London to Bruges (First Trip Solo)

If it were me, I would stay in London and maybe do one day trip from London. Plenty of day trips to choose from, see the RS guide book, examples: Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Windsor Castle, Hampton Court Palace, to name a few. I would get the RS London guide book, look at the free YouTube videos on London, look at the RS scrapbooks on this web site and figure out what you want to see and do in London. There is so much to see and do you will not see it all. I would plan another trip to Bruges and Ghent and maybe Amsterdam for 8 or 9 days for another time. You must take into consideration taking the Eurostar from London to Bruges which will take a while and cost ( not sure) about $250.00 and it stops in Brussels then take a train to Bruges. Time and money just for 2days.

Have a great time.

I agree. There is enough to do in London and around to fill your eight days, and the €200 for transport alone to Brugge can find much better uses.

Gary, I'd save Bruges for another trip as you have so little time. You'd spend 1/2 a day getting there and then have to turn around and spend 1/2 a day getting back to London, if your flight home is from there. London is also simply packed with things to see and do!

Belgium is lovely - we enjoyed it (and the beer!) very much - and it's an easy one to travel around so I'd plan a next trip that includes Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp as well. You could also easily combine it with Paris, if you wish (but take more than 8 days!)

I would stay in London. there's plenty to do around there: London Eye, Shakespeare's Globe, and "Harrid's" are the first few things that come to mind.

£39 or £36 each leg per person on the 13th of November, back on the 14th. Total of £144 - what's that in US$? About $187, or $93 each, return. Isn't your birthday worth that? I'd say go. It is different to England, very, yet so much fun and pretty beautiful. It would be worth adding an experience, and you could try direct comparisons between the British beers and ales, and Belgian ones. See if you can guess which beer goes in which glass - a different glass for every Belgian beer.

Gary - there are as many travel philosophies and agendas as there are travelers, and if there's a priority on your agenda, then sometimes you need to just go there. While there's great beer and ales available throughout Britain, too, Belgium is understandably a top beer destination. And while you could easily fill 8 days (or more) just in London, it will be your birthday, after all, so maybe your desires deserve consideration.

Have you found any super-cheap flights to/from Belgium that might provide the time and cost savings to justify a side-trip to Bruges? Is Bruges the only place you'd be going, not spending any time in Brussels, Ghent , etc? It dosn't sound like you're planning on seeing 20 places in 8 days, so squeezing in Bruges could work this trip . . . and then on your second or third trip (or 12th, or 15th), settle in to a place for 3 whole weeks and spend your whole time in that single location. Hope you and Rebecca have a great trip either way, and Happy Birthday, in advance!

Agreed. Get a copyof the Good Beer and Good Pub guides and explore some English beer.

There are so many fantastic British beers around, small breweries are constantly starting up, with an equally impressive number of craft beer pubs around, particularly in London, that makes the UK a perfect destination for beer lovers. Personally I'm not a great fan of Belgian beer and I find the innovation and experimentation of new British (and American) brewers helps to produce better beer.

As a beer lover you will be spoilt for choice in London and many 'craft beer' pubs also stock a good range of Belgian beers. SO much so that with only 8 days available there really is no reason to visit Bruges.

Bruges and Belgian beer! Maybe we were separated at birth? Lol maybe not.

I love Belgium and have had many hundreds of their wonderful beers. We used to drive a lot to Belgium, and fill the car with many bottles from Carrefour. Not so much now as i can order Belgian beers direct quite cheaply and Tunnel problems, car getting old, etc etc.

I like Bruges, but it is very touristy. I've also visited Tournay, Ghent and Kortrijk... Which were all lovely and a bit more Belgian imho.

You can get Belgian beer in London, but its not always cheap.

Most places sell Duvel and Leffe but that's low end stuff. Then you have stuff like Delirium Tremens sold by some M&S and Westmalle and Karmeleit Triple sold by Waitrose. All around £2-3 a bottle.

Then you have Utobeer in Borough Market with many more of the unknown (in the UK by most anyway) beers, going up to 11-13% alc. (stronger the better and nothing like UK 'strong' beers like Special Brew or Tennants Super) but the price ramps up dramatically to £4-5 a bottle.

