Ostend isn’t beautiful.
There, I’ve said it.
My first trip to Ostend, Belgium, was in 2020, and it wasn’t even where I had planned to be. Ostend was our pandemic-era substitute for a backpacking trip through Belize, which was perhaps an unfair comparison from the start.
Love at first sight it wasn’t.
There are handsome old buildings, certainly, but much of the seafront is dominated by the kind of concrete architecture that makes you wonder who looked at the North Sea and decided what it really needed was another apartment block.
And yet I’ve been back. More than once.
Because Ostend has something I increasingly appreciate when I travel: it is wonderfully easy.
Sometimes you just need the sea
You step off the train and you’re almost there. No rental car, no complicated transfer, no elaborate itinerary. There is a huge beach, a proper North Sea horizon and enough wind to remind you that this definitely isn’t the Mediterranean.
In summer, beach bars appear along the shore, with drinks, music and places to sit with your feet in the sand. They are relaxed rather than glamorous, which suits Ostend perfectly.
Nobody seems particularly interested in turning the Belgian coast into Ibiza.
And that’s a good thing.
Sometimes a weekend by the sea doesn’t need to be aspirational. It just needs to feel like you’ve gone away.
Come hungry
If the architecture didn’t win me over immediately, the food did a considerably better job.
Ostend is a very good place to eat seafood. North Sea fish, grey shrimps, mussels and shrimp croquettes are exactly the sort of food I want when I can see the sea from the table.
One place I have returned to is Toi, Moi et la Mer on the promenade. It is a fish restaurant overlooking the beach, and the combination of seafood and sea view is really all the persuasion I need.
And then there are chips.
For those, I have a particular weakness for Frituur Franky, where the chips are still cut fresh in the traditional way.
Fine dining has its place. So does a paper parcel of Belgian fries.
Don’t try to turn it into somewhere else
I think this is where I went wrong with Ostend the first time.
I was looking at what it wasn’t.
It isn’t Deauville. It isn’t the Côte d’Azur. And despite the beach bars, it definitely isn’t Ibiza.
Ostend doesn’t particularly benefit from comparison.
Once I stopped expecting it to be prettier, I started noticing what it does have: an enormous beach, very good seafood, Belgian beer, a slightly faded seaside atmosphere and the refreshing absence of any pressure to have the most fabulous weekend of your life.
You can have breakfast somewhere lovely, walk for miles along the beach, stop for a beer, eat extremely well and do almost everything on foot.
That’s quite a lot for a place I initially dismissed.
So, is Ostend worth the trip?
Yes – but perhaps not for the reasons you’d expect.
I wouldn’t cross Europe simply to see Ostend. But for a few days of sea air, good food and very little effort, I keep finding reasons to go back.
There are destinations that seduce you immediately. And there are places that quietly grow on you until, somewhat inconveniently, you realise you’ve become rather fond of them.
Ostend and I are apparently in a long-term relationship now.
