Getting around Bruges: walking, bikes, buses and parking

💡 The Short Version: Walk. The historic centre is compact, and Visit Bruges calls walking the best way to see it. The Markt is a 20-minute walk from Brugge station, and a De Lijn bus (€3, valid 60 minutes, contactless on board) runs about every 5 minutes on lines 1 and 2. A city bike costs €13 a day to hire, and with few exceptions the centre’s streets are a bike zone. Do not drive in: all parking in the centre is paid, and the Park & Ride car parks on the edge of town are free.

⚠️ Do not drive into the centre. All parking there is paid, and the city advises leaving the car at a free car park on the edge of town and taking the bus. The car parks under ‘t Zand and beside the station are the cheapest paid choices.

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Walking

Visit Bruges says every sight is within a stone’s throw of the next. From Brugge station or from the Bargeplein coach drop-off, the Markt is a 20-minute walk, and the Begijnhof is 5 minutes from Bargeplein. The cobbles are uneven, so wear shoes you can walk in, and see Bruges in one day for a route that ends at the station side of town.

Buses

Lines 1 and 2 take you from the station to the centre, and a bus runs about every 5 minutes. Line 1 (towards Sint-Kruis) stops at ‘t Zand, Sint-Salvatorskathedraal, O.L.V. Kerk and Dijver. Line 2 (towards P+R Coiseau) stops at the same four and also at Stadsschouwburg and Jan Van Eyckplein. To go back to the station, board at Stadsschouwburg, Zilverpand (line 2) or ‘t Zand, where all lines stop. Several routes run in the evenings until about 23:00, and on Friday and Saturday nights until about 02:00 (Visit Bruges).

De Lijn buses on the station square. Photo: Vitaly Volkov, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Fares. De Lijn’s prices (De Lijn):

Children aged 6 to 11 pay €4.50 for a day ticket and €9 for a 3-day ticket. On the bus you can pay at the white terminal with a contactless card or phone, which gives a €3 single, and one card can pay for up to five people (De Lijn). You can also buy in the De Lijn app, at the Lijnwinkel ticket shop on Stationsplein, or at the machines on Stationsplein and at the ‘t Zand bus stop. A day ticket pays off from the third single journey.

During Winter Glow, De Lijn travel in Bruges is discounted on the festive shopping days: the weekends from 21 November 2026, every day from 21 to 25 December, 26 and 27 December and 2 and 3 January 2027 (Visit Bruges). See Bruges Christmas market for the dates and the rest of the programme.

Bikes

The city counts all but a few streets of the historic centre as a bicycle zone: vehicles must not exceed 30 km/h or overtake cyclists. Underground bike parks are free: 2,410 spaces at the station on the Sint-Michiels side, 250 at ‘t Zand beside the Concertgebouw and 180 on the Markt, which is the most central.

Bicycle parking at Brugge station. Photo: Maksym Kozlenko, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Hire. Every rental point sets its own prices, so these are two published price lists:

Prices are from Bruges Bike Rental and Ben’s Bike. Ben’s Bike sits in the underground bike park at ‘t Zand and sells a €18 voucher for the Damme boat with a bike, one way each. Visit Bruges lists more rental points, including Arno’s Bike Rental on Muntplein, the bike point at Brugge station, and Bike Family.

Shared bikes. Two systems stand at Brugge station. Blue-bike lends pedal and electric bikes with an app or membership card, open 24 hours, from €1 per 30 minutes and capped at €6 for 12 hours on a city bike and €12 for 12 hours on an e-bike (Blue-bike). Hoppy lends shared electric bikes, with parking zones on both sides of the station, at Koolkerke, Sint-Pieters and the P+R Waggelwater and Coiseau car parks.

Damme is a 5 km ride along the canal. For a longer ride, the city’s free Visit Bruges Route App has a cycling route between Bruges and Damme.

Horse and bike carriages

Horse-drawn carriages wait on the western side of the Markt, near Sint-Amandsstraat, and work like a taxi: you wait until one is free. A ride takes 30 minutes with a stop at Wijngaardplein beside the Begijnhof and costs €70 per carriage for up to five people. There are 13 carriages. They run every day from 9:00 at the earliest, and on Wednesday mornings leave from the Burg because of the market. No rides run on days above 30 °C. Bike carriages with a guide cost €34 for 30 minutes and €68 an hour for up to three people (Visit Bruges).

Horse-drawn carriages on the Markt. Photo: Stck w, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Taxis, parking and luggage

• Taxis: order in advance or use the official stands. Bruges taxi firms quote flat fares of €200 to Brussels Airport, €250 to Charleroi and €70 to Ostend-Bruges Airport, with a prior reservation and subject to change.
• Coach groups: coaches may not enter the centre. The drop-off zone is Bargeplein, and the coach park on the Kanaaleiland holds 93 coaches.
• Luggage: lockers at Brugge station, opposite the tourist office, and at Historium on the Markt from 10:00 to 18:00. Hotels will hold bags if you ask.

Parking. The city’s advice is to park free at a Park & Ride and take the bus. If you pay, the two central underground car parks have no time limit and are the cheapest, according to Visit Bruges. Prices are from the car park pages:

At Centrum-Station the ticket includes a bus ride to the centre and back for you and up to three others on the day you arrive, from the De Lijn website or the Lijnwinkel on Stationsplein. The car park is 20 minutes’ walk from the Markt, and its height limit is 2.15 m. Centrum-‘t Zand is a 10-minute walk from the Markt, and you enter through the tunnel under ‘t Zand from Koning Albert I-laan. Katelijne is the nearest car park to the Church of Our Lady, Sint-Janshospitaal and the Groeningemuseum.

The free Park & Rides link to buses: Waggelwater (195 spaces, bus line 1 every 10 minutes), Coiseaukaai (75 spaces, line 2 every 10 minutes, 25 minutes’ walk to the centre), Steenbrugge (185 spaces, line 6 every 10 minutes) and Jan Breydel (100 spaces, lines 52, 54 and 55, not used for Park & Ride on Club Brugge or Cercle Brugge home match days). The Bevrijdingslaan car park has 170 free spaces 23 minutes’ walk from the centre.

See getting to Bruges for trains and airports, is Bruges safe? for emergency numbers and local rules, and Bruges in one day for a walking route.