Social Events✻Ghent✻2 hostels✻Handpicked✻Real reviews✻Social Events✻Ghent✻2 hostels✻Handpicked✻Real reviews✻Social Events✻Ghent✻2 hostels✻Handpicked✻Real reviews✻

Ghent Social EventsRanked guide

Best Hostels with Social Events in Ghent

Two of Ghent's four top-rated hostels run real organised social activity: Hostel Uppelink's free 11:00 daily walking tour (started by the hostel twenty years ago, the most-recommended thing in any Ghent traveller review), and Treck Hostel's Friday and Saturday garden live music nights with BBQ in summer plus the bike-led explorations of Brugse Poort the rest of the year. Ghent is a student city, not a stag-do destination — these are real social moments, not party-machine events.

◉ Ranking · 2 picks

01Hostel Uppelink€35
02Treck Hostel€38

§ 01 — Traveler's take

“The Ghent social-event hostel decision is binary: pick Uppelink if the canonical walking-tour-then-bar pattern fits, pick Treck if you want music nights and a real neighbourhood. Doing both is normal — many travellers spend two nights at each. Skip if your idea of social is a 100-person party hostel; that scene doesn't exist in Ghent and the alternative is to take the train 25 min to Bruges (also doesn't exist there) or 35 min to Brussels (Generator, if you must).”

§ 02 — The ranked list

Our Top 2 Picks

★ 8.93,046 reviews€35/night

Hostel Uppelink

Hostel Uppelink occupies a 16th-century guildhouse on Sint-Michielsplein, directly on the Korenlei canal and 50 metres from Saint Michael's Bridge. Free daily walking tours leave from reception at 11:00, the on-site bar opens onto the canal view, and the upstairs shared kitchen has the most photographed window in any hostel in the country. Location score 9.8/10.

Five-arched canal-view kitchen on the top floor
Free 11:00 daily walking tour from reception
On-site bar with Belgian-only taps and canal terrace
Location score 9.8 — directly on Korenlei canal

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★ 8.51,318 reviews€38/night

Treck Hostel

Treck Hostel is the most personality-driven hostel in Ghent — a converted house in the arty Brugse Poort district where you can sleep in a vintage caravan, an indoor camper, or a regular dorm. Live music nights, bike rental, BBQ in the garden, and a buffet breakfast for €5 make it the obvious party-meets-quirky pick. 1.2 mi from the centre but Ghent is bikeable end-to-end.

Sleep in a vintage caravan or indoor camper van
Garden with BBQ, ping-pong and live music nights
€5 buffet breakfast — the cheapest in the city
Bike rental on-site for €10/day

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§ 03 — Tips

Tips for Choosing a Hostel with Social Events in Ghent

Tip Nº 01

Show up at Hostel Uppelink reception by 10:55 for the 11:00 walking tour — it leaves on time, no late starts. Open to non-guests, no booking needed. Tip the guide €3-5 if you enjoyed it (Belgian custom for free tours).

Tip Nº 02

Treck Hostel posts the Friday/Saturday live music line-up on the chalkboard at reception by Wednesday. Garden gigs run 19:30-22:30. Locals join from about 20:00.

Tip Nº 03

After the Uppelink walking tour, the standard move is the on-site bar's hidden canal terrace (€4 Gruut, 30% of guests miss it because the door is marked 'staff'). Then the upstairs kitchen window for sunset.

Tip Nº 04

For an actual Ghent pub crawl skip the hostels and do the cellar-bar circuit yourself: Trollekelder (200+ beers), Het Spijker (canal terrace), Dulle Griet (the Kwak-with-shoe-deposit pub on Vrijdagmarkt). 5-minute walk between each.

§ 04 — Other vibes