Train from France to Benelux

Long distance tickets for fast trains you should buy ahead. It's cheaper. All others buy when you get there. Paris to Brussels by Eurostar. Brussels to Amsterdam by Thalys. Deutsche Bahn is universal website for train schedule in Europe. To buy tickets online you have to go to the appropriate national railroad website. Rail pass is usually more expensive than point to point. To be sure do your mathematics. You will find a lot of useful information on this website under Travel Tips.

Your visit to Giverny will be difficult as it is closed until 28th of March. It is closed every winter.

Luxembourg as a day trip from Paris is a very long day.

A France or Benelux-France rail pass can give you hop-on convenience for some of your shorter trips, including Paris-Bayeux and day trips in Benelux, but you must buy advance seat reservations for any TGV train, such as Rennes-Paris and Paris-Luxembourg (2.5 hours each way). You can book those reservations at the same time that you buy the pass.

An 8-day Benelux-France pass at $374 per person (plus reservation fees) compares well to full-priced tickets, including the Luxembourg roundtrip (€208 per person), but may not be cheaper than advance purchase discounts booked soon, or would not make sense if you cut the longest, Luxembourg trip.

Note that the pass holder reservation on a Thalys train, such as from Paris to Brussels/Bruges is expensive; an advance-discount Thalys ticket that you buy now without reference to a rail pass can be the same price as the pass holder rate. RER suburban service to Versailles is not covered by rail passes; ticket costs about $10 roundtrip.

When you're on the train to the Benelux countries, ask the conductor if you are in the correct car and listen carefully to announcements. Why? I once got stuck on the wrong train!

I was traveling from Paris to Luxembourg to catch a plane. Some passengers in my car were talking about the fact that they were headed to Frankfurt, and I thought wow, are they dumb, this train doesn't go to Frankfurt. (I think my info showed it going to Amsterdam via Antwerp.)

The train stopped for a fairly long pause in, I think, Metz (the last sizeable city in France before the border). A conductor walked through and I asked him what time we were due in Luxembourg. He informed me the train did not go to Luxembourg! I grabbed my bag and ran out the door. On the platform I asked a nearby railroad employee, "Ou est le train pour Luxembourg?" to which he pointed down the track to a train disappearing into the distance. "On coupe le train" (they divide the train), he explained. In other words, I was on the correct train but in the wrong car! I ended up taking a taxi to the airport in Luxembourg to catch my flight.

I am doing a 2 + week trip in Mid April ...I have very little knowledge about the area other then what I have planned : Flying into Paris, 4 days in Netherlands, maybe a stop in Brussels, 4 in the Beyelux ( D day beaches and historic sites) Monet's garden, 4 in Paris and flying out of London, (with a day or two there). I am not familiar with St Malo, and Dinan and Bruges. Can you please share why you chose those areas? Thank you so much!

Thank you very much for the info. We had no idea Giverny was closed until late March. I guess we will also need to try and investigate Luxembourg city more to see if it is worth a long day trip. Maybe we can visit Chartres instead of Giverny. And we definitely had no idea they divide trains! What an experience and so good to know! This will be our first big train trip so we are trying to gather as much info. as possible. All of this feedback is much appreciated!

Although Rick's search feature (top of the page) doesn't work very well, you can read previous posts on these topics. For example, there is considerable past discussion about the comparative merits of Bruges, Gent, Antwerp, and Brussels, and about getting to Mt. St. Michel. Your question about railpasses suggests that you haven't read Rick's advice (in his books, or for free on the main part of this website under Travel Tips) about passes, which we never use anymore. Belgium and France have frequent local service that's much cheaper than a Pass-day.

We follow your long-base-with-day-trips schedule, although Rick is more of a move-everyday guy. Although rail daytrips are exceptionally easy in Belgium, I would suggest that you consider where you want to wake up and go to sleep. That is, Bruges is a magnificent medieval town, but has relatively little to do after the first day, other than soak up the (crowded) atmosphere. Especially if you're going to be in a bargain motel (instead of a gorgeous, romantic B&B), you might prefer to wake up in a place with more variety and action, like Antwerp.

I agree that you should put off Luxembourg to another trip.

We actually have 3 of Rick's books for this trip and one Frommer's book. (recommended by Rick) If we buy any train tickets ahead of time we will buy them through his site and we even bought luggage and accessories through his site! It's just that the train info. seems complicated with many varying opinions. We don't want to be obsessed with the cost, but we don't want to waste $ either. But also I feel the simpler the better. We are getting good info. from Rick Steves, thank goodness. There is also another useful site, seat61.com. We are getting good info. here too, which is great.
We want to see St. Malo, Dinan, and Bruges because they sound so nice in the books and at Trip Advisor.