Thanks to its central location, Astoria Hotel is the ideal base from which to discover Flanders. The Gent-Sint-Pieters train station is just a 7-minute walk away and from there hundreds of trains, streetcars and buses depart daily to various destinations.
If you like to stay in Ghent, it's best to travel by streetcar or bus. With a day pass you can travel unlimitedly for one day on De Lijn's buses and streetcars throughout Flanders. There is also a three-day pass, five-day pass and seven-day pass.
A concrete example of how easily you can reach the surrounding art cities:
By train, you can reach the medieval city of Bruges in about 30 minutes. From the Bruges train station, it is about a 20-minute walk past the King Albert I park and the new concert hall to the historic heart of the city. Again, the Lijn day pass is valid and you can easily reach the center by bus.
A little further away is the city of Antwerp. If you travel by train from Gent-Sint-Pieters, you can reach Antwerp-Central in an hour. The train stops at the beginning of the main shopping streets, the Keyserlei and the Meir, the diamond district and the Zoo. A 10-minute walk away, is the Groenplaats with its dozens of bus stops that, using the day pass from Ghent, take you to every corner of the city.
Finally, the capital of Belgium, which is also the capital of Europe, cannot be left off the list. From Ghent to Brussels, there are a few things to keep in mind by train: don't travel during rush hours before 9 a.m. and between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., choose the train with the fewest stops, which takes only 36 minutes. Brussels Central station is closest to the main attractions and ensures that you do not have to use public transport. In fact, unlike Flanders, STIB is responsible for the buses, streetcars and subways here instead of De Lijn, so a day pass from Ghent is not valid here.
