Zeebrugge

One of Europe's best-preserved medieval cities — the entire historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with Gothic belfries, canal bridges, cobbled streets and Flemish gabled houses unchanged since the 15th century.

The 83m medieval bell tower dominating the Markt square — 366 steps to the top, where a 47-bell carillon rings out over the rooftops of Bruges and the Flemish countryside stretches to the horizon.

The most moving WWI museum in Belgium — housed in the rebuilt Cloth Hall in Ypres/Ieper, where interactive exhibits follow individual soldiers from all nations through the Salient battles. The Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate is performed nightly.

The traditional fishing village behind Zeebrugge's industrial port — a cluster of fish restaurants, a small harbour with working fishing boats, and a seafood market where the daily catch from the North Sea is sold at wholesale prices.

A Bruges institution on the canal-side serving the definitive moules-frites — mussels cooked in white wine, celery and cream, served with double-fried Belgian chips and Belgian beer. The canal terrace in summer is the best table in Bruges.

Bruges's most acclaimed small restaurant — a tiny 30-cover dining room serving modern Flemish cuisine: Zeeland oysters, North Sea sole meunière, and Flemish beef stew (stoverij) braised in Trappist beer.

A warm brasserie in a converted Bruges stable serving Belgian classics — waterzooi (Ghent-style chicken stew), steak with Belgian sauce béarnaise, and a beer menu of 60 local Trappist and abbey ales.

The best seafood restaurant in Zeebrugge village — directly overlooking the fishing harbour, serving freshly caught North Sea crab, shrimp croquettes, and the daily fish from the adjacent auction.

Bruges's most adventurous chocolate shop — master chocolatier Dominique Persoone creates bonbons flavoured with wasabi, Earl Grey, tobacco, and lemon-pepper. Not a restaurant, but an essential Bruges food experience.

One of the world's great beer bars — a tiny, wood-panelled Bruges tavern with a list of 300+ Belgian ales. Opened in 1983, it was the bar that sparked the global craft beer movement by treating beer with the reverence of wine.

A canal-side Bruges bar in a 17th-century building serving Belgian jenever (gin) alongside craft beers — the jenever menu lists 50+ styles of the Dutch/Belgian spirit that predates London gin by 200 years.

The oldest café in Belgium, operating continuously since 1515 — a brown café with low wooden beams, a bocce court in the garden, and a menu of Belgian beers and simple snacks in a building older than Shakespeare.

Bruges's most respected waffle stand making the authentic Brussels waffle (light, rectangular, yeast-risen) and the Liège waffle (denser, caramelised pearl sugar) — both made from scratch every 20 minutes throughout the day.

A 30-minute boat tour through the medieval canal system of Bruges — the only way to see the back facades of the Gothic buildings, the hidden gardens and the low stone bridges from water level.

Belgium's other medieval gem — Ghent combines a stunning canal district with the intact Gravensteen (Castle of the Counts), the Ghent Altarpiece in Saint Bavo's Cathedral, and a thriving food and beer scene less touristy than Bruges.

The largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world — 11,956 graves on the Passchendaele battlefield where 700,000 men died in 1917. The Menin Gate in Ypres (5km away) bears 54,896 names of the missing.