Paris to Belgium

"Taking the train, is it possible to get to Bruges without going to Brussels and transfering?" Without transferring, no. Although I'm less familiar with it, there may be another way to get to Brugge by going through Lille, but it's longer and involves transfers as well.

There's a bunch of budget motels (usual familiar chain names) along the A201 in Zaventem that offer shuttle service to the airport. But, access by public transit to these is a bit difficult and there isn't much of anything in the immediate area except factories, corporate buildings and NATO headquarters.

It is easy enough to get to the airport by rail from the center of Brussels, several trains leave per hour. You may as well just stay in downtown Brussels. For budget options, look up Ibis, Novotel or Best Western.

Actually, going via Lille is slightly faster than going via Brussels. However, depending upon the time of day, you will make at least the one connection in Lille and quite often you'll need to make another one in Kortrijk. For detailed timetables, use the German Rail site. After you get summary timetables for Paris-Brugge, click on the arrow to the left of the departure time of your choice to see the connecting points.

If you book well in advance (up to three months allowed) at www.tgv-europe.com, you can get discount fares for the Paris-Lille TGV. To keep the site in English and to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site which doesn't offer discount fares, choose Great Britain as your country of residence. There are no discount fares for the IC trains from Lille to Brugge so you can wait and buy those tickets in Paris.

As I said in my previous post, it is slightly faster to go via Lille. I know that because I checked the timetables.

However, booking well in advance (up to 90 days) at www.thalys.com can get you a Smoove fare of €25 with the ABS (Any Belgian Station) add-on for another €5, bringing the total fare to €30. A very good deal and only one connection (Brussels).

A €20 Prem's fare on a Paris-Lille TGV plus a €16.60 fare on IC trains from Lille to Brugge brings the total to €36.60, more than a Thalys Smoove fare with the ABS add-on but quite a bit less than a Thalys standard fare with the ABS add-on.

Thank you all for the great tips, just booked my air travel today. 2 months to plan. We'll leave Paris for Bruges on Sunday, Sept. 26, fly out of Brussels on Wed. Sept. 29. May check back with you!