Bruges (Brugge) holiday house: Bruges

We just returned from a New Year's stay at Hamilton House..... our 4th return visit. We love this place, our only complaint being that we cannot vist often enough! The renovation is of lovely quality, the location perfect, and attention to detail very thoughtful - the house was even prettily decorated for Christmas during our stay! Hamilton House combines the charm of a typical Bruges house with every modern facility you could want and represents super value for money when you consider the space and facilities against what you would get for the same price in a hotel. Our favourite things to do in Bruges include pottering around the back streets, admiring the charming buildings and imagining the history around every corner. Even this is provided for, with two bikes included ...... perfect for pottering...and letting you feel just like a local. I love the location of this house too..... away from the tourist throngs just close enough to be in the centre of things in 5 minutes walk. There is even a perfect tiny bar just round the corner, and a couple of great restaurants on the way into town. Parking is somewhat restricted in the centre of town.... but I am actually glad it is, otherwise Bruges would be just like every other congested city in the world. We never had to walk more than 5 minutes back from the parking spaces we found, and loved every new sight we discovered on the way. The free internet access was a real bonus for keeping in touch with home during our stay, as was the cable TV.... I tell all my friends about this lovely place and they are all desperate to come and visit! We will back as soon as we can manage it....and will be counting the days til then.

We have rented many houses in Belgium, even in Bruges. This is one of the best: tasteful, warm and very comfortable. We didn't have problems with the stairs (in other houses we had) though one of our guests was 82 years old. As we asked a lot about the house before we rented, we were informed there only is one bathroom.
As we know Bruges very well, we were informed about the parking problems. The buildingworks were a surprise, but they didn't give us a lot of problems. The workers even removed their cars, when we had to park in the neighbourhood of the house before we left.
We will recommend this house to our friends!!!

To be absolutely fair there are some really good points about this house, in no particular order they include the following. 1. The location being so close to the centre of Brugge is excellent. 2. The house itself is very comfortable and well furnished. 3. The add-ons are great, i.e. broadband connection, bicycles, books, dvd's etc. 4. The price is reasonable. 5. The house was absolutely spotless and has everything you should need while you're on holiday. 6. If you are able to then you can walk almost everywhere, if not there's a bus stop nearby and the fares are cheap.
You'll have gathered, I think, that there was a downside and you'd be correct. The photograph shows an idyllic setting, well it would wouldn't it? At the moment the view is a little different. The property details say that, with a bit of luck, you'll be able to park in the street. Well you'll need a considerable amount of luck as there are major building projects going on along almost the whole length of Krom Genthof. During the day from around 7.30am until 5.00pm the street was blocked by builders trucks and vans. When the owners representative came to collect the balance of our payment we raised the issue of the building works, her response was that the worst of it was over and she was surprised that the owner hadn't informed us, I wasn't.
The parking system in central Brugge has changed and you need a blue disc, this allows you to park for up to 4 hours. There was supposed to be one in the house for us to use but there wasn't. The result was that one of us had to stay with the car (tow away zone) while the other went to find somewhere to buy a blue parking disc. I really don't like over promising and under delivering.
I'm sure this property will be terrific when all of the building work is done but I suppose that depends what the building opposite is going to be.
Make sure, before you pay your deposit, that you ask about the building work. It didn't affect us too much as we were out most of the time but I can imagine that others might not be so forgiving. There are some pretty steep stairs in the house and the bathroom/shower arrangement means you'd need to be friendly with the rest of your party as it's attached to the first floor bedroom.
It is a nice house in a great location with everything you need close by. We love Brugge and will always come back. We really did like Hamilton House and would be happy to return, assuming the building work is finished.