.

Peter

Darla, I did this daytrip while in Bruges in July 2014. A very good day. Took the train to Knokkeheist...walked along the boardwalk, then got on the tram for a short bit and had lunch in Blankenberge at the restaurant at the VERY end of a pier sticking out in the North Sea. Then went further west and visited the Atlantik Wall, a German outpost in WW1 and 2. Then I came east a bit and had dinner in De Haan before returning. Nice day.