Why not stay in Antwerp and visit Ghent on a day-trip?

Good shops, restaurants, bars, museums etc.

Ghent is utterly wonderful. I'm not sure how old you are - do you want the medievalness or the modernness? You can pick and choose from both. I lean towards the former, myself and frequent the more traditional bars. If you're going at the weekend all the students will have gone home for the weekend. Can't speak about nightlife other than the bars that are open til 3 (not a clubbing person!), but there is plenty of good food, drink and shopping. You can choose from jazz at the Hotsy Totsy, kitsch at Pink Flamingos or Gainsbar, indie and rock at Backdoor or naff 80s at Brouwzaele. Try viswaterzooi at Georges or Bij Wijzen den Zot, and a good brunch at Pain Perdu. Walk along the canals, gape at the Koren/Gras lei and the Patershol, visit St-Baafs, have a walk along the canal past the Bijlokesmuseum and up to the Citadelpark,then back to the centre past St Pieters and Vooruit. Have an oyster, check out the flower market and listen to the brass band on Kouter on Sunday morning. Chat with the locals - their English is excellent (but do try and learn a few basic phrases in Dutch!).

You'll love it. Trust me.

Ghent is a real town with 240.000 inhabitants and 60.000 students. Only a small part of it's population depends on tourism. So you are about to meet more real people and if you get a smile, it will be a real smile. Not a commercial one from someone working in the tourist industry ...

Ony you recommend a midweek break or a weekend break? I have visited places that are pretty dead on a Sunday and even a Monday as in places in France?

Are hotels generally cheaper at weekends?

Ghent is a very charming city. It has indeed got some great restaurants, nice bars and excellent clubbing. I like it much more then Bruges. Bot only because of the stuff mentioned above but also because people are very friendly. That's not always the case in Bruges. Have fun and enjoy one of the most, if not THE most, beautiful cities in Belgium.

I am planning a visit to Ghent in December (organised coach trip) and this sounds good :) Just reading up about it now.

Midweek break or weekend break? Anyone?

Tarry, I am going on a coach trip to Brussels/ Bruges beginning of Dec weekend. Have got option of afternoon trip to Ghent instead of full day in Brussels for £9.50

Trying to find out if worth doing this or not. Don't know how long we would have there as no details yet. Does it have a market, and is it generally nicer than Brussels? Will a morning in Brussels market be enough?

Just going for a weekend Christmas markets really, pre Christmas jolly, not doing museums or sightseeing as such, but like to walk around somewhere pretty, looking at shops, sit somewhere nice for coffee, snack, or maybe a meal if we are there long enough.

Opinions anyone please?

I visited Ghent for a day in May and although its quite pretty there seemed to be a lot of building/restoration work going on to a point where it was a significant distraction.

As a larger scale version of Brugges I think it loses something in this regard.

My own recommendation would be to visit the place in about 3 years when all the building work is complete.