The picturesque city of Bruges has joined the ranks of Paris and New York in this year's edition of the 50 most Instagrammable places in the world, the only Belgian city to make the cut.
"Often overlooked by its Brussels and Antwerp cousins," Bruges comes in at number 42 on the 2021 list put together by global travel site Big 7 Travel, placing it between Nice, France (43) and Hoi An, Vietnam (41).
"Loaded with charming canals, quaint cobbled streets and tons of medieval charm, photographing Bruges for the gram brings a totally different era to life," reads the listing. "If all that romantic charm weren’t enough, you could also find your usual line up of incredible Belgian beer, chocolate and waffles perfect for insta-foodies."
Bruges' entry marks the first time that a Belgian city has made it into the rankings, with the country missing from the 2019 & 2020 worldwide lists.
4 Belgian cities did make it onto the list of the 50 most Instagrammable destinations in Europe in 2019, with Bruges ranking the highest, in 16th place.
For the first year, Tokyo has been named top of the list, a slot which had been held by Australia in 2019 and 2020.
The winning places are selected "via a comprehensive scoring system that analysed the number of hashtags per destination, sample survey results of Big 7 Media’s 1.5 million audience, and input from our global editorial team," according to a statement from the company.
The final results are ranked in order of their visual allure and popularity on social media.
For the full results, click here.
Jules Johnston
The Brussels Times
