Bruges hoards the day-trippers; Ghent, twenty minutes away, keeps the actual nightlife. A vast student population fuels the Overpoort strip's cheerful chaos, but the connoisseur's evening happens along the floodlit Graslei quay and in the medieval lanes behind it — 't Dreupelkot pours over two hundred jenevers, and Hot Club Gent hides world-class jazz down an alleyway. Thursday is the big student night, term-time only. Finish with cuberdon sweets or a cone of frites, as tradition demands.
Featured in Ten European party spots beyond the obvious · Nightlife