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.
Oosteroever
Family-run oyster farm and seafood bar on the Spuikom: farm oysters, a seafood platter and shellfish tapas at lunch, Monday and Wednesday to Saturday.
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.
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.
A five-sided fort Napoleon ordered in 1811, hidden in the dunes across the harbour, with an audio story trail and a brasserie.
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.
Family-run three-star hotel 50 m from the beach with breakfast included, family rooms and a published seasonal price list.
Harbour (Visserskaai)
Small, family-run two-star hotel on the Visserskaai with marina views, breakfast included and a pancake pub on the ground floor.
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.
