51.25° N · 3.28° E
The village that was the port of Bruges: Gothic town hall, the tower of Our Lady, a windmill on the rampart, second-hand bookshops and walks across the polders.
What to do
Each plan says how long it takes, who it's for and whether you can book.
Church and tower · 45 min · 206 steps · tower €3, free under 16 · April to September, from 13:00 to 17:00
Walk · 1 h · free from outside · town hall of 1464–1468, the 15th-century Huyse de Grote Sterre and the Eulenspiegel museum
Walk · 4 km · flat and circular · unmarked, with a €0.50 booklet · starts at the tourist office
Itineraries
Days and weekends already planned out, with how to get between each stop and who to book with.
Plan the trip
Each choice narrows the next: the season shapes how best to travel, and how you travel decides where you stay and where you eat.
When to go
From April to September the church tower is open, the Bruges boat sails daily and the windmill opens on some days. On the second Sunday of each month there is a book market. In winter the village is almost empty and the wind from the polders makes itself felt.
Where to eat
From set lunch menus to Michelin stars. We mark the price level and what to order at each place.
What to order: the house shrimp croquettes at lunchtime, and for dessert a pancake with its jam or a cake of the day
Map
Turn on the layers you want and tap a point to see its details.
Nearby
The closest places, whichever country they are in.
51.21° N · 3.22° E
By planeCar-free
51.25° N · 2.97° E
By planeCar-free
51.05° N · 3.72° E
By planeCar-free
50.85° N · 2.89° E
By planeBy carCar-free
Tips
There is a book market in the village of booksellers.
The rampart route leaflet costs €0.50 and they have it in Dutch, French, German and English.
It blows on the polders, and into the wind it is tiring.
Damme is seven kilometres north-east of Bruges, at the end of the Damse Vaart, the straight poplar-lined canal. In the Middle Ages it was Bruges's outer port, on an arm of the Zwin sea inlet that gradually silted up; of that wealth there remain the Gothic town hall on the square, a church too big for the village and fifteenth-century merchants' houses. Today it is a small, quiet village, with second-hand bookshops, terraces and polders all around, and it can be seen in full on foot in a morning.
By bike is the most usual way: you leave through the Dampoort gate and follow the canal path, flat and almost free of cars, about seven kilometres. It is described step by step in by bike from Bruges to Damme, with where to hire a bike in the centre of Bruges.
By boat, the Lamme Goedzak makes the trip in 35 minutes from April to October, with four departures a day; it does not take bikes. Many go by boat and walk back along the bank, in an hour and a half.
By car, Damme has car parks on the outskirts, such as Damme Oost, on the Oude Sluissedijk, from where the canal walking route also starts. If you prefer the bus, check the line and timetable with De Lijn beforehand.
Start at the Markt, in front of the town hall, built between 1464 and 1468. Next to it, in the Huyse de Grote Sterre, a fifteenth-century patrician house, are the tourist office and the Till Eulenspiegel museum, the rogue of Flemish legend whom the village has adopted as its own. Walk down the Kerkstraat, pass the former St John's hospital, documented since 1249, and climb the tower of Our Lady: 206 steps and, at the top, the polders, the canal and the line of the seventeenth-century ramparts.
In the afternoon, walk around those ramparts, four flat kilometres, or look in on the Schellemolen, the 1867 windmill on the embankment beside the canal. If you have the whole day and good legs, the Damse Vaart walking route makes a twelve-kilometre loop through the polders to Oostkerke.
Tante Marie, on the Kerkstraat, serves meals without a break from 11:30 to 17:45, with shrimp croquettes and the house pastries; it is closed on Saturdays. On that day, or if you arrive late, eat back in Bruges.
The day by bike to Damme from Brussels brings together the train to Bruges, the canal, lunch at Tante Marie and the return past the Bruges rampart windmills. With more time, the three nights with Damme and the coast link it with Ostend and De Haan.
Questions
Yes, if you feel like leaving the city: the canal path is the best part, and the village can be seen in a morning.
About seven along the flat Damse Vaart path.
Yes, from April to September, every day from 13:00 to 17:00: 206 steps, €3 for adults and free for under-16s.
The second Sunday of each month.
On Saturdays; the rest of the week it serves meals from 11:30 to 17:45.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/belgium/damme
