From Brussels: Explore Bruges On A Guided Or At Your Pace Tour

TLDR: Beautiful and historic storybook city; pleasant journey, helpful guides, good self guided tour. FULL: Great trip and convenient travel for a day trip! Booked a self guided day trip for my father and I. The bus was clean, comfortable, and air conditioned. Water was available for a small fee. Ponchos were also available for a small fee, as it was storming when we went (hilarious, I know!) While we were not on a guided tour, the tour guides were very helpful with any questions we had. Only note I have is that the advertised interactive map and guide was a bit confusing to access, as it states it would be available with the tickets, however, it arrived in a separate email almost the moment we got there. Just keep an eye out for an email! :) Bruges is a beautiful city, with a rich history, and many incredible historical sites to visit, you will not be disappointed! Also, at least in my personal opinion, the souvenir shops are a bit more affordable there, especially for lace and tapestries, so definitely take a look there, as some of the other stores in Brussel are a hint more expensive!

Visiting Bruges was nice, the coach trip was good, everything was on schedule. We booked an English tour but shared a couch with a Spanish tour so it was bilingual which we had booked to avoid. We wanted to add the canal cruise when we booked but this wasn’t an option, however this was very easy to do in the day from multiple points in Bruges. We did the self guided tour and forgot headphones but we managed. You need to ensure you gave a fully charged phone and data for the self guided tour. It worked okay but could be better. We had plenty of time to enjoy Bruges.

So nice to travel at our own pace and still get all the stories and information. It was a great day of sightseeing. Be sure to do the canal tour as well.

Excellent tour beautiful town and a place to see the Michelangelo Madonna

This was supposed to be a guided tour. It was, sort of. The English-speaking guests were presented a QR code on the way to Bruges that included a self-guided tour that you could play on your phone. The self-guided tour actually wasn't too bad once you figured out how to use it; however, that's not at all what I was expecting when I booked this tour. Regarding the human guides, their primary language was Spanish. Most of the people on the tour spoke Spanish, and it became obvious very quickly that the tour was geared toward them. Yes, narratives on the bus were given in both English and Spanish, but the guides had a very thick accent that often made it difficult to understand them when they were speaking English. Regarding the bus, there was not a toilet on board, so you'd better be sure you've gone before you take the trip. On the way to and from Bruges, the bus stopped in Ghent to drop off and pick up people who were going there. That added quite a bit to the travel time.

Beautiful city but was disappointed that the guide had to speak multiple languages on the bus. Being the minority, we felt we didn’t get the full benefit of the guide.

If you are looking for the best places to buy your chocolate while in Bruges consider this tour and Oscar as your tour guide. He was patience, professional and very present throughout the entire tour. His information was valuable and thorough with a hint of humor periodically to keep things interesting.

Beautiful sights, very informative. Jaris was a great guide and offered mamy helpful suggestions for Bruges and Brussels

I'm currently on the bus of this tour, we booked the English speaking tour but due to low numbers we have been thrown on the Spanish bus!! What a bloody racket!! Non stop Spanish it's like listening to a jack hammer all trip. Add to that the first stop of our tour has been cancelled so we have to tag along on the Spanish tour that has a different itinerary, we have to sit on the bus like little puppy dogs whilst the Spanish do their tour & wait for their return. Can't wait too see whats in store for us for the next 8.5 hrs.😫 We were given no notification of the itinerary changes prior to arrival!! We received at least 8 notifications from Viator about this trip yet NOT 1 MENTIONED ITINERARY CHANGES!!If we had known earlier we would have cancelled 24 hrs earlier as per policy, but because the tour operator didn't we just have to like it or lump it!!!

Our guide, Jaris, was fantastic. So knowledgeable and enthusiastic and very helpful. We would highly rate a tour with him. He worked so hard to give us a great day My only reason for not leaving a 5 star review is due to the tour company changing our tour the day before and removing Leuven from the itinerary. This was disappointing at the last minute But well worth going to Bruges and Damme.

