Getting Around Gent: An Overview
Gent (Ghent) is a compact, walkable Flemish city with an excellent public transport system. The historic centre is small enough to explore on foot, while trams, buses and bicycles fill in the gaps between the centre, the main railway station and the rest of the city. The local transport company is De Lijn, and its network of trams and buses is generally punctual and easy for visitors to use.
Trams
Trams are the quickest and most comfortable way to travel around Gent, and they are especially useful for the trip between the main railway station and the city centre. Gent-Sint-Pieters, the main station, is not in the centre itself, so most visitors arriving by train take a tram rather than walk. Tram 1, for example, runs from the station to Korenmarkt in the heart of the centre, a journey of roughly ten minutes. The network is made up of four tram lines, numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Buses and Other Public Transport
Buses complement the tram lines and, together with the trams, form a system that covers the city and its surroundings. The same De Lijn tickets and passes are valid on both trams and buses, so you can switch between them freely within the validity period of your ticket.
Tickets and Passes
Buying a ticket is straightforward, and there are several options depending on how long you plan to stay:
- Single ticket: costs €3 and can be bought in the bus or tram (contactless payment only, from the white card reader), from ticket machines near stops, or through the De Lijn app. It is valid for one hour of travel on all trams and buses.
- Three-day pass: costs €18 and is a good choice if you are staying a while.
- Ten-trip ticket: costs €22.
The three-day pass and the ten-trip ticket are valid within the city and can also be used throughout Flanders, including in Antwerp and Bruges. With a few exceptions, De Lijn tickets are usable across the whole region.
Validation rules differ by how you bought your ticket: tickets purchased on a card should be validated on the reader (not the white one) when entering the bus or tram, while tickets purchased on the website or app should be validated before entering the vehicle.
Planning Your Journey
De Lijn offers an app for Android and iOS smartphones with journey planning, real-time travel information and ticket purchase, all available in English. For train travel, trip planning and ticket purchase can be done on the SNCB website or the SNCB app. If you prefer paper, you can pick up a free map of the city and surroundings, showing all bus and tram lines, at the Lijnwinkel kiosk near Sint-Pieters station.
Walking
The centre of Gent is quite small, so you can comfortably walk around on foot. The main station, Gent-Sint-Pieters, is the exception: it sits outside the city centre and takes about half an hour to reach on foot. For that leg, the tram is the better option, delivering you directly to the centre in ten to fifteen minutes. A second station, Gent-Dampoort, is closer to the centre — about a fifteen-minute walk — but only trains coming from the direction of Antwerp stop there.
Cycling
A bicycle is the recommended way to get around Gent, and you will not be alone: many inhabitants use bikes for their daily travel. There are plenty of bike stands around the city, so locking your bike up is easy — and important. Two things to watch out for: many roads are paved with cobblestones, which makes for a shaking ride, and you should stay clear of the tram rails. On the plus side, many one-way roads are made two-way for bikes, which makes cycling through the city more convenient.
Taxis and Ride-Hailing
The source material for this guide does not cover taxis or ride-hailing services in Gent, so no specific guidance on operators, apps or fares can be given here. Visitors should treat the tram, bus, bicycle and their own two feet as the primary ways of getting around.
Getting There
Gent is well connected by rail. It is a 30-minute train ride from Brussels and sits on the line from Brussels to Bruges and the coast, so it is easy to combine with a visit to either city. There are also direct trains to Brussels Airport, Antwerp and Lille. If you are arriving by car, two main highways cross at Gent: the E40 (Liège–Brussels–Gent–Bruges–Ostend) and the E17 (Antwerp–Gent–Kortrijk–Lille). Brussels and Antwerp are about 40 minutes away by car and Bruges about 30 minutes, though rush hour can easily double these times.
From the Airport into the City
The two biggest airports near Gent are Brussels (Zaventem) and Lille in France. Direct trains run from Brussels Airport to Gent, making the train the simplest way into the city from that airport. Brussels-South airport in Charleroi is farther away but popular because of the large number of flights, mainly operated by Ryanair; from there you would continue your journey by train into Gent.