Train Travel

No Rail Europe! They are a travel agency that resells the very same ticket you can buy cheaper yourself, directly from the train companies themselves. Besides, Rail Europe only shows you a portion of trains available. And no railpass either! As Tom stated (and he lived in Belgium for several years and knows what he's talking about) an advance-purchase ticket from Thalys is much cheaper than the supplement required if using a railpass on their trains. Same thing for EuroStar...so the railpasses of old have lost much of their flexibility when you have to purchase reservations in advance :-( The 'hop-on, hop-off' strategy only works on a dwindling number of trains, and in some countries you might never have the opportunity to travel that way due to the need for reserved seating. For London-Amsterdam: Thalys or EuroStar Belgian trains: BelgianRail German trains: Deutsche Bahn (bahn.com is also the site to use when wanting to see train schedules for all of Europe, all in one place.) For the 'big trips' like London > Amsterdam - unless you want to really overpay (100€s) - treat your train ticket as an airline ticket - you can choose a flight 3 months in advance and pay $49, or buy the day of or a day before and spend $310...

Because most of your trips would likely on premium services that require reservations (Thalys, Eurostar) and force rail pass holders to pay a large supplement, a pass isn't going to buy you much flexibility. I'm not certain about Eurostar, but with Thalys, your ticket and reservation are one and the same. There's several different way to get from Brugge to Cologne. Whatever combination you choose, you would need to ride a regular Belgian rail (NMBS) intercity train from Brugge to Brussels first. No reservations offered for these trains, and they run very frequently. From Brussels to Cologne, you could ride the hourly Thalys train, or the less frequent Deutsche Bahn ICE. Or, you could ride NMBS from Brugge to Liege, and change there onto a regional train to Aachen and continue from there to Cologne. The final option is the slowest by far, but there would be no need for reservations, and your tickets would be valid at any time. On the second option, seat reservations are available on the ICE, but not required. As noted previously, tickets on Thalys are the same as a reservation.

Thanks for the reply. Should I buy all of the tickets on Rail Europe using the multi city option? I'm just worried about not having flexibility with the tickets in case something comes up and I miss a train.

As others have said, you don't have to buy advance tickets. But on your routes, you risk trains being sold out. You will also pay a fortune. To see what I mean, look at prices for tomorrow and for 2-3 months from now (using the websites Eileen gave you). Unfortunately, these routes use "airline pricing," so you really have to plan. And, just like an airline (to answer your other question), some tickets are partly or fully refundable/changeable, but the cheapest tickets are not. And similarly, a pass for these routes does not give any extra flexibility. Even with a pass, you have to buy a supplement for the Thalys and Eurostar, and these supplements are both expensive (more than the cheapest advance ticket) and limited in number. Once the supplements are gone, you have to buy a full fare ticket. Here's more information about the Amsterdam to London route, from the Man In Seat 61 (a wonderful resource for train information in general): http://tinyurl.com/c7scfky.

Thank you! Great advice by everyone!! It sounds like I need to book my trains for July NOW and make sure that I have a solid itinerary.

"But on your routes, you risk trains being sold out" Once again, I can't comment on Eurostar, but most trains never (or very rarely) sell out. The reason to buy in advanced is to save money, not to guarantee yourself a seat. I usually purchase reservations on long-haul Deutsche Bahn trains, but not because I'm concerned I won't have a seat, but because I don't like to fiddle around looking for an empty one. With a reservation, I can just procede directly to my empty "Sitzplatz".