The 5 most unusual places to stay in Ghent

Mieke De Maeyer has created a quirky one-bedroom hideaway inside a shipping container perched high above an industrial space. The interior is designed in a playful contemporary style with plywood walls, a tiny shower and a folding ladder up to the bedroom. We liked the relaxed mood, the view of the Ghent skyline, and Mieke’s list of city tips sent to guests by email.

Here is a friendly new B&B located in an old printing works. It lies a ten-minute walk from the centre in a quiet urban neighbourhood. The bedrooms are designed in a cool minimalist style with a home cinema and a blue glowing shower cabin bang in the middle of the room.

A striking boutique hotel opened in 2017 in the upper floors of the former central post office. The 38 rooms are decorated in a warm style evoking the building’s late 19th-century architecture, with high ceilings and antique furniture. Located in the heart of Ghent, the hotel offers its guests some of the best views in the city and has a stylish cocktail bar which might soon become the most fashionable hang-out in town.

This elegant B&B is located in a beautiful art nouveau villa from 1909 in a quiet suburban street. The guest rooms are very spacious with period furniture, comfortable sitting areas and rain showers. Owners Hilde and Georges serve a generous breakfast featuring homemade bread and local products. But the most intriguing element is the garden where they have lovingly planted all 76 flowers and plants identified by botanists in the Van Eyck altarpiece.

This handsome B&B occupies a 19th-century town house near Sint-Pieters-station. The five rooms have bare wooden floors, old marble fireplaces and vintage bathtubs. The owners are very welcoming and provide a generous breakfast. Room 5, tucked below the attic, is the perfect romantic hideaway.