Christmas day travel Brussels-Amsterdam

For the intercity trains that run between Amsterdam and Brussels, no reservations are possible, seats are first come first serve. Train runs every hour, fares are about 35 euros, simply purchase tickets at the train station.

I'm not certain about train schedules on Christmas day. My guess is that the trains will be running. For an exact answer you'll have to wait a few weeks as the schedules into December haven't been released yet.

This might not help a whole lot since my traveling was done in Germany. We took a train from Baden-Baden to Heidelburg on Christmas Day 2008 and it was very quiet, almost ghost like. It was the only day we traveled where no one even asked for tickets.

If you want to ride on Thalys, a reservation may be a good idea. For regular Belgian and Dutch rail service, you can't make a reservation. Just buy your tickets at the station.

thanks for the info...what would you do? purchase the thalys ahead of time when schedules are released just to be safe???

If you want flexibility, do what Michael suggests and buy a ticket when you get to Brussels which will be good on any IC train going to Amsterdam.

If you want to take a Thalys train, then booking well in advance (up to 90 days allowed) at www.thalys.com would be a good idea. The standard 2nd class fare is 51 EUR. If you book as soon as the 90-day window opens, you can get a Smoove fare for 19 EUR. The ticket will be for a specific departure time and is non-exchangeable and non-refundable.

"what would you do?"

Personally, I would just buy a standard tickets from NMBS on the day you travel. A seat on Thalys is much more expensive but it doesn't save that much time. You may have to change trains once or twice (probably in Antwerp and Roosendaal), but unless you're carrying a lot of luggage, that isn't too difficult.

IC trains go directly from Brussels to Amsterdam and they're just as fast as Thalys trains on that stretch of track. Unless I were able to get a cheap Smoove fare for a Thalys train, I'd take an IC train.

"IC trains go directly from Brussels to Amsterdam" Are you positive about that? Although I've never riden from Brussels to Amsterdam, every train I've ever taken from Belgium to the Netherlands (and vice versa) requires a change in either Maastricht or Roosendaal.

Tim is correct, all IC Bussels to Amsterdam Centraal trains are direct.