These are unusual times, and the state of affairs can change quickly. Please check the latest travel guidance before making your journey, and note that our writers visited these hotels prior to the coronavirus pandemic
One of the best bits of advice about visiting Bruges is to stay a few nights. It’s a tiny historic city, and such are its immense charms that it now receives about eight million visitors a year. Most of these are daytrippers, so by night the city quietens down and relaxes. What better way to enjoy this than to luxuriate in one of its delightful, pampering boutique hotels where you can expect personal service and attention on a scale entirely in tune with the city itself. Here’s our pick of the best boutique hotels in Bruges, for historic interiors and uniquely decorated rooms, canal views, and cosy bars and restaurants.
A privately-owned four-star hotel with the rare distinction in Bruges of having its own restaurant. The Hotel Heritage is a member of the French-based Relais & Châteaux group, and has all the virtues this affiliation would suggest: luxury, history, quality of service, and good cooking. Each of the rooms is different, but all are decorated in broadly 18th- and 19th-century styles, with chandeliers, elegant wallpapers and fabrics, and antique-modern furnishings. The spa in the 14th-century cellar has a sauna, steam room and a gym. There is also a small rooftop sundeck.
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There is no other place to stay in Bruges quite like this: a small luxury boutique hotel in a neoclassical mansion with large terrace overlooking a pretty stretch of canal. Family-owned and managed, and designed with exquisite attention to detail; at once gloriously palatial yet intimate. The ample public rooms are decorated in elegant and comfortable country-house style, enlivened by striking contemporary art and fabrics. There are just 16 rooms, all beautifully presented, with super-comfy beds, marbled bathrooms and whirlpool baths.
Romantic, sumptuous and historic. There is a theatrical opulence to the entrance, with a lobby swathed in fabric, but this soon melts into the old-world grandeur of the wood-panelled breakfast/tea room and adjacent lounge. Elsewhere the style could be called English Country Manor: light, floral and agreeably rambling (the building started life as a 15th-century convent). No two rooms are the same, and each is individually decorated, with special emphasis on fine English and French fabrics. The service is welcoming and friendly, with an attention to detail that goes beyond pure efficiency.
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The Pand
Bruges, Belgium
The Pand is a well-established boutique hotel of great comfort and charm. Its four-storey building was originally an 18th-century maison de maître (grand townhouse). The intimate interior is redolent of the past, with a pine-panelled library/lounge with open fire, antiques and curios, and old wooden floors – and an overall décor threaded with a comfortable, classic elegance. The hotel prides itself on its high standards of personal service, which is evident from the moment you enter. At the back of the hotel there is small courtyard garden with a fountain.
Hotel de Tuilerieen occupies a stately, ochre-coloured building that dates back to the 15th century, and is equally elegant within, from the marble-columned, chandeliered breakfast room at the front to the pretty little garden terrace at the rear. There’s also a cosy, dimly-lit bar, panelled reading room, swimming pool and steam room. Décor differs in each of the rooms, from white minimalist and contemporary with wooden floors and a few simple furnishings, to more traditional hues ranging from dark red to blue-grey, with four-poster beds, fireplaces, dark wood, exposed brickwork, full-length windows, and lots of chandeliers.
This building dates from 1930; designed in the style of a historical mansion, the medieval history of the site is evoked in the lobby, with its grand chimneypiece, oak panelling and antiques. More generally, the décor recalls an elegant, well-appointed home, with agreeably ad hoc architecture. Each room is different, but all are smartly presented in a modern style with antique touches. Colour schemes are cleanly elegant, in black, grey, white, brown and beige. Strongly patterned wallpapers and carpets also feature.
Once a grand old private house, and a school in the 19th century, this four-star hotel has an atmospheric, historic grandeur, which is carried through into many of the attractively refurbished rooms. For its central position, generous breakfast and old-world charms, it provides a memorable place to stay. The main house was built in 1634 and retains its step-gabled, red-brick frontage. Inside there are exposed beams, antique furniture, marble mantelpieces, old prints and paintings. A second building, sharing a large courtyard garden, is more modern, with Art Deco touches.
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The ‘Cruyce’ is the cross in the emblem of the Dukes of Burgundy, who made Bruges their capital in 1429 and became a byword for opulence – an apt reference for this luxury boutique hotel with just 16 rooms in the heart of historic Bruges. Behind the medieval façades are sumptuous but modern rooms, managed with refined professionalism. What’s more, it overlooks one of the most famous scenic viewpoints of Bruges, on a bend in the principal canal.
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This was the former site of a brewery, the Brouwerij De Sleutels, and a striking feature of the entrance lobby is the elaborate, 19th-century wrought-iron staircase. It’s a historic building, but refurbished with design flair to a pared-down, modern look, with a hint of nostalgia in the large black-and-white photographs. Eva Vandewalle and her brother pride themselves on their personal, flexible and inclusive style of management: this is a place where guests are encouraged to meet and mingle.
