looking for Brugge private tour

[jan44134]

We're currently aboard the Star Princess, arriving in Brugge 5/7. We cancelled the ship's tour to Brugge which involves 90 min walking tour at beginning, 20 min walk back to bus at the end. We are a couple (possibly 2 couples) who need basic transportation from the ship to the Markt area & then return to the ship. We don't need a tour, but both couples have mobility issues, so we are looking for transportation that takes us close in, then lets us move about at our own slow pace.

 

Brugge taxi is already fully booked, so we need another suggestion. Thank you for your help.

[HeinBloed]

We're currently aboard the Star Princess, arriving in Brugge 5/7. We cancelled the ship's tour to Brugge which involves 90 min walking tour at beginning, 20 min walk back to bus at the end. We are a couple (possibly 2 couples) who need basic transportation from the ship to the Markt area & then return to the ship. We don't need a tour, but both couples have mobility issues, so we are looking for transportation that takes us close in, then lets us move about at our own slow pace.

 

Brugge taxi is already fully booked, so we need another suggestion. Thank you for your help.

 

We are just back from Bruges and booked our taxi with

 

http://www.taxisnel.be

 

You can try it - they cannot say more than no.

 

As you are going with the sister line of P&O PRINCESS I am quite sure that they provide complimentary shuttle to Blankenberge.

 

All you need is to walk from here behind the church to the train station:

 

 

At the corner you see already the end of the building of the train station.

 

 

All trains out of Blankenberge are leaving from street level. So no stairways.

 

 

In Bruges all platforms were well connected by elevator and escalators to the tunnel.

 

In front of the station you find buses and taxis (right of the picture...):

 

 

A taxi to the market square will be about 8 EUR.

 

A bus ride is 1.20 EUR (single trip if you buy at the ticket machine - "speaks" English and change for 5 EUR-bills) or 2.00 EUR with the driver. Every few minutes a city-center-bound bus takes you right at the heart of Bruges to Market Square.

 

Although you have mentioned that you dislike to have a tour: many streets in the city center are pedestrian only and/or cobblestone which will not make walking easy.

 

But just to mention: from the Market Square you find the little mini-buses which takes you around the city center or the horse carriages:

 

 

About 2-3 blocks away you can also use the canalboats to move in the city and see somthing:

 

 

More information about the shuttle to Blankenberge you can find here:

 

http://heinbloed-cruiseguides.blogspot.com/2010/05/zeebrugge-belgium-transport-options.html

 

More impressions from Bruges you can find here:

 

http://heinbloed-cruiseguides.blogspot.com/2010/05/bruges-belgium-impressions.html

 

We had the day beautiful weather and a great time.

 

Same wishes for you and your tour.

 

Regards

HeinBloed

[LHT28]

There will probably be more taxis once they drop off the booked guests

I would just go to the dock area after 10 am you will probably get a taxi.

They run about 45E ow but if you are sharing then you can share the fare

[jan44134]

Thank you HeinBloed and LHT28 for your prompt and helpful replies -- I do so much appreciate you! We became aware of a new option last night when the cruise director announced that a ship's shuttle will be available today from Zeebrugge to Blankenberge. I hopped on the computer to do research, and we may visit the Sea Life Center there -- or catch the train into Brugge if we can tag along with others doing the same. I am usually not this timid, but we almost missed the ship on a different trip when the train connection in Italy was late! The predicted high today is 50F/10C, so we will also keep that in mind.

 

Tomorrow we go on to Rotterdam. We will take the little boat to see the Kinderdijk windmills.

[HeinBloed]

We became aware of a new option last night when the cruise director announced that a ship's shuttle will be available today from Zeebrugge to Blankenberge.

 

Can you confirm if the shuttle was complimentary???

 

Or 20 EUR like another cruiser reported???

 

Regards

HeinBloed

[jan44134]

I'm sorry, but I don't know the cost of the ship's shuttle, but someone else thought it was $6/8e one way. We were fortunate to be grabbed by a friendly Australian couple immediately as we set foot on land, and shared a taxi to Brugge for 50e + tip. Brugge was lovely -- but cold! We enjoyed it so much, and thank you again for your encouragement.

 

Can you confirm if the shuttle was complimentary???

 

Or 20 EUR like another cruiser reported???

 

Regards

HeinBloed