Hi,
We will be in Belgium and were hoping to make day trips to Amsterdam and France. We are a family of 4, with 2 children — 11 and 14. We were wondering what the cheapest site would be to purchase these tickets. So far, through Rail Europe it seems to cost several hundred euros for all of us which is out of our budget.
Thank you so much
Use the national rail websites - you have been given the Belgian ones (local and international), in addition to these you can use the Dutch website https://www.nsinternational.com/en and the French website https://www.sncf-connect.com/app/en-en/trips for the Dutch and French legs of the journey respectively. There should not be a difference between the Belgian site and the French and Dutch sites in price, they are here as an alternative. Brussels - Amsterdam is a long day trip, consider an overnight.
Rail Europe is a reselller and puts its extra charge on top. Avoid!
Lavandula
where in France do you want to go for your day trip? Paris? Lille? Just cross the border to add another country?
As said above - avoid places like RailEurope - use the folks who run the trains
There are relatively fast trains from Brussels and from Antwerp, to Paris. But while faster than Amsterdam, it seems too long for a daytrip to me. Because the fast trains are useful to business travelers, they are not likely to be a bargain. Have you looked at the timings yet? Use only national rail companies to buy train tickets.
Have you considered buying Open-Jaw (Multi-City) air tickets, so you fly home from Paris or Amsterdam, instead of BRU?
