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B as in buy, long oo as in food, zh as in pleasure.

THANKS, WIKIPEDIA, YOU TART!

Lots of lace shops. Lots of chocolate shops. Avoid these.

Also: avoid the two main streets full of coach loads of elderly/indie british tourists.

If you do that, you'll have a good time. Drink Belgian beer, obviously.

Go on the Eurostar - you get free onward train travel from Brussels to anywhere else in Belgium.

It's a pleasant place to have lunch and go for a wander but I'm not sure how much there is to hold your attention for much longer, unless you're really into lace.

Good place to eat waffles and buy chocolate.

good beer and food too. I proposed there.

Cheers

It's the perfect size to walk around in a couple of days. Lots of really nice bars and pubs to drink Belgian beer in (de garre is a great example) and just generally a really pretty place. I've been twice and not been bored either time.

Dunno about hotel prices but hostels are nice and cheap. Snuffle is good and has a very cheap bar. Also stayed in a b&b but buggered if I can remember what its called.

...altho factored in half a day in Brussels on the journey back. A couple of days in Bruges is plenty to see most of the place on foot - if you watch In Bruges before you leave you should be able to spot pretty much every location.

We stayed on a converted barge which was pretty nice - think it is called De Barge Hotel.

Bruges Beertje has the best range of beer anywhere I have ever been ever. The nearby De Hobbit is also good for a booze.

isn't it one of the standard places people go to and get rinsed because they can't be arsed using their imagination...like, say, Amsterdam?

you could find somewhere as nice and half the price, easily.

It's great. Went for NYE last year. Can't remember what any of the places I went to were called. Top tips.

I'll edit out all the crap and post it here...

everything was closed in the town near where I was staying (Bornham) so went on long day trip to bruges, there was a festival
It was very very pretty (but somehow a little sterile compared with the beauty of ghent - maybe too many tourists)
All me and my mate/colleague had to consume all day long was bruges tripel (recommended) and orange peel and cherries that had been dipped in dark chocolate ( well that and the snack mix that you get with beer in belgium.....that is something that is much more civilised about belgium)

Go along the canals on a boat, take pictures, drink beer get drunk, eat chocolate dipped cherries when you are drunk so the cherry blood dribbles down your chin.

And raise a beer glass and toast my mate Geoff, who I drank a lot with in belgium but who (alas) died of a heart attack when he was back in england :( I couldn't talk to his mum and dad at the funeral in case they asked me how i knew him to which I would have replied 'well most evenings we drank lots and lots of beer and ate snacks and food and chocolate' I felt guilty given the way he died

Any other tips/recommendations folks?

http://collider.com/uploads/imageGallery/In_Bruges/in_bruges_movie_image_ralph_fiennes__1_.jpg

or somebody has produced a map of Brugges by day and Brugge by night. It gives you a good range of sightseeing, places to eat and drink and free stuff. Also lots of alternative things to do and locals tips. Some of the bars and pubs recommended are great. Try and pick it up.