The first thing that visitors, arriving by coach at the visitors terminal, get to see is a part of the "vesten". The "vesten", the former earth rampart of Bruges, now give shape to a green walking and biking area around Bruges city center. This traffic free area breaths the right atmosphere for a medieval walk.  If you are a runner, try running the 7km circle around the old center. Walk along the canal and see all of the medieval gates that used to control the traffic in and out of Bruges. Simply stunning!

Close to the Lake of Love is the "Minnewaterpark" and the Beguinage. If not crowded with tourists, the beguinage certainly is the most quiet and peacefull place in town. Do visit it in the morning if you can. The best time to visit the Beguinage is Spring, when the daffodils are in full bloom. The entire lawn of the inner courtyard is transformed into a breathtaking sea of yellow.

Bruges has no less than 10 parks. One of them is  "Astridpark". Astridpark (called after a former Belgian queen) is only a 5 minutes walk from the Fish Market. It screams for you to stretch out on soft, thick grass and soak up the sun after a long morning or afternoon tramping through Bruges’s Renaissance-era streets. Or you can use this spot as a recreation park. Whichever your passion, when your eyes fall on Astridpark’s yellow, red and orange Dutch tulips, cool green grass, Japanese elms, and deep-set reflecting pond, you’ll discover exactly why Bruges has ten parks.

Hof Sebrechts is found down a beautiful street (Oude Zak) in very residential Bruges. This little green gem does not hide behind walls and gates, but that’s where you’ll find its quiet path, deep shade on a hot day, and flower beds filled with spring color. Hof Sebrechts looks as though at one time it was the courtyard gardens for the homes built around it. Hof Sebrechts is a quiet park, leafy and intimate, with tall trees and a winding path that circles once. Another lane leads out the back, and a small path to a children’s playground within a grove.

Almshouses Sint-Jozef and De Meulenaere, Beguinage,
Minnewaterpark on the map.

Hof Sebrechts on the map

The literary and biographical museum of one of Flanders' best known poets, Guido Gezelle (1830-1899), is located in the house in which the writer was born. (Rolweg 64, Brugge). The house, with its large and romantic garden, is located in a peaceful and typical quarter of the city.

In the outskirts of Bruges there are large communal domains offering recreational areas for nature and sports lovers. The area around Bruges is a region best described in glowing superlatives. Rows of age-old, bent over poplars cut across 'le plat pays' (the flat country). Mysterious woods jealously guard their secrets and delightful historic towns built on a human scale succeed in charming all who pass through them. The area surrounding Bruges is ideally suited to discovery by bike, on horse-back or on foot. Bruges' front garden surprises and astonishes, with its castles and abbeys, its protected village-scapes and monuments, its historic farms and mills, its green areas and nature reserves. including:

• the historic village of Damme
• the rural community village of Lissewege
• the Nature Centre and the Public Observatory of Beisbroek City Park
• the remarkable 14th-century water-castle of Tillegembos
• the former castle of the Counts of Flanders - Sint-Trudo Abbey
• Tudor City Park with its majestic castle in Tudor style
• the Children's Farm - De Zeven Torentjes 
• The monastery of Sint-Andries (Zevenkerke)