Buying Train Tickets before you travel?

If you travel on a holiday, you may want to consider pre-ordering your tickets from Thalys, the high-speed line between Brussels and Paris. Otherwise, there is no reason why you can't buy your tickets at the station.

There are no direct links between the Brussels airport and Paris (I'm pretty certain, but if I'm wrong, let the rail gurus correct me), but it is easy enough to do by rail. From the airport, take Belgian rail (NMBS) to Brussel Zuid (or en francais, Bruxelles Midi). Trains depart a few times an hour. At Brussel Zuid, switch to a Thayls train, which usually leave hourly for Paris. At most Belgian rail stations, you can buy tickets for both NMBS and Thalys.

If it were me, I'd wait until I get to the train station at the airport in Brussels--trains leave for Paris Nord fairly frequently.

You will have to take a train from the airport to Bruxelles Zuid/Midi and a Thalys train from there to Paris Nord.

The fare from the airport to Bruxelles is €5.05. The walk-up 2nd class fare for Bruxelles-Paris is €86.

However, if you book fare enough in advance (up to 90 days allowed) at www.thalys.com, you can get a Smoove fare as low as €25 for Bruxelles-Paris or €30 to depart from any Belgian station (the airport in this case) to Paris. Important! All seats on Thalys trains are reserved. Since Smoove fare tickets are non-exchangeable and non-refundable, you'll need to allow plenty of time between your scheduled arrival at the airport and your scheduled departure from Zuid/Midi.

We purchased all of our city to city train tickets prior to departure this past fall. I liked knowing when we were going to go to the next destination, where we were going to sleep and having everything laid out. We save ALOT of money by planning in advance. This isn't for everyone, but for us it worked great.