Bruges Day Trip: Canal Boat, Windmills & Damme
Badge of Excellence
Brussels, Belgium
- 9 hours 30 minutes (approx.)
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
Why travelers loved this
·
Explore our promoted experiences
Overview
Make the most of your time in Belgium during this full-day excursion to the medieval villages of Damme and Bruges from Brussels. Don’t worry about time-consuming public transit; instead, benefit from round-trip transfers, as well as the insight of a local guide. Take a guided tour through Damme and learn about Flemish history, and enjoy independent exploration in Bruges, armed with a digital interactive guide.
- Upgrade to include a canal boat tour and/or a beer tasting in Bruges
- Get insider tips from your guide, and enjoy commentary along the way
- Enjoy a mix of guided and independent exploration
- Round-trip transportation is included for ease
What's Included
- Air-conditioned vehicleRound-trip transportation by private air-conditioned bus
- Guide available throughout the tour to answer your questions
- Photo stop & guided tour at the medieval village of Damme
- Panoramic bus tour (Kruisvest Windmills & medieval city walls)
- Interactive digital map and city information
- Food, drinks and any service not specified above
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Carrefour de l'EuropeCarr de l'Europe, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium
In the Carrefour de l'Europe square under the columns of the main entrance of the train and metro station, in front of the Hilton Grand Place hotel. Our guides will be wearing ID of Buendia Tours.
End point
- Boulevard PachécoBd Pachéco, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium
Operating hours.8:30 am
Itinerary
Meet your guide outside Brussels Central Station and board your comfortable coach. Take a ride through the Belgian countryside, with historical and cultural commentary from your guide.
Your first stop is Damme: a hidden medieval gem that most visitors never get to see. Stroll through its charming cobblestone streets on a guided tour and soak up the authentic Flemish atmosphere of this beautifully preserved village.
Then head to Bruges’ Old Town, where you receive a digital interactive guide packed with insider tips, must-see highlights, and local recommendations—everything you need to explore the city independently.
From here, enjoy your free time in Bruges according to your chosen option, before meeting your guide back at Bargeplein for the return journey to Brussels.
Your first stop is Damme: a hidden medieval gem that most visitors never get to see. Stroll through its charming cobblestone streets on a guided tour and soak up the authentic Flemish atmosphere of this beautifully preserved village.
Then head to Bruges’ Old Town, where you receive a digital interactive guide packed with insider tips, must-see highlights, and local recommendations—everything you need to explore the city independently.
From here, enjoy your free time in Bruges according to your chosen option, before meeting your guide back at Bargeplein for the return journey to Brussels.
1
Damme
1 hour • Admission Ticket Free
Windmills of Bruges (Pass By)
Kruispoort (Pass By)
Gentpoort (Pass By)
2
Bargeplein
4 hours • Admission Ticket Free
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Stroller accessible
- Near public transportation
- Most travelers can participate
- You'll receive your confirmation instantly upon booking.
- Tour duration and sites may vary slightly from what's listed, as our guides tailor each experience to best suit your group.
- No meals included. Ask your guide for their favorite local food recommendations!
- On certain occasions, guides are required to use radio headphone systems. In such cases, a jack (3.5mm) connection is needed — we encourage you to bring your own headphones to help reduce disposable plastic waste and support a greener experience. For those without, disposable headphones are available upon request.
- For the safety of your little ones, children under 2 are required to travel in a car seat on the bus. Please remember to bring their seat with you.
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 45 travelers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
Jill_C
Bruges is a treasure from the middle ages, beautifully preserved. Our guide JC from Buendias, was excellent. He shared his knowledge of Brussels, Bruges and Belgium in general with enthusiasm and encouraged questions from the group. His recommendations for lunch were spot-on, and he took our family photograph in a very scenic site, which turned out great. We all had a wonderful day (3 generations). We highly recommend this tour and guide and would take another tour with this company.
Reviews
4.3
based on 677 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
Richard_R, Jul 2026
The tour company abandoned us and told us by phone to find our own way back. This was my worst experience ever.
Stan_F, Jul 2026
Lots of walking in a unique city with architecture that is unusuall and impressive. A canal boat ride is a must. Lots to see!
