Day tourists flock to the coast: busy Flemish roads and public transport

Day tourists flock to the coast, and that is also noticeable on the Flemish roads, says spokesman Peter Bruyninckx of the Flemish Traffic Center. After 9 am the first traffic jams arose and around noon there are still delays. The nuisance is greatest on the E40.

“From Brussels to Ostend you have to add half an hour because traffic is slowing down in various places due to accordion traffic jams. That has been going on for a while.”

Also busy in stations and trains

It is not only busy on the roads to the coast on Saturday, but the trains to the beach are also fully booked. “We have been channeling people in the stations of Brussels, Ghent and Bruges all morning, and that way the crowds are manageable,” says NMBS spokesman Bart Crols. The evening exodus from the coast back to the interior is usually a bit more spread out and should therefore not cause major problems in princpipe.

Coastal barometer turns orange

Even in the seaside towns themselves it is often upside down. In Blankenberge, Ostend, Middelkerke and De Panne – the seaside resorts where most trains arrive – the pressure barometer of De Kust is orange. That means it is very busy. Elsewhere, the crowds are not that bad at the moment. Consult the pressure barometer on the coast here.

Between Koksijde and De Panne, watch out for blue hair jellyfish and ear jellyfish that wash ashore en masse. They are left in the shallow pits when the water recedes. “Large specimens can itch,” says Luc David of Natuurpunt.