Day trip to Lille from Ghent

We visited Lille on a stop from Bruges to Arras. We spent about 3 hours. It is a lovely city, similar, we thought, in style to Paris or Bordeaux. You won't need it, but for others, there is a luggage check at the train station. We walked to the TI and picked up some information and then strolled around town. We only had that bit of time so we didn't do a lot of research, but certainly one could spend a day or two there. There are many possible day trips from there as well.

It was my understanding that Belgian train tickets that cross country lines are time specific. However, our day of travel, several trains were cancelled and train employees told us to hop on whatever worked. I even asked a train employee at another station if it is always the case that any train could be used, and he did say yes. But, I would double check. When we left Lille, we purchased a ticket at a kiosk to get to Arras. I do know that purchasing tickets in advance for Bruges to Lille, saved me money. It was my impression that travel across country lines were more expensive, or it could have been Belgian tickets were more expensive in general. We purchased tickets for Bruges to Ghent, day of, but our tickets from Haarlem to Bruges and Bruges to Lille, we purchased in advance at a savings.

My experience on visiting Lille is rather dated, some 30 years ago twice as day trips from Arras on 2 different France trips.

Since it has been so long my trip plans for 2024 is to see Lille again , hopefully in June. Obviously, the centre-ville but not to be missed, the WW1 military cemetery in the neighboring village of Lambersart.

It was my understanding that Belgian train tickets that cross country lines are time specific.

Only premium international trains with compulsory reservation have train specific tickets. There are a quite a few regional cross border services that operate on the default distance based tariff, where you can take any train you want. The Lille - Kortrijk service is one of those services.

Lille is close enough to the border that its Urban area actually extends in to Belgium, and two lines of the Lille TER network crosse the border. One to Kortrijk, the other to Tournai. Both are operated by the Belgian Railways, but are classed as IC in Belgium and TER in France.

I really like Lille, but as someone who lives in France, I think I like it for the flamboyant Flemish architectural flavor it brings. Were I already spending time in Belgium, I am not sure that I would go there, as I am not sure how "different" it would feel.

I made a daytrip from Antwerp to Lille, about 15 years ago, mainly for the Palais de Beaux Arts, where I spent the whole day. I had to take three trains (and 3 hours!) each way, but I understand that only 2 are needed now. It was a very worthwhile trip. I'd say it's worth an overnight. If I had a cheap room in Ghent, I'd just keep it. But I'm 72, and can afford that.

To make the trip harder, I was using a 10-trip (write-in) Belgian ticket for the domestic segment, so I needed a round trip ticket from Mouscron (the last Belgian station) to Lille.

I have visited Lille several times, in 2015 with the train from Ghent-Sint-Pieters and last week with one from Bruges, both with changes in Kortrijk / Courtrai. In 2015 was also a few days before Christmas and enjoyed it very much, but was not so much the case this year. Liked the vibrant atmosphere then and experienced it as a nice place to explore, especially the old part of town, Vieux Lille with all it’s little shops, taverns and restaurants.

Maybe I already knew what to expect this time and / or the strong wind, somehow it didn’t feel like 8 years ago. Nevertheless visiting Lille for the first time like I did can be really worthwhile. If you like shopping in combination with a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts and pub crawling in the evening Lille is certainly worth a daytrip. As Kim already notes it has an unmistakable Flemish influence and some streets giving you the idea walking through those of Ghent. Buildings are beautifully iluminated after sunset.

After crawling the pubs you can sleep there, but I would do that more for practical reasons. Speaking for myself one day will be enough, unless an event is going on like that huge annual flee market in September. But again that's my idea.

On the way back with the train Kortrijk is only announced at the station with it's French name, Courtrai. And Antwerp(en) with Anvers, G(h)ent with Gand.

@Wengen, this was discussed prior to my trip to Belgium etc. Your advice was spot on. The only thing I'm still wondering about is, my particular tickets which crossed country lines were saver tickets purchased at least a month in advance. Others on the forum advised that since I purchased the saver tickets we needed to take the exact train schedule we purchased. That turned out to not be the case, but I'm not 100% confident that it is always the case that the purchased itinerary does not need to be followed or if it was because legs of our train route were cancelled. Because I mentioned to the OP that the tickets could be purchased in advance, I would want to make sure OP is still able to take any train. For us, it was quite worthwhile to purchase the saver ticket.

Thanks for all the excellent info everyone.