I'm fiercely British and would defend our glorious country to the end... God save the Queen! But much as it hurts me to admit... The Belgians make better beer than we do.

That said, we do still make good beer and 'craft beer' is becoming far more widespread now. Little companies making small batch local beer, sticking it in usually simply labelled bottles and selling it locally for a sensible price. If you decide to stay in London... You could experiment with those... A dozen mixed bottles in a coolbag, a rug, and some party food from M&S... Find a nice day and a quiet spot in one of the Royal Parks or on Primrose Hill and settle down for a few hours people watching. Lovely. Drinking in parks is fine here.

*** EDIT: Apologies, it has just registered what time of year you are going, and whilst nice weather in Nov isn't unheard of, planning a picnic may not be wise :o) ***

You could also consider a Brewery tour... Meantime Brewery in Greenwich or Fullers Brewery in Chiswick... Both easy to get to.

Have a great time whatever you decide.

I also would find a pretty place to go in England, like Bath or Devon or the Cotswolds and so on. Bruges is a very popular destination, especially for Brits. I'm not sure if that's because "they" like beer, or if it's because there used to (maybe still is) a ferry to the port near Bruges, and you can drink on the ferry too - assuming you don't get seasick in the English Channel.

It's not that hard to make the train trip, and it isn't that expensive bought three months in advance. You'd buy an "Any Belgian Station" ticket from Eurostar, and change in Brussels Midi/Zuid station to the frequent local, unreserved train to Bruges, about a total of four hours each way. I wouldn't buy an expensive last-minute ticket. There are immigration formalities in London and in Brussels on the return, for which you have to allow at least 45 minutes in (possible) line.

I think there are a lot of pretty, romantic places in England, and there certainly is plenty of beer (and cider) that you can't really get in the U.S.A. There is no reason to go all the way to Bruges for beer, since they make good beer all over Belgium. People go to Bruges for the pretty medieval town center (which is surrounded by a postwar, modern city.) You really have not made a compelling case for the trip, because the only personal interest you've mentioned is beer!

I have never slept in Bruges, but it can't be one of the cheaper cities in Belgium. (I made a daytrip from Antwerp on two occasions.)

I have found that hotels in Brugge can be quite expensive, but there is a substantial inventory of B&B rooms, many very nice with yummy brekkie and decent locations. I've been careful with them and never disappointed. Several were in Rick's books but I don't know if that is still the case.

They have been reasonably priced, always within my overnight budget.

This is too complicated and expensive as an add-on to a short London stay.

As an alternative, have a day trip to Burton-on-Trent. Why? Because it's the home of brewing museum http://www.nationalbrewerycentre.co.uk/ Fastest journey is around 2 hours from London Euston station (change trains at Tamworth). Buy train tickets from https://www.londonmidland.com/ 2-3 months in Advance and they will be from £9 each way (these are not flexible, you must use the selected trains). Opt to collect the tickets before departure from the ticket machines at Euston (you must have the same credit card used for purchase). There is an alternative route from London St Pancras changing at Derby which takes slightly longer but costs a lot more.

When you have time to visit Belgium properly, try Gent. It's close to Brugge but less overrun with tourists so cheaper - and it has a rather interesting pub http://www.waterhuisaandebierkant.be/waterhuis-prijslijst/?L=3

We've booked for London (Nov 10-18) and would like to plan a 2 day trip to Bruges to celebrate my birthday (love beer).
My question is, being newbies, should we stay away from places like Bruges, for now, and just stick with England since we only have 8 days?

There are obviously many ways of approaching this type of question, and you've gotten a lot of interesting responses so far. My two cents is that if celebrating your birthday in Bruges is your dream then go for it! BUT…2 days in Bruges does not leave 6 days in London, because the travel takes a bite out of that time (as has been pointed out already on this thread).

If you can be happy with about 4 days' worth of useable time in London and (at most) a day and a half's worth of useable time in Bruges, then do both. Even 8 days isn't enough to see everything in London, so just adjust your expectations accordingly. My first trip to London, I had 3.5 days of useable sightseeing time but I planned it well and had a blast.

Whatever you decide I hope you have a wonderful time!