The process for getting on the bus could definitely be improved. There were multiple tours leaving from the same location (such as the Bruges day tour and the Bruges/Ghent tour), but there were no signs indicating which guide or location corresponded to each tour. We initially approached the wrong guide, and unfortunately, he was somewhat rude and not particularly helpful in directing us to the correct spot. Additionally, we specifically booked an English-language tour, but our group was combined with the Spanish-language tour. The bus was roughly 90% Spanish-speaking and 10% English-speaking. On the way to Bruges, most of the information was given in Spanish, with some portions translated into English. However, it didn't seem like the English-speaking passengers received all of the same information. When the guide did translate into English, it was also difficult to hear because many of the Spanish-speaking passengers had already received the info and were talking amongst themselves while it was being translated. I think the company should be much more transparent about this when people book. If a tour is going to be conducted in both languages , that should be clearly stated upfront so customers know what to expect. Having customers select a language when booking gives the impression that the tour will be conducted primarily in that language, which wasn't our experience. If you book a walking tour at the location - that’s when the groups will be split into English and Spanish. Bruges itself was lovely to visit and explore, and the driver got us there and back safely. I’m sharing this review mainly so that future travelers know what to expect when booking.

I booked this trip and paid for it well in advance. I booked a hotel in Brussels that was near the pickup spot. I highly anticipated the tour. The day before the tour, I was checking to verify where it would start when I discovered that my booking had been canceled. Not by me. I checked and my payment had been refunded a couple days earlier. But there was no notice or email or text to me by either the tour operator or TripAdvisor to let me know I was canceled. If there had been, I could have tried to rebook it. I tried contacting the tour operator but never received a reply. I thought maybe the tour was canceled due to weather so, just to check, I tried rebooking it. By then, there was not enough space for the 2 of us but there was enough space for 1. So I knew the tour itself had not been canceled. I was very upset as this was the one time in my life that I would be there and it was the only day I had scheduled to go to Bruges. I have never had this issue with any other tours I have scheduled through TripAdvisor so I don't know what happened or why I got canceled. I gave this 1 circle because I couldn't give it 0. I'm writing this review because it appears to be the only way I can let both TripAdvisor and the tour operator know of my disappointment.

Good timing with the bus. Our itinerary was changed when we got there. Missed out on a couple things, but had a great time.

This is by far the worst experience I have ever had while booking tours with TripAdvisor. The tour description clearly says that this includes a guided tour & that it is in both English & Spanish. But English speakers barely got anything. On the way, the guide gave us some info about Brugge & Damme in both languages, but the Spanish parts was 2-3x longer than the English parts. Then the first stop was in Damme. The guide told us a little bit about it just before we were dropped off. We were told to roam around & have breakfast but the guide didn’t give us any info, not even to the Spanish speakers. There were only a couple of expensive place to eat there & the only thing to do there was to take a canal boat to Brugge, which wasn’t part of the tour. There was a nice windmill just near the town, but we couldn’t get close enough to get the kind of photos we wanted. And then the guide told us on the way back to Brugge to have a look outside the windows at the windmills, so that counts as the windmills part of the tour as well. Almost a complete waste of time, although it was a pretty day. Then we finally arrived at Brugge. Just before the bus stopped, the guide told us that English speakers will not get a guided tour & only get a QR code to scan which contains a list of places to visit (which was a cheap AI generated website by the way). But the Spanish speakers were getting a proper guided tour with radios, in fact there were two guides for them. We asked him why the English speakers were not getting a guided tour, and the guide said that we didn’t pay for it, even though the price for both English & Spanish on TripAdvisor is the same. In fact many of us also paid for extras with the tour. We showed this to him, and he just smiled & said we didn’t pay for it, and he can’t help us. Then another lady asked him the same thing, and he started getting very rude & abusive, and then he told us to p*ss off & f*ck off. I asked him to give me his name so that I can file a complaint, and he said he won’t tell us. Some other guests said his name was Oscar, but I only have a picture of him. If you see him, I’m sorry but your day is ruined. This is completely unacceptable behaviour from this guide & this company. I’ve come to expect much better from TripAdvisor. This company should not be allowed to offer English tours when they’re treating English speakers as second-class guests. I had originally originally booked the tour for Sunday since there are Sunday markets in Brugge which I wanted to see, but I had rescheduled the tour at the company’s required & this is how I (& at least 10 other English speaking guests) was treated. I had to reschedule 3 other tours as well. This company should be ashamed and I’ll ask for a full refund.

