trans to Paris

The two words "best" and "cheapest" do not work together in this situation. The best is definitely not cheap. The two nicer methods are the Eurostar which does go from Paris to Brussels and from Brussels to Paris. I see non-refundable one-way fares of $86.00. Full fare is about $100. Second is the Thalys train (www.thalys.com). You can get fares as low as 39Euros 2nd class one-way if you book early. Just don't use a Eurail pass on the Thalys train. You'll be shocked at the supplemental fees. There is a way to take much less expensive Regionale trains to Brussels but it takes longer and you will have train changes. I'll leave it to others to describe this method as I have not done it.

Thanks for the reply. i agree that best and cheapest dont belong together. I am just looking for the most convenient method, plus the lowest fare possbile. On Eurostar, each time i type in Brussels-paris, i get an error message stating this is not a valid route. Are Eurostar and Thalys comparably priced?I have looked at Thalys which for the day i am traveling is either 99 euro for the best time, or 59 euro for a later train. Cuts 2 hours out of our Paris plans but saves quite a bit of money. The Thalys site did not let me select a seperate ticket for my son who is under 26 and should be discounted. Should i book his ticket seperately? Thanks for your help. This is very confusing. We leave tomorrow so I am hoping to get these purchased before we leave for the airport.

Sorry, you didn't indicate that you are leaving tomorrow. The least expensive fares are obtained through early booking. I'm afraid that you won't get much of a discount at this late date. Please identify your intended departure time from Brussels to Paris. We can look this up.

I might also suggest the bus. The Eurolines bus system has frequent buses from the Brussels-Nord bus station to Paris (http://www.eurolines.com/). The trip takes 4.5 hours and costs about 68Euro for both you and your son. I have not done this so I suggest waiting for others who have done this to comment.

Yea! Gold Star for Claudette. You are most welcome. Have a great trip.

Sorry about the miscommunication. we leave for Brussels tonight. i plan to take the train from Brussels to Paris on 6/21 around 1130am, so i hope i can still get a good booking. we are also connecting with 2 other travelers who have a eurorail pass, not sue if they can use that on the Thalys train, or if we need a different service. Thanks for your suggestions.

Quick note to point out that Eurostar does NOT sell tickets between Brussels and Paris. It might be possible to take two Eurostars changing at Lille, but the majority of Paris trains don't call at Lille to avoid competing with SNCF. The main rail option is Thalys.

Thanks for all of the help, the suggestions have been very helpful.

Claudette, not done yet. I do see availability on the Thalys train for 6/21. I see various runs during the day. Different fares for different runs. Any earlier big discount fares are gone. For your desired 11:30 departure time, I see 10:37, 11:13 and 12:37. The best fare for the 10:37 is 148Euro for two 2nd class one-way tickets. The system asks the age of your son. I clicked on 22. Not sure if there was a youth discount. Continuing, the best fare for the 11:13 run is 180Euro. The best fare for the 12:37 run is 119Euro. If you can travel on the 13:13 run, I see a fare of 109Euro. Next, your friends traveling with a Eurail pass. Thalys has some of the highest supplemental fees for Eurail pass holders in Europe. I offer the following link to what I see on the Thalys train website. http://gyazo.com/6930628924907ec1eee4ffec328b3856 Now for the Eurail passholder info. Your friends will pay at least an extra 30-50 Euro for their tickets on Thalys. If France is included in the pass, it's 30Euro. If not, it's higher. The really bad news is that the Thalys often limits seats for passholders. We've seen posts on the website where passholders were held until later trains because of limited seats.

Eurostar do not provide local, non-channel crossing, trains in Europe. It is not possible to take Eurostar from Brussels to Paris. It is not possible to take Eurostar from Brussels to Lille. It is not possible to take Eurostar from Lille to Paris.

Way to go Nigel :) Very clear info on the Eurostar.

Claudette, If you end up in Lille and want to go Paris, take the SNCF's TGV to Paris. You arrive at Gare du Nord. The Euro-Star website shows which routes are traveled on by Euro-Star.

Hello Nigel, Fred and Larry All of you could be travel agents! Thank you sooo much. The info was most helpful. I ended up booking on Thalys. on the 1237 so get a bit of reduced fare. 1 ticket for my son to get the good discout and a seperate one for me. our seats are not together, but hopefully we can get people to move. I though it odd that I could only be tickets together if they are for e the same age bracket. As far as my other 2 travelers with the eurorail pass, I told them to look into holding a spot or they might miss out on the same train.
Thanks again. We leave the US in 3 hours for our big adventure!

Hi, You're welcome. Good that Thalys offered you a satisfactory ticket. After the controller checks your reservation first, which is what they really want to see, even before you have a chance to board, then your ticket (or Pass), then you can see if others might be willing to move from their seats.

We have returned from our European adventure. Thanks for all the wonderful tips! The Thalys train was a great experience. We actually had an American couple change their seats with us so we could sit together, very sweet.