We have a river cruise ending in Antwerp on 17 April 2025, which will have been to Ghent and Antwerp. Our plan is to spend about four days in Bruges (including Flanders fields) and three in Brussels. Easter weekend is April 18-20. Will crowds be especially large in Bruges that weekend? Would it be best to spend the weekend in Brussels and then go to Bruges? Overall, for convenience of travel plans, it would be somewhat more convenient to end our trip in Brussels. Any thoughts?
Posted by
San Diego, California
5595 posts
We were in Bruges on a beautiful weekend this past April, 2024. What we noticed was crowds between 12:00 and 3:30pm. Then, like a giant vacuum, hoards of folks were all being drawn out of town, and all was peaceful. Obviously this was not Easter, but midday will be worse with the day trippers. You could do a bike ride then, or a brewery tour.
In my experience, in Europe, the entire week before and after Easter brings in the crowds, it's just not the Easter weekend, so you probably can't avoid them in either place.
Have a great trip. Safe travels!
Posted by
908 posts
We too were in Belgium, and the Netherlands including a stay in Bruges was in April 2024. Beautiful, and busy. But plenty enjoyable, and we got lucky with spectacular weather. The only place that was really very crowded was at the quaint little St Bonifacius Bridge. The first time we encountered it we pretty much had it to ourselves. The second time we crossed paths it was very, very crowded; and a young man was trying to propose to his girlfriend; and they were trying to capture a picture after. Feeling motherly and protective as my own son had just recently proposed; I actually stopped the pedestrians on one side and made my husband stop them on the other side for just a few seconds so they could capture the moment! Nobody got mad at me! Who doesn't love love?
April is a busy time to travel. I would definitely go to Bruges. It's lovely.
Posted by
IJzendijke, The Netherlands
2084 posts
Expect Bruges will be more crowded than it already is during Eastern weekend, especially if the weather is good. Know that Easter Monday, so coming April 21 is also an official holiday and the Belgians like going out en masse to the coast or, no surprise their touristy hotspots like Bruges. How inconvenient is that for you is up to you, but as already noticed Bruges calms down in the late afternoon till the early morning. To avoid the peak of the crowds you can do the daytrips to other places and enjoy Bruges in the evening and the morning in case you want to stay there.
In case you have to catch a flight from Brussels Airport / Zaventem in the morning, it's best to stay as close as possible to the airport the last night. Public transport in Belgium can has sometimes reliability issues.