@WengenK - This explains what I've been seeing in my research. I was seeing IC trains when searching from Ghent, and TER trains when searching from the other direction. I was confused about that at first, but it makes sense now that I know they're the same Belgian operated trains just coded differently.

@Tim - I like your idea of "double booking" (if I'm understanding you correctly). I have done it in the past but I don't think that's in the cards for me this trip, unfortunately. So it would either be day trip or switch hotels.

@jules m - Correct me if I'm wrong on this but from what I'm gathering from Wengen and the bit of poking around on the Internet I've done so far, the Kortrijk to Lille route is considered a local train and is fixed fare that can be bought on the day, unlike say the TGV or Eurostar trains out of Lille. I'm certainly hoping this is the case otherwise that would complicate my "day trip" idea.

You can take the local / regional train all the way from Ghent to Lille and buy the ticket the day you travel. Belgium is modernizing it’s train stations and so closing more and more ticket windows, so you have to go to the inside Travel Center or make use of ticket machines. No idea how much is this the case in Ghent right now. More convenient is buying online if you have the right payment method, you can see at the bottomside of the following website. You have to print the ticket at home or hotel and show it to the steward, so they can scan the QR-code. Know there is a discount for seniors. https://www.b-europe.com/EN

Tickets for local / regional trains even if they cross the border are valid the day they are issued for. So you can board any time of that day you want, even hop off and take a later train to your destination as long as you don’t backtrack and use the shortest possible route from point to point. So if you want to walk around in Kortrijk that day for a while you can hop off and catch a later train to Lille or Ghent depending the direction with the same ticket you carry with you.

You only have to buy a ticket for each journey between in this case Ghent and Lille and includes the change in Kortrijk. For a highspeed train you have to go with a local train all the way to Brussels first and in total it will need almost the same time as the more direct connection with local trains. Will also be more expensive and as you have to book a seat at a specific time like in an airplane you won’t have the flexibility like you have with local trains.

Know that Lille has two train stations almost next to eachother: Lille Europe is only for highspeed trains like TGV and Eurostar, Lille Flanders for local trains.

Can't answer your train questions; we took the train from Paris to Lille this past November.

However, I can tell you that we spent 4 nights in Lille and we loved it. Lille has an attractive old town that lives up to its nickname of "little Paris" on the quaintness scale. We enjoyed the restaurants (particularly: had a lovely and sedate dinner at L'Assiette du Marche and a tasty and lively lunch at the cafeteria-like Italian Trattoria). There's lots of shopping: high end for tourists, more affordable for residents. The city's architecture does have a Flemish vibe - tall, narrow building fronts, lots of cobblestone streets - but a local was somewhat insulted when I said that. They're French, after all. Despite the centuries-old town center, there is a sizable university there, so parts of town have a rather young vibe.

We love museums, so our days' activities were museum heavy. We spent most of a day at Lille's wonderful Palais de Beaux Arts. Well worth the visit. We also really enjoyed the Musee de l'Hospice Comtesse, a complex of historic buildings that once housed nuns, and now houses displays both medieval and modern. Best of all, one day we did a day trip, hopping on a regional train over to Lens, where the Louvre opened a museum (in 2012, so it's rather new) unlike any I've been in. It's a fabulous "timeline" of art and culture all housed in one enormous room. You literally walk through time amongst an impressive collection of artifacts and art.

We were there in November, as I mentioned. It was cold and very rainy, so most of our activities were indoors. I'd love to go back in better weather to see some of the outdoor sites/sights, but we still wholly enjoyed our time there (even if a good part of it was spent, drink in hand, watching out cafe windows as people scurried to or from work). Actually, I really enjoyed that too.

I have another question regarding getting to Lille from Ghent. I am probably the relatively rare case where I'll be staying in Belgium long enough that the 10 journey multi-pass will pay itself off -- doing the rough math it would save me about €30 over the week. Not a massive savings, but worth looking into. However, I'm assuming since it is a Belgian pass, that it will only get me as far as Mouscron (last Belgian station on the Kortrijk to Lille route, correct me if I'm wrong).

My question: if I end up getting the pass, is my assumption correct that I could just buy a round trip ticket from Mouscron to Lille on the website or app before I leave Ghent and that would cover it?

The 10 journey Multi Pass is only valid in Belgium and indeed is Moeskroen / Moescron the last stop and so the closest stop in Belgium on the way to Lille. So you are correct that you need an additional roundtrip ticket for the leg between Mouscron and Lille. Btw Tim already noticed.