Rail Travel in Belgium and Netherlands

The Belgian ten-journey ticket is only usable within Belgium, so I don't think it will be worthwhile for three journeys.

You don't say when your holiday is. If it is more than three months or so in advance, you can get significantly discounted fares for the international journeys, which go on sale 92 days before travel but tend to sell out fast. For trips between Belgium and the Netherlands, use www.thalys.com. For your trip to Frankfurt, use www.bahn.com. These will restrict you to specific journey times, though.

With careful use of these advance discount tickets, you will probably spend less than a pass would cost.

At 4 hours each way, Brussels-Frankfurt is a long way to go for a same-day roundtrip; direct trains depart Brussels at 6:25 a.m. and depart Frankfurt at 18:29. Is that your plan? Other departures with connections tend to take longer. My preference would be to choose a closer/cheaper day trip, instead.

Brussels-Frankfurt is obviously your most expensive ticket, too, with advance-discount rates currently at €236 roundtrip, total for two adults. Fares will go up as discounted tickets sell out, or a Eurail Benelux-Germany pass does cover it, but you'd have to order a pass ASAP for home delivery by Friday. With either tickets or pass, a child can travel free, but the age limits are different, and I don't know your daughter's age. If you chose the Benelux-Germany pass, then one strategy to/from Amsterdam would be to avoid Thalys trains, due to their extra seat reservation fee.

Philip and Laura, thanks for the replies --- My travel time is beginning next week, arriving in Brussels on Monday morning, August 3. I was considering the 10-journey pass within Belgium for our two-week stay, because we will definitely be making the three trips within Belgium noted above and possibly a fourth for a day trip to Antwerp (probably from Ghent). So, with the journey pass being used by both my daughter (age 23) and myself, that totals 8 train trips within Belgium. So $76 seems to be cheaper than eight individual tickets. Would this pass have to be delivered to me, though? Because in that case, there is obviously not enough time.

The day trip to Frankfurt is to visit a friend who lives in Germany and is also traveling to meet us there. I plan to do what Laura stated, and spend the $236 for two adults round trip.

Any suggestions for how to spend the 6 hours we will have in Frankfurt?

Thanks so much.

Does your friend know much about Frankfurt? Do they want to "do something" or just visit with you, maybe over a long lunch?

Without knowing a great deal about you or your friend it is difficult to know what would interest you?

Museums, Jewish heritage, riverfront, shopping - it is all there, but its a bit scattergun at the moment...

Of course, Nigel, sorry for being so vague! Actually, the friend is a friend of my daughters, and she will be spending the six hours strolling and 'hanging out' with her friend, while I will be pretty much on my own. I do enjoy art museums, history, shopping, etc. A pleasant shopping district with a casual place for lunch, and maybe a museum mixed in, would be a perfect six hours for me! Thanks again.

Your trip is a little underplanned. Besides missing the discount rail windows, you don't seem to know how frequent and cheap the local trains are in Belgium are, and how close together your Belgian cities are. I would daytrip from the city that pleases you most. For me, Antwerp. For Martin McDonaugh fans, Brugge.

It turns out that the value of the belgian 10-trip is that you don't have to wait in line to buy tickets every day, and you can share it between multiple riders, as long as you fill in the lines before the train moves. Buy it in any big Belgian station.

Good to know I can buy the Belgian 10-trip at a Belgian station if I choose to.