Day trip to Lille from Bruge

There are direct trains to Lille which take under an hour, so yes, doable. If you have 8 days can I also suggest a trip to Ypres and a trip to the Belgian coast?

Lavandula

There are direct trains from Ghent, but not from Bruges as far as I know. Takes around 1 hr 30 with a change in Kortrijk. I have done this a few years ago and is certainly doable.

Good to know , thank you!

Flixbus does the connection within 1 hour. Just check if the departure hours suit you.
Wil is right about the trains.
Your tools: https://www.b-europe.com/EN and https://global.flixbus.com/

Apologies, when I was checking this route on b-europe.com it autocorrected to Brussel-Zuid instead of Lille. Glad you got the right information.

Lavandula

The train has the advantage of flexibility. This is a commuter train, so your ticket is good for any departure. This means you can return when you feel like it, and do not have to worry about a bus you booked.

Furthermore, while Flixbus may appear faster, they are less reliable and not very punctual... And the train runs hourly.

Thank you all for your great advice!

Check the weekly closing day for the Palais de Beaux Arts, because it's quite a fine museum.

I've done day trips in Lille, most recently was the trip last summer but from Paris.

This time I went to Lille too but not so so much to explore the interesting Lille (I had already done previously) but to get out to a most interesting and historic small town next to Lille reachable by bus # 10 and 25 from Lille Flandres, (the terminus of several bus lines in that greater Lille area, just as in Arras) , the town of Lambersart...did that this time.... time well spent.

In 2019 I did a day trip to Lille from Bruges using Flixbus. The bus going to Lille was on time while the return bus was late, maybe 30 minutes to an hour, I can't recall exactly. Very cheap though as I booked it months ahead of time. Lille is a fun day trip from Bruges. It has a very Flemish look but it's also very culturally French. I went to the art museum there and it felt like I had the whole place to myself. For Europe it's a minor art museum but if it were located in the U.S., it would be a major museum. I spent the rest of my time there walking around, visiting shops, and eating at a cafe.

Ghent, Antwerp, and Brussels are also all good day trip ideas from Bruges, but I'm happy to hear that you are basing yourself in Bruges as it's the most beautiful and especially so at night when the day trippers have left.