We rented a car to drive from Amsterdam to Brussels and decided to stopover for one night in Bruges, Belgium on the way and never wanted to leave…

Bruges is a charming, small town about an hour away from Brussels with canals running through. We opted to stay at the Hotel Van Cleef, the former residence of the Van Cleef family. Our room was decked out in Missoni wallpaper and custom fabrics and the hotel itself felt like the inside of a Vogue Interiors magazine. The service was incredibly warm and friendly and we could tell immediately one day was not going to be enough.

The hotel proprietor recommended a local seafood restaurant for dinner that was nearby. It had high ratings so we decided to give it a try. We ordered the fish special of the day and moules frites - both were delicious.

Later that night we stopped in at a small wine bar that happened to specialize in German wine. We were skeptical and were both pleasantly surprised. We had a great time chatting with the owner and the local regulars, and learned (much to our surprise) that Gouda is not pronounced “goo-da” but “ho-da”. We also got some excellent advice to make a stop in Knokke and/or Damme before we made our way to Brussels.

After our nightcap at the wine bar, we decided the hotel was too beautiful not to snap some extra photos of the interiors & we ended up having our own little mini photoshoot at midnight.

We woke up the next morning and had the best breakfast of our entire trip, maybe of our lives. The setting on the terrace overlooking the canal and the presentation of the food was simply divine.

After breakfast we did some shopping in the hotel boutique and set out for Knokke…

One Night in Bruges

Richmond, London