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Validating Eurail pass in Brussels

Posted by (Dallas, TX, USA) on

Hey everyone,

I've been reading both Rick Steves and Frommer's in preparation for my Eurail trip in December/January, and I'm a bit confused about something:
In the section about Brussels, Frommer's has a little blip saying that the Central Station in Brussels does not have a train info desk and you cannot validate your Eurail pass there. Rick doesn't mention this at all, so I'm not sure if Frommer's statement is correct. Since I'm planning on beginning my Eurail trip in Brussels, I'd like to get the facts straight so I can know if I need to drop by Gare du Midi first.

Does anyone know if Frommer's is indeed correct? Thanks!

Posted by
11 posts

Hmm, OK. I'm reading the 2009 version of that book so I guess that hasn't changed. That's really weird to me that, unlike the majority of other European cities, the Central Station isn't the main one, despite the fact that all the main attractions of Brussels are surrounding it! I wonder why that's so?

Posted by
11 posts

I see. Do you know the latest time that we could get our railpasses validated at Midi?

The reason I ask that is because we'll be flying in to Charleroi from Dublin in the early evening, then taking the shuttle bus that runs between that airport and Midi, so we won't arrive in Brussels until around 8 pm. Our hotel is right by the Central station, so we'll need to take the local tram up there. If it's too late to get the railpasses validated at Midi that first night, then in the morning we'll have to go back down to Midi from Central, then ride back to Central before getting started with our itinerary. I know it's only a 10 min ride each way but that still takes up a pretty good chunk of time. I wonder if we should just get it validated in Dublin?

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