Planning week in the Benelux

[ASharpe]

Planning my next holiday with the Mrs we decided we'd like to spend a week in the Netherlands and Belgium. Rough plan is:

• a few days in Amsterdam
• a day in Rotterdam
• a day in Antwerp
• a day in Brussels
• a couple of days in Bruges

We would be starting and returning from West Yorkshire. At first we thought about flying to and from Schiphol but are now tempted by getting the train to London (Advance tickets) and Eurostar as it's included on a Benelux interrail ticket.

I've never interrailled before and wanted to do it while I'm still counted as a young person. But I've got a few questions.

Do I need to get reservations for the trains in mainland Europe?

Are the trains few trains we would get be worth getting a pass for or are walk up tickets good value? Flights are not that expensive but I have no idea how to find out train fares.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Lrd]

A good website for European bookings is Loco2.com. I have used them many times and am very happy with them. They either post the tickets to you or you print at home or you can use their app to view the pdf.

Amsterdam - Rotterdam next Monday is £19 for semi-flexible (exchangeable up to day before travel). (or £14 for two weeks time)
Rotterdam - Antwerp is £20 for two weeks time
Antwerp - Brussels is £7.50 for two weeks time
Brussels - Bruges - £14.50 for two weeks time

 

[30907]

Depending on your timetable, you might want to check out the Stena line Dutchflyer Rail + Sail using Advances to/from Peterborough to connect. Or indeed the North Sea Ferries Hull-Zeebrugge route, though that was more expensive last time I checked.

You can find out train fares on the NS and B-rail sites. In NL all internal tickets are now done on a Chipkaart, a bit like Oyster - our NL based users will no doubt explain. Most Belgian and Netherlands trains are non reservable and walk up fares.

In general I would start with Seat61 for advice.

 

[Quakkerillo]

Eurostar is not really included in Interrail. You need an obligatory reservation, and there is only a limited amount of seats available. Booking these costs €30 (25GBP I think) + €8 reservation costs. When I asked last year, a month in advance, they had nothing of this cheapest set of seats left, and only sold 'discounted' seats which came still at €75 for a single.

If you go interrail, you don't need reservations or anything within the Benelux. Only the Thalys service Amsterdam-Schiphol-Rotterdam-Antwerp-Brussels(-Paris) is not included, but there are hourly regular intercity services on this corridor with a few more stops.

If you wanted to use single tickets, you can buy these at the ticket office of major stations (with a €0,50 surcharge) or use a OV-chipkaart (Dutch Oyster card) which can be used throughout the whole country on any transport. The card remains valid for 5 years, so you can come back and use it again. If you don't, then best buy singles as getting remainder money out of the card is quite a hassle for foreigners. But he

You said you're a young person. To get to Belgium from the Netherlands, you'll be best off buying a ticket with "jongerenkorting" (youth discount of 35% for those 25 y/o or under), which can be obtained both at any ticket counter, or the TVM's. Within Belgium, you can buy "Go Pass 1" tickets which are €6 single from ANY Belgian station to ANY Belgian station.

If you (and your travelling companion) are planning to make 10 single journeys within Belgium combined (so you & Mrs going Antwerp-Brussels is 2 singles) you can also buy a "Go Pass" which is a 10-journey ticket anywhere in the country for €51, which works out a bit cheaper.

 

[ASharpe]

Thanks for all the information, I'll do a bit of research over the next couple of weeks. It looks like we won't bother with the interrail ticket. I'll have a look at getting a sailrail. I suppose if we slept there and back we could get more out of our holiday.

you can also buy a "Go Pass" which is a 10-journey ticket anywhere in the country for €51, which works out a bit cheaper.

Is this like a set of carnet tickets? So we can buy some and use between us?

 

[Quakkerillo]

Is this like a set of carnet tickets? So we can buy some and use between us?

This is what it looks like: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/SNCB_Go_Pass10.jpg

Basically you have 10 horizontal lines, and for every journey you make, you fill in one line with day, date, origin, and destination. Just don't pre-date them with the whole schedule, but only do it for the journey you actually make at the time.
So you have one ticket, which can be used for 10 journeys. If you travel with multiple people, you just have to write the same stuff for several lines.

 

[eastwestdivide]

On the Eurostar supplements for Benelux interrail tickets, just now, I followed the instructions on seat61 at:
https://www.seat61.com/London-to-Paris-by-train.htm#Eurostar_for_InterRail_&_Eurail_passholders
which takes you the b-europe site. There, I found €30 availability on the first three London-Brussels Eurostars for a week ahead.
When I did it for real, a couple of months back, equally no problem, and no additional booking fee - you just get a print-at-home with a barcode for the Eurostar gates.

 

[Quakkerillo]

On the Eurostar supplements for Benelux interrail tickets, just now, I followed the instructions on seat61 at:
https://www.seat61.com/London-to-Paris-by-train.htm#Eurostar_for_InterRail_&_Eurail_passholders
which takes you the b-europe site. There, I found €30 availability on the first three London-Brussels Eurostars for a week ahead.
When I did it for real, a couple of months back, equally no problem, and no additional booking fee - you just get a print-at-home with a barcode for the Eurostar gates.

In that case, the procedures changed. About 2 months after they started 'accepting' Interrail, you could only book by phone / at the Eurostar ticket counter, and when I visited the Brussels one, they couldn't find anything for the first 3 weeks under €50.