Discover the best luxury spa hotels in Ghent, Belgium

Northwest Belgium’s port city Ghent has an impressive mediaeval core that’s dotted with towers and spires, thanks to a handful of imposing cathedrals and the 12th-century Gravensteen castle. The city’s canal meanders around to the cobblestoned Patershol district, where tucked-away restaurants, galleries and boutiques hide behind the Old World edifices, but Ghent’s Museum of Contemporary Art, SMAK, offers more in-your-face modernity with its works by Bacon, Warhol and assorted provocative artists. Catch a breath of fresh air in postcard-pretty Citadel Park or wander over to the abbey gardens of 7th-century Saint Peter’s, before stopping for an almost obligatory lunch of

moules-frites

and Trappist ale…