daveesl

Hello all, yep time for me to ask for help instead of giving it.

Here is the deal, DW and I are spending the month of February 2012 in Rome and Paris (2 weeks Rome, 2 weeks Paris). In reality, what we are doing is using apartments in Rome and Paris as our bases and then going out on day trips from each primary location.

Anyway, trying to do a 2 day trip leaving Paris early morning, train to Amsterdam and get into Amsterdam in the morning. We then wanted to go from Amsterdam to Brussels either late evening on the outbound Paris day or early the next morning. Finally, late evening on the second day return from Brussels to Paris. We could also do this in the reverse order, or even spend a couple of nights away from Paris, no real schedule.

So here is the problem...the tickets to/from Paris to/from either Brussels or Amsterdam are pretty cheap (58 euros for 2), but the tickets between Amsterdam and Brussels are like 90 euros. Is there something I'm missing here? I'm on both the TGV and Thalys sites and can't seem to find the stops the Amsterdam/Paris train makes. My thought being that if on the way it went from say Amsterdam to Paris with a stop in Brussels, we'd just get off in Brussels and save 40 Euros.

I tried doing the "via" option, but that did nothing but give me a RT Paris-Amsterdam. So what am I doing wrong? Appreciate any help.

dave

PalenQ

Check out fares for IC InterCity trains Amsterdam to Brussels and not the more expensive often Thalys trains.

Go to www.ns.nl - Dutch Railways site to see what regular fares on the hourly Amsterdam Centraal to Brussels Midi IC trains cost

daveesl

Thanks for the reply PalenQ. The problem is that regardless of direction, order or time, I get sent to the HighSpeed site, which is nothing more than a clone of the TGV site and same prices. We'd actually love to do just an IC train for several hours, but doesn't seem to be available. In each instance, it changes to high speed train either in Rotterdam or Antwerp. Any other ideas?

dave

PalenQ

IC trains leave Amsterdam Centraal hourly at :53 minutes after the hour and go direct (not non=stop) to Brussels Midi (a k a South Station) in a tad less than 3 hours - about an hour longer than the high-speed Thalys trains. IC trains go hourly throughout the day - there are no reservations possible I believe and there is a flat fare ticket that can be used on any of them during the validity time frame I believe.

I got those schedules off the German Railways web site that has train schedules for all of Europe and to me is the easiest to use. It does not give fares for trains not involving Germany but just schedules and details like routings and whether reservations are mandatory or option, etc. An easy way to access the English language schedule portion on bahn.de is to go like I do to the home page of www.budgeteuropetravel.com and click on the link "best online European train schedule" or some such wording and up pops the bahn.de English schedule page with a From and To box, etc. I mention that home page link because they also give several useful tips on fully using the Wunderbar IMO bahn.de site that may not be apparent at first encounter.

ira

Hi Davees,

I think that the problem is that you wish to purchase an international ticket online.

It wouldn't let me buy an online ticket Amsterdam -->Paris.

Have you tried buying a RT ticket via Bruxelles from www.voyages-sncf.com?

daveesl

PalenQ, yeah I'm trying to find the fares and/or book. If anyone has a general idea on the walk-up fare price for an IC ticket between Brussels and Amsterdam, then that might work.

Ira, I have used the SCNF site and essentially it gives me the exact same thing that the English TGV site gives. While I can put in a "Via", it doesn't seem to mean anything, as when you go for the tickets, then it never shows the Brussels stop or give an option, it just shows the RT Paris-Amsterdam. I know I did this in the past, putting in a Via on a RT using the SCNF site, but that was several years ago. I can't figure out why they give you the "Via" option, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

I'd just rather not pay additional for something that I may be able to get as either part of an existing ticket or for a lower amount. I'm fairly fluent in French, so normally I don't even use the English site, but stick with the French one.

Thanks for the help though.

dave

daveesl

Now this is really weird. We all know that Rail Europe (the US site) is always more expensive than the European sites, but if I put in Brussels-Amsterdam it comes out far cheaper than any site I've found so far and actually is a pretty good deal.

Hmmm, curiouser and curiouser

dave