During our stay in this charming northern French city, we check into Hotel Oceania Lille, a contemporary hotel that proves to be a very convenient base for exploring Lille and beyond. With its easy location, comfortable rooms and practical city-hotel style, it works well for a cultured weekend of museums, architecture, shopping and good food.

One of the biggest advantages of Hotel Oceania Lille is its location. For a short city break, being well positioned makes all the difference, and this hotel is a very easy base from which to discover the city. Arriving, settling in and heading straight out to explore felt effortless, which is exactly what you want for a few days away.

The hotel itself has a modern, functional style. This is not the kind of place you choose for historic grandeur or highly individual design, but rather for comfort, convenience and ease. After a day spent walking through Lille’s elegant streets, visiting museums and enjoying long lunches, it is lovely to come back to a room that felt calm and comfortable.

The rooms are contemporary and practical, with everything needed for a pleasant stay. The overall feeling is streamlined and relaxed, which suits Lille well: the city provides the character and atmosphere, while the hotel offers a simple, comfortable retreat.

Comfort all around

Having breakfast in the hotel always makes a city trip feel smoother, especially when you want to start the morning without immediately having to decide where to go. The breakfast itself was a good start to the day, but the space is more compact than one might ideally wish for when the hotel is busy.

Lille is such an attractive destination because it combines history, culture and style in a very natural way. Located close to the Belgian border, the city has long been shaped by both French and Flemish influences, and that mix gives it a distinctive identity. You see it in the architecture, feel it in the atmosphere and even notice it in the food.

Historically, Lille was an important trading city, and that prosperity is still visible in its handsome façades, grand squares and elegant streets. Yet despite its rich past, Lille feels lively and contemporary rather than formal. After being European Capital of Culture in 2004, Lille Métropole became World Design Capital in 2020 — and you can feel that creative reinvention in the city’s museums, street art, design spaces and restored industrial buildings. It is a city that invites you to explore on foot, stop for coffee, browse boutiques and simply enjoy being there.

The most charming part of the city is undoubtedly Vieux-Lille, the old quarter. This is where Lille feels most atmospheric, with its cobbled streets, beautiful townhouses, independent shops and inviting cafés. It is the kind of neighbourhood where you can happily spend hours without any particular plan.

We love simply wandering here, admiring the architecture and dipping in and out of little shops and food addresses. It is elegant but still lively, and it gives Lille much of its appeal as a weekend destination.

A visit to Lille Cathedral adds another layer to the city. Located in the old centre, it is easy to include as part of a stroll through Vieux-Lille. The cathedral brings a sense of calm and history, and it is always interesting to step inside places like this to understand a city beyond its shops and restaurants.

No cultural weekend in Lille would be complete without a visit to the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille. This is one of the city’s great highlights and an impressive museum in every sense. The building itself is grand, and the collection makes it a rewarding stop even for those who do not necessarily build every trip around museums. It added real depth to our stay and reminded us just how culturally rich Lille is. A visit here gives the weekend substance and makes Lille feel far more than simply a pretty city for shopping and dining.

One of the memorable parts of our trip is heading by metro to Roubaix for the theatre. It turned into more of an adventure than expected for a temporarily disruption on the line and the journey suddenly becomes less straightforward than planned. But what could have been stressful becomes one of those travel moments you remember fondly, thanks to the kindness of the people around us. Fellow passengers were incredibly helpful, and we were genuinely touched by how willing everyone was to assist. It said a lot about the warmth of the city and the region. In the end, it was absolutely worth it: we saw a beautiful performance, and the whole outing added a special dimension to the trip. It also reminded us how enjoyable it can be to go beyond the centre of Lille and experience more of the wider area.

While in Roubaix, a visit to La Piscine Museum is truly worthwhile. Housed in a former Art Deco swimming pool, it is one of the most distinctive museums in the region and a wonderful complement to the more classical grandeur of the Palais des Beaux-Arts. The setting alone makes it unforgettable. There is something so striking about seeing art displayed in a former pool building, and it creates a museum experience that feels visually rich and different from the usual city-museum visit.

La Piscine Museum

Lille is also a very enjoyable city for food. There is a warmth to the dining scene here that suits the city perfectly: elegant enough to feel special, but never overly formal. The old town in particular is full of appealing places to eat, and one of the pleasures of Lille is that the culinary side of the trip fits so naturally with the cultural one.

A swimming pool and small sauna adds that little bit of relaxation to a cultural break and gives the stay a more leisurely feel.

WOW

# excellent location for exploring Lille, one of northern France’s most appealing cities
# practical base for museums, shopping and dining and easy to combine Lille with an outing to Roubaix
# the pool with beautiful elements of the former bank, is a welcome extra after sightseeing