The best and cheapest transportation methods in Ghent

1. Renting a bike

Well, first of all the good old bike can do wonders. You never have to wait for a bus or tram, you can easily get to your destination and it’s just fun having the wind blow through your hair, isn’t it? The best part is that you can rent a blue bike at the 2 train stations in Ghent, Gent-Sint-Pieters and Gent Dampoort. Renting a bike costs only 3 euros a day once you have paid a registration fee of 12 euros. Click here for more information about the fee. On the site there is also an other blog about bikes that could be usefull.

2. Use public transport (by bus and tram)

The public transport in Ghent is extensive. The city of Ghent and ‘De Lijn’ work really hard to make the city centre as accessible as possible. That’s why most of the sport facilities will be located around bus and/or tram stops.

The bus and tram are from the same corporation, named ‘De Lijn’ which means ‘the line’.

3: Buy a 5 day pass

Visitors can buy a 5-day-pass. This pass offers you unlimited access to all buses and trams. It costs 17 euros and you can only buy them at a ticket machine or ‘Lijnwinkels’. These ‘Lijnwinkels’ in Ghent are located at Ghent Sint-Pieters station, Korenmarkt or Ghent South.

A SMS ticket costs € 2 + € 0,15 which you can get by texting ‘DL’ to 4884. You can also buy a ticket on the app of De Lijn which only costs € 1,80. Both tickets allows you to take buses and trams for 60 minutes. 

4: Buy a Travel Pass

If you are planning to stay in Ghent for a long time, consider purchasing a 'Travel Pass'. A Travel Pass gives you access to all buses and trams for several months. Depending on your age, you can buy a 'Buzzy Pass', an 'Omnipass' or an 'Omnipass 65+'. Go to De lijn for more information about Travel Passes. 

If you want real-time information about your bus or tram while waiting at the stop, you can go to De lijn and fill in the name or number of your stop in the search engine.

5: Calling a Taxi

A taxi can drive you home safe at a moderate rate. Here is a list of locations and Taxi companies. Here, you can see some of the standard prices: 

• Starting price: €8,5 (including the first 3 kilometres)
• Price per kilometre: €2,2 (starting from kilometre 3)
• Waiting fee per hour: €35
• Surtax between 10pm and 6am: €2,5