How to plan a short beach break to Ostend
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).
The seaside city of Ostend is something of a curiosity. It was heavily bombed in the Second World War, and now its architecture juxtaposes Belle Époque-era townhouses and mid-century apartment blocks. There's the occasional oddity, like the neo-classical Royal Galleries, a seafront arcade, or modernist Kursaal, Europe's largest casino. And happily, some older dwellings have survived, too.
Take the Spanish Inn, a live music bar with a gabled roof. This is one of the city's earliest buildings, last rebuilt in 1729. Within the red glow of its rear saloon, Flemish crooners perform to a crowd of locals, from young couples huddled in corners to older regulars slow-dancing.
The bar's the perfect introduction to the many faces of the city. One of its defining features is the Albert I Promenade, which runs parallel to the sandy beach, alive with bars in the summer and lined with artworks. Most attention-grabbing is Rock Strangers, a series of red, rumpled statues at the promenade's western end. From here, walk the length of the harbour arm to a human-size whelk statue. It's the best vantage point for city views, too.
Around the corner is Visserskaai, the fishermen's quarter. Seafood stalls line its quayside, selling rollmops, small shrimps and fat pink prawns. You'll also find one of the best restaurants in town, Mange Tout. The set menu changes every six weeks, but you might enjoy smooth crayfish bisque poured over asparagus and watercress, or beef tenderloin served rare alongside artichoke puree.
Another must is the 'petite bouillabaisse' with croutons and rouille (a sauce with garlic, saffron and cayenne pepper) at the long-standing Bistro Mathilda. Its location is glorious — directly opposite central Leopold Park, with a lake for a post-meal circuit. For a more contemporary take on Belgian cuisine, try Paroles Paroles. It's the first restaurant to open in the new Sky District, right next to the train station, just past the rattling masts of the marina.
To leave the crowds behind, take the free ferry from Visserskaai to Oosteroever, a district across the harbour. Walk over the rickety lock gate bridges to the polygonal Fort Napoleon, built in the sand dunes during the Napoleonic era to fight off British attacks. It never saw action, but the audioguide still relates interesting human stories, including how soldiers here dealt with loneliness. Back in town, tour the Mercator, a Belgian ship from 1932.
Much is made of the city's association with 19th-century painter James Ensor, a key figure in Belgian modernism. He's celebrated at Mu.ZEE, the only museum documenting Belgian art from 1880 to the present day. At James Ensor House, you can tour the building where he lived.
Outdoors, The Crystal Ship, a city-wide collection of giant murals, has turned Ostend into an open-air gallery. Download the app for three trails; the City Centre one is an easy ramble across the shopping hub of Kapellestraat and past outdoor markets and artisanal shops. Stop off at Bakerie Decock for pastries like the Ostendaise, with a chocolate mousse and fresh fruit cremeux. You'll also see the neo-gothic church of Sint-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk.
Round the day off with a drink. If it's still light, the Parisian-style brasserie at Hotel Du Parc, opposite Leopold Park, is a popular daytime haunt; otherwise, sip local gin at the nearby CultuurCafé. For a bigger night out, Langestraat is the key street, perhaps after a preliminary beer in the charming, art deco-style Den Artiest.
An unmissable stop, Lafayette is a bar with a soundtrack of jazz and soul. There's a black-and-white photo of Marvin Gaye, a nod to the legend's 18-month residence in Ostend, where he wrote the hit Sexual Healing. For a two-hour walk of his haunts, download the self-guided Midnight Love Tour. It's named after the album on which the song featured, and it's all the more romantic after dark.
Published in the April 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
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Photograph by Marco Argüello 'When I was growing up, many of the men on the island were potters,' says Maro, owner of To Maro boutique apartments. 'That left the women to farm the land and the children at home to prepare dinner. That's how I learned to cook revithada myself, from the age of seven". Photograph by Marco Argüello Revithada, Chios Thanks to its rich clay deposits, Sifnos is known as an island of ceramicists. Clay pots have been used to cook with for centuries resulting in dishes native to this wind-battered Cycladic isle, unique to the vessel in which they're slow-baked. None is more Sifnian than revithada — a baked chickpea stew traditionally served on Sundays and made in a skepastaria, the small clay bowl dedicated to its cooking. Left in a wood-burning oven overnight, the ultra-soft chickpeas are infused with lemon and bay leaves, and these few ingredients achieve a perfectly comforting dish that sings with the zing of local citrus. 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Set almost on the water, this favoured local spot has its own vegetable garden, which provides most of its organic produce. Where to stay: To Maro has apartments from €45 (£38), room only. Verina Hotel Sifnos offers the opportunity to try your hand at the potter's wheel. The hotel organises classes in one of Sifnos's oldest clay pottery studios, alongside revithada cooking workshops. Doubles from €253 (£212) per night, B&B. Bougatsa, Thessaloniki Philippos Bantis is one of Thessaloniki's few remaining bougatsa-makers. Take a short stroll from the northern Greek city's crumbling Byzantine fortifications, and you'll find him working at hole-in-the-wall Bougatsa Bantis, which has been supplying the breakfast staple for the best part of a century. The crisp phyllo pie filled with vanilla-spiked semolina custard, says Philippos, arrived with Cappadocian migrants in the population exchanges of the 1920s. 'My grandfather said they were always made in a wood-fired oven,' he says. 'The pie of the poor people, in Byzantine times, women made it at home for their husbands to take to work — something you don't see any more.' There are probably only a handful of young bougatsa-makers these days, according to Philippos. 'To make a decent bougatsa you need to put in the time. It takes hours to make but doesn't have a shelf life of more than a day, so I suppose it's not the most cost-effective food item. The skill needed to make the phyllo exceptionally thin takes years or practice.' A good bougatsa has layers thin as tracing paper. 'Traditional 'sketi' bougatsa ('plain') have no semolina in the dough and the phyllo is so thin, crisp and full of butter,' says Philippos. 'By far the most delicious in my opinion. You have to eat it hot out of the oven and always with a sprinkling of cinnamon and icing sugar.' Where to try it: Bougatsa Bantis, at Panagias Faneromenis 33, Thessaloniki. Where to stay: Stately boutique hotel On Residence has double rooms from €157 (£131) per night, including breakfasts featuring hand-made sweet and savoury pastries, northern Greek cheeses and locally sourced seasonal produce. Published in Issue 28 (summer 2025) of Food by National Geographic Traveller (UK). To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
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