Find places to eat, things to do and local favourites for your stay by the sea.
Selected by Ostend City Guide
Cocktail bar
Centre
Lively cocktail and tapas bar by the Kursaal, with tropical and tiki cocktails, late-night sharing plates, pasta and resident DJs.
Restaurant
A Thai restaurant on the Vlaanderenstraat in central Ostend: curries, Pad Thai and stir-fries to eat in, take away or have delivered.
Brasserie
Harbour (Visserskaai)
Brasserie, wine bar and hotel at the top of the Visserskaai, open daily, known for shrimp croquettes and dishes à l’Ostendaise.
Attraction
Raversijde
Open-air museum in the dunes with more than 60 bunkers, gun positions and tunnels from both world wars, on Prince Charles’ former estate.
Art
The painter James Ensor’s home and studio, kept as he left it, with an interactive visitor centre on his masks, carnival and Ostend.
Nature
A romantic 19th-century park on the old town walls, with ponds, waterfalls, a bandstand from 1885 and a giant flower clock.
Hotel
Mariakerke
Large holiday hotel on the Mariakerke promenade with rooms and apartments, buffet restaurants, an indoor pool, a kids’ play village and the tram outside.
Restored Art Deco hotel from 1880 on Marie-Joséplein, 100 m from the sea, with a classic grand café on the ground floor.
Family-run charm hotel with 14 rooms on the polder side of Mariakerke, with a large garden, playground, private terraces and free parking.
28Mar
Exhibition
Seafront (Zeedijk)
28 Mar – 3 Jan 2027
10:00–17:30
About 100 works trace 150 years of small sculpture in Belgium, from Art Deco statuettes to Wim Delvoye, at Mu.ZEE on the seafront until 3 January 2027.
16May
16 May – 9 Nov 2026
10:00–18:00
A small exhibition at Ostend’s City Museum on Paster Pype, the priest remembered as the father of the fishermen, with unseen photographs. Until 9 November.
