Ghent has a problem that most cities would envy: travelers keep discovering it, falling in love with it, and then quietly trying to keep it to themselves.
A recent thread on r/travel, drawing nearly 400 upvotes, laid out the case plainly: Ghent has "a much better soul" than Bruges. The poster, who lives just across the border in Eindhoven and made the 90-minute drive for a proper day in the historic center, described it as "a living city rather than a curated museum." The thread quickly became a community referendum on what makes a European city worth visiting - and what heavy tourism steals from a place.
The overtourism problem in Bruges is real. Belgium's most-visited city receives several million visitors annually for a population of roughly 120,000 residents. The result is a medieval city center that increasingly functions as a stage set: beautiful, impeccably preserved, and hollowed out. Souvenir shops occupy ground floors that once held butchers and bakers. Restaurants have optimized menus for tourist throughput rather than local taste. The horse-drawn carriages that clog the Markt are picturesque, but the cobblestones they cross are increasingly uncrossed by anyone who actually lives there.
Ghent, by contrast, is Belgium's third-largest city with a functioning economy, 70,000 university students, and a population that actually uses its medieval center for daily life. The Graslei canal waterfront - where guild houses from the 12th to 17th centuries line the water in an almost improbably beautiful parade of gabled facades - has the same architectural drama as anything in Bruges. But in the evening, after the day-trippers leave, it belongs to the city.
That detail matters more than it sounds. Multiple travelers in the thread specifically called out the evening atmosphere - when the floodlights illuminate the Gravensteen castle and the canal light turns gold - as the defining Ghent experience. It is an argument for staying overnight rather than making the easy day trip from Brussels.
The original poster noted the Graslei architecture was "mind-blowing when the winter light hits it just right," and had a pointed recommendation for those planning a visit: "Don't just do a quick day trip here. Stay for the evening when the day-trippers leave and the city lights come on - it's pure magic."
For practical purposes, Ghent is genuinely affordable by Belgian standards. Budget travelers report comfortable hostel stays at €25-35/night, and the city's student population keeps restaurant prices honest. A sit-down lunch with local waterzooi - Ghent's signature chicken or fish stew - runs €12-18 at non-tourist establishments.
Getting there is straightforward. Ghent-Sint-Pieters station connects to Brussels in about 30 minutes by IC train, and to Bruges in around 25 minutes. Most visitors to Belgium see Bruges and assume they have seen the best of the country. The r/travel community, increasingly, disagrees.
