Ghent

Currency budget Belgium

Euro, and cards work almost everywhere — but the Christmas market stalls are the exception, and a good many of them still want cash for a mug of Glühwein. Carry notes for the market and nothing else. Never change money at a station booth.

ATMs & cards

Use a bank’s own machine — Sparkasse, Volksbank, ING, BNP — rather than the Euronet ones near the markets and stations, which charge and push their own conversion. Always decline the conversion.

Decline the conversion. Draw before the market rather than at it: the independent machines cluster where the stalls are, and a good many stalls still want cash.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety all of Belgium

Very comfortable. The city is lively with students until late and the centre is well lit. The quays are unfenced in places and the cobbles beside the water are slick in the wet, which is the practical hazard rather than anything else.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa Belgium visa rules

Health & emergencies all of Belgium

Required to enter

No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.

Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

Waterzooi, a cream and vegetable stew that is Ghent’s own; Gentse neuzekes, cone-shaped raspberry sweets; stoverij cooked in beer; and a genuinely good vegetarian tradition, because the city declared a weekly meat-free day and it stuck.

Getting around

• Walking — the centre is car-free and small
• Tram — from the station into the middle, which is a twenty-five-minute walk otherwise
• Bike — flat, and the way the students get around
• Train — Brussels in thirty minutes, Bruges in twenty-five
• Airport: Brussels (BRU), an hour by train

Getting online

Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Belgium, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.

Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026

Must-see

Nearby day trips

Say a few words

Dutch

• HelloHalloHA-lo
• PleaseAlsjeblieftAL-shuh-bleeft
• Thank youDank je weldank yuh VEL
• Yes / NoJa / Neeya / nay

Practically everyone speaks excellent English and will switch the moment they hear an accent. Trying anyway is still appreciated.

Religion

Catholic by heritage, secular in practice

The churches and béguinages are among the finest in Europe and are visited rather than attended. Belgium was the second country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage, which says something about the distance travelled.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Order the beer in its own glass, which every brewery has and which arrives with it
• Say bonjour in Wallonia and goedendag in Flanders — Bruges is Flemish and the distinction is not pedantry
• Give three kisses when greeting friends, starting on the right
• Take chips from a friture with mayonnaise, which is what everybody actually does

Don't

• Do not call it French fries in front of a Belgian
• Do not speak French first in Flanders; English is the safe neutral option
• Do not order a Trappist expecting a session beer — they run to eleven per cent
• Do not cycle on the pavement or walk in a cycle lane, both of which are taken seriously