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Rail passes?

Posted by (Providence, RI) on

I have been thinking about a trip to England, the Netherlands and Belgium with my husband and I have some questions about rail passes. I’ve been looking at the eurail.com website and I just want to make sure I get the correct tickets.

  1. Based on this itinerary, would I get the Eurail-Benelux or point to point tickets?
  2. If it is the Benelux, would it be the “4 day within 2 months” pass for days 8, 10, 13 and 15?
  3. For the Beneleux rail pass, do I have to make reservations for specific times or can we be flexible?
  4. If I get point to point tickets, should I buy ahead of time from this website or wait until we get to the train station?

Thank you!

My first rough draft itinerary for 26 Sept to 14 Oct is as follows:

Days 1-6: London

Day 7: Eurostar to Brussels, overnight Brussels

Day 8: train/daytrip to Ghent, overnight Brussels

Day 9: Brussels, overnight Brussels

Day 10: train to Bruges, overnight Bruges

Day 11: tour to Flanders Fields, overnight Bruges

Day 12: tour Bruges, overnight Bruges

Day 13: train from Bruges to Delft, overnight Delft

Day 14: tour Delft, overnight Delft

Day 15: (Not sure about this one. Too rushed?) train from Delft to The Hague to see The Mauritshuis, train to Leiden for a quick stop, train to Amsterdam

Days 16-20: Amsterdam

Posted by
8889 posts

You definitely need to get the London - Brussels ticket early (available from 120 days before travel), that is discounted if you buy early, and is not included in any pass. website: www.eurostar.com

For trains in Belgium, there is no discount for early booking, you might as well buy tickets on the station at the day. My guess is that buying individual tickets is cheaper than a pass. Look up prices at the Belgian Railways website to check this: www.belgianrail.be

The Brussels - Amsterdam High Speed Train (Thalys) again gives discounts for early purchase.

Posted by
11294 posts

"I’ve been looking at the eurail.com website and I just want to make sure I get the correct tickets. "

Unfortunately, Rail Europe or Eurail is rarely the way to get the best information. A much better source is The Man In Seat 61. If you look at his website, you will learn everything you need to know about train travel in Europe. Here's his introduction to the subject: http://www.seat61.com/Europe-train-travel.htm#.VXO00EZzujA

On the subject of rail passes, his wonderful discussion is here: http://tinyurl.com/bkw4u6c

To get prices and buy tickets, you want to go directly to the website of the train operator. Here's his list of these: http://tinyurl.com/bo8x6o6

Posted by
4684 posts

Belgian railways offers a cheap multi-trip ticket which they refer to as a "pass", but which covers ten one-way journeys within a year entirely within Belgium. You can share it with your husband, but in that case each use will cover two of the ten journeys. The cost is 76 euros or 7.60 per trip, which is often cheaper than buying a separate ticket for each journey.

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