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Few Belgian cities carry their medieval fabric as lightly as Ghent. The capital of East Flanders sits at the confluence of the Leie and the Scheldt, and that watery geography has shaped everything from its commercial history to the way visitors move through it today. Canals divide the old centre into a series of islands and quaysides, and the skyline that rises above them, dominated by the belfry, Saint Bavo's Cathedral, and the towers of Saint Nicholas's Church, is one of the most intact medieval panoramas in northern Europe. Unlike Bruges, which has long been packaged for tourism, Ghent remained a working industrial city well into the twentieth century, and that history gives it a texture that feels lived-in rather than preserved under glass.

The Graslei and Korenlei, the twin guild-house quays facing each other across the Leie, are the natural starting point for any first visit. The guild houses date from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries and once served the grain trade that made Ghent one of the wealthiest cities in medieval Europe, second only to Paris north of the Alps at its peak. A short walk north brings you to the Patershol, a tangle of cobbled lanes that was a working-class quarter for centuries and is now home to some of the city's most serious restaurants. Further east, the university district around Sint-Pietersplein gives Ghent its student population of roughly 75,000, which keeps the city's bars, music venues, and independent shops in good health year-round.