It’s in the middle of the summer of 2025 and we were invited to the wedding of friends. They decided to host their wedding in the Belgian Coastal city of Blankenberge. As this is quite a trek from our home town of Antwerp, it wasn’t feasible to return home after the wedding so we decided to stay the night in Blankenberge even though I said I’d never book a stay at the Belgian Coast. Blankenberge especially is a bit of a working class past its prime coastal town, not the kind of destination I’d usually visit. The Belgian coastline with its tall concrete apartment buildings lining the beach also doesn’t make for the most scenic seaside destination.

For our overnight stay we selected the Mercure Blankenberge as this both looked like the most modern and high end hotel in the city (which being a Mercure isn’t really a compliment) and easy to reach by train. It’s actually located inside the station along with its sister hotel the Ibis Budget.

Upon arrival we were pleasentlay surprised by the modern look of the lobby and the nice smelling perfume they used. A nice smell in the lobby allways adds a luxutious touch to the arrival experience.

We had a very friendly welcome and despite our early arrival of 12:30 our room was already available. We received a city facing room on the second floor. It’s in a modern style, the big bed centrally in the room with power plugs on both sides of the bed. There was also a table with 2 seats near the window, on which they also set the 2 complimentary bottles of water, still and sparkling. The room also offered coffee and tea facilities, but just with a kettle and powdered coffee as well as 2 bags of tea (black and mint).

While there is a big window opening onto a balcony of some sort, it only opens on tilt so you can’t walk out and enjoy the balcony. Which was unfortunate.

The bathroom was basic but nicely appointed with a big walk-in shower that didn’t flood the bathroom with a choice of a rain shower head or a handheld shower head. The sink did show some wear and tear as there was a chip out of the porcelain.

Products provided covered the while range of bodywash, conditioner, shampoo and body lotion, where nice and with a honey smell.

In the room they didn’t provide slippers, bathrobes nor pool towels despite the hotel offering a rooftop pool. When we went to visit it was bigger than expected with some nice loungers stationed around it. The pool had a nice temperature and offered views of both he city and the station. The only downside was that there were no pool towels provided and you had to bring your own, something which I think a 4 star hotel should provide poolside.

In the morning the breakfast was rather basic, it was kept topped up and fresh continuously however. There was a choice of breads, pastries and cereals, cold cuts, yoghurt, fruits, some hot dishes such as eggs, bacon and mushrooms as well as sad looking pancakes. Coffee and tea was available from a self-serve machine and both orange and apple juice where available in jugs (not freshly made of course). For the price tag of over €25 per person they charge I did find it a bit underwhelming, for that price point I expected a little better.

All in all we had a good stay at the Mercure Blankenberge, it’s a clean modern hotel with friendly staff. As far as Mercure’s go it is one of the better ones but it also doesn’t excel above and beyond. The hotel is actually very Belgian in being right in the middle of the pack with nothing bad or outstanding about it.