Four of us will be taking the train from Amsterdam to Bruges mid-week in July. Can we get the tickets the day of travel or the day before or do I need to order them now from the States?
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9110 posts
The regular inter-city trains don't accept reservations so you can purchase your tickets at the station on the day of your journey. The fastest connection is usually via Antwerp...sometime Brussels. Check schedules at: http://www.nshispeed.nl You'll see some trains with connections using the Thalys high-speed train. Those trains do require reservations and are expensive at the last minute. Stick with the regular IC trains for the entire journey.
Posted by
Orlando, FL, USA
33 posts
I found for my own trip between Amsterdam and Belgium that it would be cheaper to reserve/buy my tickets in advance (as opposed to purchasing IC train tickets the day of departure). The downside is that I am locked into a specific time and seat. My recommendation is to look into taking the Thayls High Speed Train from Amsterdam to Brussels, then a local IC train to Bruges. This can be accomplished by purchasing the fare from Thayls with the Any Belgian Station (ABS) option. ABS allows you to get off at any Belgian station and continue on using a local train. This option would give you a stopover in Brussels, which you could use to see the Grand Place or immediately proceed onto Bruges. I recently wrote a blog post concerning purchasing Thayls tickets from the US that may be useful: http://engineeringatravelplan.blogspot.com/2011/05/purchasing-european-thalys-train.html