THE Waves - Sand in Oostende

The apartment is modern, clean, and nicely furnished, and the underground garage is a big plus. We booked through Novosol, with the transaction handled by Jolie Invest. It's on the second floor facing the main street. With the windows shut, there's little traffic noise, more of a whistling wind. The building is orderly, quiet, and clean, with a deserted-looking facade, though you're not allowed to do much there. Ostend itself isn't particularly attractive, and the area has lots of hideous high-rises. The sea is close, though, and in summer there's a huge Sunday market along the promenade in front of the building, I think until the end of August. The North Sea in mid-August was colder and windier than we'd expected, which made swimming difficult. There's a Delhaize supermarket nearby, an expensive Express Market, and a small place selling bread rolls by the sea or promenade on Sundays, which I didn't use. The coastal tram stops right in front of the house. It takes about 30 minutes to walk into town. Bruges isn't too far, Ghent and Brussels are a bit farther away, and Dunkirk in France is quite nice. Plopsaland is about half an hour away. Garbage disposal in Ostend, Belgium, is a disaster. You have to hunt for containers, or check the map the city provides. Containers for different kinds of waste are never all available, and the plastic ones are always full or completely empty, for example at Jolie Invest. General waste costs 50 cents. The bed linen from the agency smelled like sweaty feet. We also got only one large towel for three people, along with small bath towels or cloths. Luckily, we were there for the weekend and brought our own towels. Bringing our own sheets wouldn't have helped, since one bed had only one giant duvet. We probably won't return to Ostend, but if you do visit, this apartment in The Waves is a good place to stay if the distance from the city doesn't bother you.