Stop at the Hotel Welkom during your West Flanders travel. A family-run affordable Damme hotel, it is a great place to stay on a weekend break from Antwerp or Brussels, or as a stopover before taking a passenger ferry from the Port of Zeebrugge to the United Kingdom. The Hotel Welkom is run by a local woman who grew up in her family’s tavern along the Damme canal, called the Damse Vaart. In 1991 she and her husband began construction of a family hotel next to the tavern. Today the hotel and tavern are a popular stop especially for those on cycling tours, with its classy indoor bar and outdoor terrace serving meals, snacks, and 99 different varieties of beer. The hotel is located a 10 minute drive from the historic town of Damme, which was the site of the Battle of Damme between the English and the French in 1213. You can trace the pattern of the star-shaped fortifications that once protected the town by looking for the lines of poplar trees and a moat in places. Damme is also known as a book town and a destination for boat trips. From the Hotel Welkom it’s just 7.1 km/4.4 miles to the seaside resort of Knokke-Heist, 14.1 km/8.8 miles to the historic city centre of Bruges, and 17.1 km/10.6 miles to the Port of Zeebrugge.