LuAnne_S, Jul 2026
It’s a pretty long day and quite a bit of walking, including to and from the bus. Our bus had the Spanish speakers plus the English speakers so all of the commentary was done twice in the two different languages. Our guide was very helpful and friendly and we have plenty of time to explore Bruges. She gave us some good suggestions for restaurants to try and the one that we went to was great.
Sunita_M, Jul 2026
The Bruges Tour suddenly got merged with the Ghent & Bruges Tour which was not on the cards. The Tour did not correspond to what was sold. Very disappointing and underwhelming.
Hun_M, Jul 2026
I don't know why there is a picture of the windmill and countryside, this was more of a busy town for tourist. Very busy streets, crowded and the locals were not nice to tourist :(
Our tour guide was very nice, but she was not Belgium, and her English was not great, I wish we had more detailed history during the tour, that was limited. Very crowded and for this reason I would not recommend the visit but it's a cute, very tourist heavy town with lots of tourist shops.
Chris_S, Jun 2026
Our guide Antonio was outstanding and very knowledgeable about Bruges (and Brussels). Our only complaint is that our Bruges tour (about 12-15 ppl) was combined with a separate tour of Spanish speakers going to both Bruges and Ghent. As a result, when our tour was completed, we then had to make a separate stop at Ghent to pick up the Spaniards which added over an hour of extra bus time to our tour. Overall our total time was over 10 hours, not the 8-9 hour published duration. Bruges was amazing and we would repeat but I wish we had direct transportation.
Doris_C, Jun 2026
The way this tour is arranged is something I have not experienced in other countries. They combined both Spanish and English tour. All information had to be repeated. The itinerary was different. The Spanish tour was going to Gent and the English tour which we were on went to Bruges. The bus had to detour to drop off the other group before heading to Bruges. Same on the way back to Brussels, had to pickup that group. I don’t know how much extra time for this detour but we gathered at 8:30 in the morning and did not reach Bruges until almost 11:30. The fact that gathering a full bus, walking to the bus, and the detour took an extra hour. It was quite a bit of walking from the bus parking to the old town. The guide took us there but there was no guide in the old town to take us back to the bus. You better have google maps to follow so you won’t get lost. Not easy to find you way back. A 2 hr walking tour with no visit to any site with just talking and looking is tiring. Someone requested in the midst to go back to visit the Our lady church but no time to see the Michael Angelo sculpture was disappointing. Some history could have been explained on the bus during the long ride. Rather we were standing just in front of the convent for over 10 minute to hear the history with nothing to see. That was tiring too. Overall, not recommending to join this tour if you are just going to Bruges. Take the train yourself and you can have more time to enjoy the town.
There seems to be only one tour company in Belgium for bus tour. We also joined the Gent/Antwatp day tour and the same type of arrangement with 2 different languages tour combined on the bus. We had a double deck bus, fist time experience with that.
Sean_L, Jun 2026
Tours lacked any central idea or storyline. I left knowing nothing more about either city. Also the time was very tight. The tour was 1/2 of the time in either city. the tour guides were nice but could use a theme, specific history, or talking points. info was lacking. Very little free time to explore. In future, I’ll take a train and do own exploring. This tour works if you want quantity of tourist pictures but not quality of time or info.
Richard_O, Jun 2026
Tour of Brugge was very well done. Good guidance! Knowledgeable guide in Antonio. Good accommodation for good and restrooms.
Response from Host, Jun 2026
Thank you for your lovely review! We're happy to hear that you enjoyed the tour of Bruges and that Antonio’s knowledge and guidance made the experience even better. It’s great to know the arrangements for food and restrooms were comfortable for you as well. We truly appreciate your feedback and hope to welcome you again on another tour soon!
Robert_P, Jun 2026
The tour guide was not paid by the tour company and in my opinion just wanted to get it over with and go home. Aldo we were not told that the bus ride back from Bruge would take 2 and a half hours. The tour was not cheap and we spent 4 hours on a bus. Could have gone by train which would have taking an hour each way.
Christine_D, Jun 2026
A very good experience and tour. Loved our guide Blianca! She is most informative. Enjoyed our free time to enjoy a nice meal, some shopping and sight seeing. High recommend!
