Maastricht in July for Andre Rieu Concert

If you want to drive to Maastricht why can't you drop the car in Aachen which is just across the border?

Aachen has a direct bus and since yesterday, train service to Maastricht so dropping the car there is not a bad idea.

Maastricht - Paris by train is most easily done via Liège: catch the local train from Maastricht to Liège-Guillemins station and change there for a direct Thalys train to Paris Gare du Nord. You should book this in advance because Thalys tickets come with a mandatory seat reservation. It's too early to book tickets for July but in a couple on months you can book this journey via https://www.nsinternational.nl/en or https://www.b-europe.com/EN.

erwin - what about this new train across the border? Who operates it? Does it go to Valkenburg aan de Geul?

Nigel, it's an Arriva service and yes, there is a stop in Valkenburg.

More information here, but only in Dutch and German. Google Translate would probably do a decent job.

Thanks erwin English, too, although no matter which language I choose (no problem for me in German or Dutch) there doesn't seem to be much more information than it takes under an hour and there are still plenty of buses as well.

I couldn't get the Arriva website to give me calling points, for example, or what kind of equipment is is other than a Sneltrein.

Nigel, there is a little map of the route on the linked page under "Geldigheid", or try this direct link to the time table.

The trains are brand new specially adapted Staedler FLIRT's. The ultimate goal is to create a three country link between Aachen (DE), Maastricht (NL) and Liège (BE) but only the first section between Aachen and Maastricht is in service now.

Thanks for those tips. I wasn't sure if Aachen was a large enough city to have rental car service for drop off - good recommendation.

Sorry I cannot be of any help but I am very envious of your trip to Maastricht for the concert.

Eric, we're planning to go for the Andre Rieu concert next year....would be most grateful if you would come back and share your experience with us after your trip. BTW, in Rothenberg we used TooT tours for driver/guide. Ask for Harry, he's a small operation and lives in Rothenberg...showed us some amazing stuff you'll never see in the tour books.

Thank you for the tip about Harry with Toot tours, we'll look him up.
I'll post some feedback about our Andre Rieu experience - we're really looking forward to it.