Transportation

Cucurbits > >

Ghent is centrally located in Flanders – Belgium.

Situated at the crossroads of Europe (E17-E40).
Close to Brussels Airport with direct train connection (1h).

Ghent is the ideal operating base for discovering other famous Belgian cities.

Bruges is only a 30 minutes train ride away and a trip to Antwerp takes only one hour. Ostend, at the seaside, can be reached in 45 minutes.

Its central location within Europe also makes famous cities such as London, Paris and Amsterdam within a few hours travelling distance.

How to get to Ghent

By plane

Ghent is only 60 minutes from the international airport of Zaventem 'Brussel Airport' (https://www.brusselsairport.be/en/passengers), where flights arrive from and depart to more than 100 destinations in 33 countries. On the lowest level you will find the airport’s own railway station, "Brussel-Nationaal-Luchthaven", accessible by lift and escalator from the arrivals hall. There are several connections to Ghent (https://www.belgiantrain.be/en/).

Brussels South/Charleroi airport is 70 minutes from Ghent (http://www.charleroi-airport.com/en/en-brussels-south-charleroi-airport/index.html). There are more than 20 bus connections from the airport to Brussels train stations every day (http://www.charleroi-airport.com/en/acces/shuttle-buses/index.html). From Brussels, you can take a train to Ghent (a half-hour train ride with frequent departures). There are also bus connections from the airport to Charleroi-Sud railway station. Trains for Ghent can also be boarded there. A ticket that combines the bus and train services can be purchased at the Airport Ticket Desk.

By train

Ghent is easy to reach by train from all Belgian and European cities and is only a half-hour ride from Brussels South train station. On the high-speed Eurostar and Thalys trains, you can travel from Ghent to Paris in barely 2 hours and to London, Amsterdam and Cologne in less than 3 hours (https://www.eurostar.com/rw-en/? and https://www.thalys.com/be/en/ and https://www.belgiantrain.be/en/).
The main station in Ghent is "Gent-Sint-Pieters Station".

Travel-tip: The cheapest way to travel by train is by purchasing a ‘Rail-Pass’, giving you 10 trips between two Belgian railway stations for only 83€. When travelling in group, this is by far the best option as you can share this pass.

Attention: When traveling to or from Brussels airport, you need to upgrade your ticket (or your rail pass) by buying an extra ‘diabolo-pass’ for €5.40 per person.

By tram

At Gent-Sint-Pieters, take the tram line 1 or 2 to the city centre or line 4 to the congress venue (stop "Theresianenstraat"). Tramnetwork.

By car

Take the motorway E17 or E40 towards Ghent, and take the exit "GENT CENTRUM".