KayKulvinder_A, Jun 2026
This tour was entirely unacceptable for anyone who needs to walk at a slower pace. We have taken tours all around the world and have never experienced a guide simply leaving us behind—until now.
It was clear that the guide saw us at the back of the group struggling to catch up, but he seemed to have no intention of keeping us together, likely prioritizing a rigid timetable for his next booking. If the plan was to maintain such a frantic pace, basic professional courtesy dictates that accommodations should have been discussed—especially since my husband walks more slowly because he is blind.
The lack of empathy and accommodation was appalling. We will never use Buendía Tours again, and we will reconsider using Viator in the future unless this is seriously addressed and remedied. Tour companies must provide clear accessibility guidelines and instruct their guides on how to properly accommodate travelers with disabilities
Paul_L, Jun 2026
Magnificent destination, very beautiful and well worth the bus trip. Our guide Leah was very engaging .
Response from Host, Jun 2026
Thank you so much for your lovely review! We're delighted to hear you enjoyed the beautiful destination and that the journey was worth it. It's wonderful to know Leah made the experience even more engaging with her guidance. We truly appreciate your kind words and hope to welcome you again soon for another great experience!
Jennifer_L, Jun 2026
Loved this experience and our tour guide. We got to learn about the history of Bruges meet some nice people and then got a couple hours to spend in the city.
Response from Host, Jun 2026
Thank you so much for your kind review! We're delighted to hear you loved the experience and enjoyed exploring Bruges with your guide. It’s great that you were able to learn about the city’s history, meet new people, and still have free time to explore on your own. We truly appreciate your feedback and hope to welcome you again soon for another memorable trip!
GwenQun_H, May 2026
Tour is ok. Guide and driver are professional. Bus is clean. I was expecting a more exciting trip, but kind of boring. Not whole a lot of information provided. On the way back, it is all sleeping time. Maybe 1-1.5 hour guided tour and 3- hour bus round trip. 4 hours self tour when we were there. I went to other viator tours. The guides in other tours provided more information and more exciting. You can take the train yourself with more flexibility and use ChatGPT to guide you. So I really don’t recommend this tour. The train is easy from Brussels to Bruges.
Response from Host, May 2026
Thank you for your feedback. We are glad to hear that you found our bus clean and our guide and driver professional.
We appreciate your honesty regarding the pace of the tour. Our itinerary is designed to strike a balance: providing essential guided insights to get your bearings, while offering generous free time (around 4 hours) so travelers can explore, shop, and dine at their own leisure without feeling rushed.
While taking the train with digital guides is a great option for complete flexibility, many guests choose our tour for the comfort of direct, hassle-free transport and having a local expert on hand.
We will certainly share your comments with our team to see how we can make the guided portions even more engaging. Thank you for helping us improve!
Best regards,
The Buendía Tours Team
Jennifer_M, May 2026
Our tour guide Eduardo was amazing!! He was so knowledgeable, warm, and answered all of our groups questions. He offered tips and suggestions of where to try food, shop, and historical/social places to experience. Would definitely recommend!
sjfriedman, May 2026
This is an excellent opportunity to spend a good amount of time in Brugge and also get a great walking tour to learn about the history of this beautiful town. Our guide, Blanca was informative, engaging, organized and very knowledgeable. As a sidenote, my husband left his phone on the bus. Of course we panicked when we got back to the hotel room, but we called Viator and the representative took an immediate action and tried to get a hold of the tour provider. We were able to contact them the next morning and the tour provider, Buendia was able to locate the phoneand we were able to leave town with my husband‘s phone, which was amazing! We initially thought about taking the train to Brugge ourselves and skipping the tour, but we were very glad we didn’t because not only was it a great way to get to and from Brugge , it was also a way to learn more about the city and have plenty of time to enjoy it.
Heather_S, May 2026
Our guide Blanca was fabulous, very friendly and knowledgeable. Bruges was absolutely beautiful. We were there mid-May, and it was very cold and rainy so you need to dress appropriately.
Manish_D, May 2026
Well Organized. Good Communication.
Blanca kept group informed about what to expect and gave few tips for the sites.
It would be good to include few more stops for the trip as it felt it got done sooner than we were expecting,
We were surprised that Boat trip was included in price, pls mention it in your details.
It doesn’t say it during booking process.
Good Sales pitch.
