I and my co-travelers want to take a train from Paris to Bruges. We have seen several sites to buy tickets in advance but TripAdvisor suggests only buying tickets directly from train companies rather than through an agency. We are not sure who the Train Companies are? We will be in Paris from 4/1-4/9 and want to travel to Bruges for a day trip on the 7th or 8th.
Can anyone tell us from whom we should buy tickets in advance?
Try SCNF (the French rail company):
Thank you.
Paris to Bruges is Thalys. You take a local train to Bruges from Brussels but the Thalys high speed train from Paris to Brussels. I am pretty sure you get one ticket it -- sort of Paris to anywhere in Belgium. But the web site you want is the Thalys site. https://www.thalys.com/de/en/. This is the company that runs these trains. It goes from Gare du Nord and booking 3 mos or more out is about a third the cost of last minute bookings.
I would book directly with Thalys https://www.thalys.com which is more user-friendly than the SNCF website. (Thalys is a joint venture between SNCF, the Belgian SNCB, and the Dutch NSB state rail companies). You will get a train from Paris to Brussels and then change for a further train to Bruges. Between Paris and Brussels you will get reserved seats and be strictly required to use a specific train, but you can get any train between Brussels and Bruges.
When changing at Brussels:
Note that Bruges has two names - Bruges in French or English and Brugge in Dutch which is the local language. You will see both Bruges and Brugge on the destination screens at Brussels Midi.
The final destination of your train travelling to Bruges will probably be Ostende or Knokke.
Want to save money?
Take Izy (Thalys owned budget train) at Gare du Nord instead of Thalys on the way to Brussels
http://www.izy.com/en/about-offer
