One day in Ghent: a self-guided walking itinerary

The altarpiece, the belfry and the town hall's two faces

Start at Sint-Baafskathedraal when the doors open at 8:30, before the square fills. The Ghent Altarpiece has its own visitor centre beside the cathedral: take the first time slot at 10:00, one of two moments in the day when the retable is shown both open and closed, and spend the visit with Van Eyck in augmented reality. Then climb the Belfort, up from the tower's old prison to the belvedere over the city. Finish on Hoogpoort and Botermarkt, where the Stadhuis wears a late Gothic face on one street and a Renaissance one on the other, and cut through Werregarenstraat, the alley the city leaves to graffiti writers.

• HoursSint-Baafskathedraal is open Monday to Saturday from 8:30 to 17:30, and on Sunday from 10:00 to 17:30 with the 11:00 Eucharist; the Lam Gods entrance closes at 17:00.SourceSint-Baafs Kathedraal Gent
• TicketsThe one-hour augmented-reality visit with the Ghent Altarpiece is €16, or €8 for children under 12; the visitor centre opens at 10:00 Monday to Saturday and at 13:00 on Sunday, and the last time slot is 16:00.SourceSint-Baafs Kathedraal Gent: tickets·Sint-Baafs Kathedraal Gent: openingsuren
• AccessThe Belfort climb ends at the belvedere, with a lift only from the first floor and stairs above and below it; the tower is not accessible for wheelchair users.SourceVisit Gent: Belfort·Historische Huizen Gent: Belfort bezoek
• TimeThe city carillonneur plays on Sundays from 11:00 to 12:00, with extra carillon concerts on Saturdays in July and August.SourceVisit Gent: Belfort

St Nicholas, the castle and the Patershol lanes

Sint-Niklaaskerk comes first, the Scheldt Gothic church built in Tournai blue stone whose crossing tower lights the transept, paid for by the grain staple. Cross to Sint-Michielsbrug for the single view where the cathedral, the belfry and this church stand in one row, then follow the water to Graslei en Korenlei, the medieval grain harbour where guild houses face each other across the Leie. Groentenmarkt is next for mustard, still scooped from the barrel; the Groot Vleeshuis there is closed for restoration until about the end of March 2027. The Gravensteen takes the middle of the block, and after it come Kunsthal Gent, whose exhibitions open at weekends, and the Patershol, where the lanes off Plotersgracht have restaurants in almost every doorway for a late lunch.

• HoursThe Gravensteen is open daily from 10:00 to 18:00 with last tickets at the cash desk at 16:40, and it closes only on 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January.SourceHistorische Huizen Gent: info en tarieven
• TicketsGravensteen entry is €15 for adults with the audio guide included, €10.50 for Ghent residents and UiTPAS holders, €7.50 for ages 19 to 25, and €3 for ages 13 to 18; children up to 12 go free. Booking online is recommended, and CityCard holders go straight to the gate.SourceHistorische Huizen Gent: Gravensteen tarieven
• CostKunsthal Gent's exhibitions are pay what you can, and they open at weekends only.SourceVisit Gent: Kunsthal Gent

EatLunch in the Patershol: the lanes off Plotersgracht have restaurants in almost every doorway.

De Krook, the tower of books and one museum stretch

• 1De Krook3 min
• 2Vooruit6 min
• 3Boekentoren5 min
• 4Sint-Pietersabdij8 min
• 5MSK3 min
• 6S.M.A.K.4 min
• 7Citadelpark

Spend the afternoon in the Kunstenkwartier, south of the centre. Start at De Krook, the city library on the Scheldt bend that is free to walk into, and pass the Vooruit, the socialist movement's festival hall that now runs as the arts centre VIERNULVIER. Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat climbs to the Boekentoren, Henry van de Velde's tower of books, where the public areas are open to walk-in visitors on weekdays and the belvedere goes with a guide. Down on Sint-Pietersplein, the Sint-Pietersabdij charges nothing for its ground floor, cloister walk and garden with its vineyard. The MSK and the S.M.A.K. face each other across the park and both shut at 17:30 on ordinary weekdays, so keep the first stops short and reach your museum by about 16:30: the MSK for six hundred years of art and the altarpiece restorers at work, or the S.M.A.K. for contemporary art. Finish under the trees in Citadelpark.

• HoursThe MSK opens Tuesday to Friday from 9:30 to 17:30 and at weekends from 10:00 to 18:00; it is closed on Mondays, and from September to June it stays open until 22:00 on the first Thursday of the month for Late Donderdag.SourceMSK Gent: praktische info
• CostMSK admission is €15, or €3 for ages 0 to 18 and for Gent CityCard holders.SourceMSK Gent: tarieven
• TicketsS.M.A.K. entry is €17, or €14.50 with a teachers' or Sodigent card; on ordinary weekdays it opens 9:30 to 17:30, at weekends and school holidays 10:00 to 18:00, it closes on Mondays, and it is free with a Gent CityCard.SourceS.M.A.K.: plan je bezoek
• AccessThe ground floor of Sint-Pietersabdij, the cloister walks and the garden with its vineyard are free to visit.SourceVisit Gent: Sint-Pietersabdij
• BookThe Boekentoren's public areas are open for self-guided visits on weekdays, while the belvedere and its lookout over the city are visited only with a guide; the tower is 64 metres of working university library.SourceVisit Gent: Boekentoren·Boekentoren: free visit

EatCoffee at Wilde Weide, the museum café at S.M.A.K., or at the café inside De Krook if the library stop runs long.

Dinner in the old market quarter

Head back north into the middle for the evening, into the streets around the Vrijdagmarkt. Past the Huis van Alijn, the daily-life museum in a 14th-century almshouse on the water, the Vrijdagmarkt has been a market since 1199 and carries a bronze Artevelde pointing at England; the market itself now runs on Fridays, after the Saturday market ended in September 2026. Dinner around the square, and finish at Sint-Jacobskerk, where the Gentse Feesten were revived at a café table in 1969; the ground around Bij Sint-Jacobs and café Trefpunt has been the party's living room ever since.

• Sint-Jacobskerk is a Romanesque church raised a century after an 11th-century wooden church on the site, with a scallop shell set in a floor stone at the main entrance, the mark of the pilgrim road to Santiago, and the square around it is the heart of the Gentse Feesten.SourceVisit Gent: Sint-Jacobskerk
• EatCafé Trefpunt, on Bij Sint-Jacobs, is the square's anchor during the Gentse Feesten.SourceVisit Gent: Sint-Jacobskerk

EatDinner around Vrijdagmarkt, then a nightcap at café Trefpunt on Bij Sint-Jacobs.