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London to Bruges in Sept - Online train ticket confusion

I'm planning to travel from London to Bruges in mid-September as part of my fall Europe trip, and in my research so far I've determined the fastest and likely easiest way is the Eurostar via Brussels. Also I understand I should book asap, and have learned than you can no longer book a thru ticket to Bruges on eurostar.com. The Man in Seat 61 website says you can book a thru ticket on raileurope.com (and theoretically this site as well as they are partners). But when I search these sites, I'm getting ticket prices close to $200 and routings with 2 or more changes, one in Paris--this seems odd and illogical. The price for London-Brussels on eurostar.com is as low as $76.

Should I just book the London-Brussels leg now to lock in the advance purchase price, and wait and buy a walk up ticket for the Bruges leg at the Brussels south train station the day I travel? It seems like the most cost-effective option, but maybe I'm missing another online option? Any feedback is appreciated!

Posted by
6235 posts

Try booking on the Belgian rail (SNCB) international website. I pulled a random day in early September and it showed basically all the London-Brussels Eurostars, each with a single connection to Bruges. Prices varied by time of departure.

Posted by
105 posts

I echo what CJean says - use www.b-europe.com, which is the international website for SNCB - but just wanted to add that even if you did not buy a ticket to Bruges as part of your London - Brussels ticket (and no reason for this), you can just buy your Brussels - Brugge tickets on the SNCB phone app, so there is really no need to go buy a ticket at Bruxelles-Midi. Perhaps that will come in useful for other trips in Belgium. The only thing that has really changed is that you can't buy an ABS ticket (i.e. free ongoing travel to Any Belgian Station) any more, you do have to pay nowadays, which is I think why you can't buy ongoing tickets through Eurostar. They just don't sell SNCB tickets through their site.

Lavandula

Posted by
3078 posts

When you book tickets through Eurostar you use the SNCF booking platform, and that platform is notoriously broken. SNCF has choosen to completely ignore the part of Europe that has no trains to Paris.

So yes, use B-Europe.com, which is actually a pretty good international train booking site. (The Dutch and the Luxembourg reailways use the same site...)

Posted by
8339 posts

I haven't been to Bruges in over ten years. But to set you mind at ease, during daylight hours, there are usually 4 to 5 HOURLY trains from the three downtown Brussels stations to Bruges. They are unreserved local trains, often double-decker cars that have no long-distance luggage racks. But they always have the same price (absent weekend group discounts, perhaps.) Depending on how much luggage I had, I would not bother to sync my trip with an infrequent Eurostar direct train, if that even exists.

Another option, which may not be the cheapest, used to be the Any Belgian Station endorsement sold by Eurostar. I don't know if that's currently available. I trust you have noted that Eurostar goes to Brussels Zuid/Midi station, which is not walkable to Grand Place, if that is an objective of your train-change time. Bruxxels Centraal is near Grand Place.

Although there is only one change, it's a rather long trip from London to Bruges. The Eurostar trip to Brussels is priced and sold like an airline ticket, with higher prices for times suitable for business travel. And non-changeable, non-refundable tickets are available with advance discounts, but not in the days near travel time. Be sure to note the EARLY ARRIVAL before boarding required for security and immigration, in both directions. People have been denied boarding for failing to arrive early enough.

Posted by
4 posts

Thank you all very much for your comments! The advice to use the b-europe.com was exactly what I was looking for, and I never would have thought of it on my own.