Top 10: the best boutique hotels in Bruges
An insider's guide to the best boutique hotels in Bruges, for historic interiors and uniquely decorated rooms, canal views, and cosy bars and restaurants.
Die Swaene
Bruges, Belgium
7Telegraph expert rating
This was one of the first hotels to put Bruges on the map as a destination for a romantic city break. 'The Swan' offers plush, pampered opulence overlooking a beautiful stretch of canal in central Bruges. There’s a bold theatricality here: chandeliers, objets d’art, Louis XV and Empire-style antique furniture, oil paintings and luscious swagged fabrics. While the ground floor of the main building is low-ceilinged, the lounge upstairs is the grand 18th-century former guildhall of the tailors, with a painted ceiling and tapestry. Read expert review From ￡103per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Hotel Van Cleef
Bruges, Belgium
9Telegraph expert rating
There is no other place to stay in Bruges quite like this: a small luxury boutique hotel in a neoclassical mansion with large terrace overlooking a pretty stretch of canal. Family-owned and managed, and designed with exquisite attention to detail; at once gloriously palatial yet intimate. The ample public rooms are decorated in elegant and comfortable country-house style, enlivened by striking contemporary art and fabrics. There are just 15 rooms, all beautifully presented, with marbled bathrooms and whirlpool baths. The double rooms feature fabrics by Missoni (with trademark zigzags), while the duplex suites are done out in Hermès. Read expert review From ￡155per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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The Pand
Bruges, Belgium
8Telegraph expert rating
The Pand is a well-established boutique hotel of great comfort and charm. Its four-storey building was originally an 18th-century maison de ma?tre (grand townhouse). The high-arched entrance was once the passage through to the carriage house. The intimate interior is redolent of the past, with a pine-panelled library/lounge with open fire, antiques and curios, and old wooden floors – and an overall décor threaded with a comfortable, classic elegance. Read expert review From ￡129per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Hotel De Orangerie
Bruges, Belgium
8Telegraph expert rating
Romantic, sumptuous and historic. There is a theatrical opulence to the entrance, with a lobby swathed in fabric, but this soon melts into the old-world grandeur of the wood-panelled breakfast/tea room and adjacent lounge. Elsewhere the style could be called English Country Manor: light, floral and agreeably rambling (the building started life as a 15th-century convent). No two rooms are the same, and each is individually decorated, with special emphasis on fine English and French fabrics. Read expert review From ￡114per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Hotel De Tuilerieen
Bruges, Belgium
8Telegraph expert rating
Hotel de Tuilerieen occupies a stately, ochre-coloured building that dates back to the 15th century, and is equally elegant within, from the marble-columned, chandeliered breakfast room at the front to the pretty little garden terrace at the rear. There’s also a cosy, dimly-lit bar, panelled reading room, swimming pool and steam room. Décor differs in each of the rooms, from white minimalist and contemporary with wooden floors and a few simple furnishings, to more traditional hues ranging from dark red to blue-grey, with four-poster beds, fireplaces, dark wood, exposed brickwork, full-length windows, and lots of chandeliers. Read expert review From ￡146per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Hotel Heritage
Bruges, Belgium
8Telegraph expert rating
A privately-owned four-star hotel with the rare distinction in Bruges of having its own restaurant. The Hotel Heritage is a member of the French-based Relais & Chateaux group, and has all the virtues this affiliation would suggest: luxury, history, quality of service, and good cooking. Each of the rooms is different, but all are decorated in broadly 18th- and 19th-century styles, with chandeliers, elegant wallpapers and fabrics, and antique-modern furnishings. Read expert review From ￡168per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Hotel Prinsenhof
Bruges, Belgium
8Telegraph expert rating
This building dates from 1930; designed in the style of a historical mansion, the medieval history of the site is evoked in the lobby, with its grand chimneypiece, oak panelling and antiques. More generally, the décor recalls an elegant, well-appointed home, with agreeably ad hoc architecture. Each room is different, but all are smartly presented in a modern style with antique touches. Colour schemes are cleanly elegant, in black, grey, white, brown and beige. Strongly patterned wallpapers and carpets also feature. Read expert review From ￡156per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Hotel Jan Brito
Bruges, Belgium
7Telegraph expert rating
Once a grand old private house, and a school in the 19th century, this four-star hotel has an atmospheric, historic grandeur, which is carried through into many of the attractively refurbished rooms. For its central position, generous breakfast and old-world charms, it provides a memorable place to stay. The main house was built in 1634 and retains its step-gabled, red-brick frontage. Inside there are exposed beams, antique furniture, marble mantelpieces, old prints and paintings. A second building, sharing a large courtyard garden, is more modern, with Art Deco touches. Read expert review From ￡71per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce
Bruges, Belgium
8Telegraph expert rating
The 'Cruyce' is the cross in the emblem of the Dukes of Burgundy, who made Bruges their capital in 1429 and became a byword for opulence – an apt reference for this luxury boutique hotel with just 16 rooms in the heart of historic Bruges. Behind the medieval fa?ades are sumptuous but modern rooms, managed with refined professionalism. What’s more, it overlooks one of the most famous scenic viewpoints of Bruges, on a bend in the principal canal. Read expert review From ￡160per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Monsieur Ernest
Bruges, Belgium
8Telegraph expert rating
This was the former site of a brewery, the Brouwerij De Sleutels, and a striking feature of the entrance lobby is the elaborate, 19th-century wrought-iron staircase that partially obstructs access to the reception desk. It’s a historic building, but refurbished with design flair to a pared-down, modern look, with a hint of nostalgia in the large black-and-white photographs. Eva Vandewalle and her brother pride themselves on their personal, flexible and inclusive style of management: this is a place where guests are encouraged to meet and mingle. Read expert review From ￡52per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com