Thanks
Kimberly_S, May 2026
Very good overview of Bruges with time to do individual experiences. The guide gave us great tips. We wound up doing the canal ride and tower climb and had a great typical Flemish meal.
Donald_C, May 2026
Great tour and Antonio was very informative. Bruges is a beautiful city and a must see. The 4 hours of time to visit the city on our own may be fine for some people but seemed a little too long for us and another couple we spoke with. We did enjoy waffles at Otto Waffle Atelier and Bruges Dot beer at the De Halve Mann Brewery. It is the oldest brewery in Bruges. A map would have been helpful with clear directions on how to get back to the meeting point since it is easy to get lost. All in all, we enjoyed the tour very much.
Alfred_K, May 2026
Mark your start/meeting place in Google map to guide you back from city center. It will take 20 to 30 minutes if you are not loss.
John_C, May 2026
It was basically just a bus ride to Burges and back… Our tour guy, who was nice, only gave us about an hour tour… We really didn’t learn that much about the city…
It would’ve been much cheaper just to take a bus and tour on our own…
editdalmd, Apr 2026
Fun with gastronomic discoveries. A lot of walking.
Knowledgeable and helpful Jorge!
Time well managed.
Michelle_G, Apr 2026
The tour itself was about 2 hours long with our guide Julien who was very knowledgeable and friendly. We then had about 4 hours of free time to ourselves which was the main reason I chose this tour over others. We were able to hit all the spots we wanted to go to before meeting back at the bus. A friend of mine described Bruges as the Disneyland of Europe and I’d say I’d agree. It is VERY crowded and things are more expensive than Brussels so keep that in mind for what you plan to do. We did not do the boat ride but others in our group did and seemed to have enjoyed it.
AlanC_T, Apr 2026
It is a well thought out itenarary with lots of free time . The city itself is very medieval in character. Diego the tour guide provides lots of information and was very po
Ankeet_S, Apr 2026
Wonderful wonderful experience.. right from start to finish they were perfect and in the end Harris and Angie who were our guides even took us to the Atomium as a surprise.
Please go with these guys if you want to do Bruges.
Kirsten_T, Apr 2026
The weather was absolutely perfect. Not a cloud in the sky and 20 Celsius. Unfortunately our bus had to stop to drop a tour group off in Gent and then later to pick them up on the way back to Brussels. As a result of traffic this added about 1.5 hours to our time in the bus. No additional information was provided in this time. No noteworthy sites were on the detour. While there can always be delays, this was a „planned“ delay not communicated in advance which cut into our evening schedule.
Our guides English could have been better. The city itself is absolutely beautiful and worth a visit!
CJ_Y, Apr 2026
Bruges is beautiful but we felt that the time allocated was a bit long…could be shortened by at least 30 mins if not more.
Raymundo_A, Apr 2026
This was a great way to spend a day from Brussels. Pablo was a great guide, but the tour organization could have been better. Combining the different Bruges and Ghent tours in a single bus created unnecessary confusion and added extra driving time.
From $52.37
per personup to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
Compare Similar Experiences
Current
Bruges Day Trip: Canal Boat, Windmills & Damme
677
9 hours 30 minutes
Free Cancellation
From
$52.37
Customers Who Bought This Tour Also Bought
Attractions in Brussels, Belgium
- Atomium Tours & Tickets
- Lion’s Mound (Butte du Lion) Tours & Tickets
- Brussels Beer Project Tours & Tickets
- Brussels City Museum (Musée de la Ville de Bruxelles) Tours & Tickets
- Royal Galleries of Saint Hubert (Les Galeries St-Hubert) Tours & Tickets
- Belgian Comic Strip Center Tours & Tickets
- National Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Basilique Nationale du Sacré-Coeur) Tours & Tickets
- Mini-Europe Tours & Tickets
More attractions near Brussels, Belgium
- Grand-Place (Grote Markt) Tours & Tickets
- Market Square (Markt) Tours & Tickets
- Manneken Pis Tours & Tickets
- Atomium Tours & Tickets
- Brussels Royal Palace (Palais Royal de Bruxelles) Tours & Tickets
- Royal Galleries of Saint Hubert (Les Galeries St-Hubert) Tours & Tickets
- St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral Tours & Tickets