Did not see windmills only through bus windows. No guided tour if you're English speaker. Guided tour was only provides to Spanish speakers on the tour. Told to piss off by guide Oscar when I raised concerns. The cost was the same was for both groups, and the description of the tour promised a guided portion.

Do not book this tour with this company. They first requested that I change from English to Spanish tour with less than 24 hours for the tour to start, then they cancelled the tour and then when I rebooked the tour in Spanish they just drove us in the bus to the destination and told us that an email will be send from the office with a self guided tour. The email never came and the tour guide (Peter) was nice enough to send us a copy. Total disaster and not a single word to apologize.

This was my first visit to Belgium and I signed up for this tour because I wanted to see as much as I can and to get the most of it. Our guide Antonio was very experienced, friendly and funny, and he was very knowledgeable he told us many stories and answered all the questions. He guided us through the streets and then we had a few hours of free time. I was able to explore around and see all the places I wanted to see. I highly recommend this trip to all the people who is visiting Bruges for the first time.

Although the guy spoke English that was with a thick accent so it was very difficult to understand but wow the scenery was awesome the buildings ancient and storied even the wildlife had its own peculiar flare

Local operator issues…only got to see Bruges, didn’t go by windmills and Damme…also never told we would be given radios but not headsets (which had to be purchased separately)

This was a great experience with enough time to get to see the city, enjoy the canal tour and have a nice meal. Our guide Jaris was really knowledgeable and gave excellent tips for places to visit and buy. I would highly recommend him.

Bus and guide were nice. Only 25% of the info was in English. Overall, nice trip and guide. Would recommend as it’s way nicer than Brussels

Our guide, Diego, was very proficient in filling us in on the history of the places we visited. He made sure to point out important sights to see and places to go back to if we wanted to tour inside. The town is enchanting. So glad we had the chance to experience its charm.

Check the weather. Was a bit cool today. But beautiful town! Lots of great desserts and shopping and pictures!

We enjoyed this trip and learned a lot about the history of Bruges and the region. Our guide, Antonio, was engaging and knowledgeable. Our only criticism of the day was the disorganized process for getting onto the canal cruise, which is a separate company. There was only one clerk to check in both people with advanced bookings and walk-up, cash customers, so getting through the line was very slow.

The tour company abandoned us and told us by phone to find our own way back. This was my worst experience ever.

Lots of walking in a unique city with architecture that is unusuall and impressive. A canal boat ride is a must. Lots to see!

A good review of Bruges. However, many of your guests were sold a tour with "Canal Boat". This was not included. Please advise as to compensation. I deduce the guide has seen this happen before, as in you put him in poor position.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We wasted £83. We could not find the coach. We tried contacting operator. The telephone number would not ring out. We messaged them but they did not respond. They have all our contact details. They did not attempt to contact us to find out whether we were coming. They have not responded to our messages to establish what happened. Book this at your risk

The tour guide was not very impressive and his English was not that good. The tour was geared towards Spanish speaking tourists. It took two and half hours to get back as the bus stopped in Ghent which was not planned. I think we would have saved 4 hours in transit if we had taken the train from Brussels to Brugge.

Tour of Brugge was very well done. Good guidance! Knowledgeable guide in Antonio. Good accommodation for good and restrooms.

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.

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!

Diego was outstanding knowledgeable and informed on the history of the city. Enjoyed his feedback at each location. The company needs more clarity with the combining of group tours. Instructions were confusing should email prior. No map supplied for area and meeting place. Tour leaders should meet the group in a central location, account for all and then escort to the bus area.

​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

Magnificent destination, very beautiful and well worth the bus trip. Our guide Leah was very engaging .

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

Great day trip to Bruges from Brussels. Easy to find meeting point for bus ride. Great introduction to the town and history of Bruges with Antonio. Good recommendations for lunch and places to visit during our free time. Could easily have spent several days there, but enjoyed the time we had. Thanks for making it easy, convenient, and affordable.