emt

I've searched this forum, and cannot find much info on a trip from London to Brugges . Is it not a feasible or worthwile trip?

Am planning a stay in London, and wondering if a short trip to Brugges would be worth my time. I've been to London before but never to Belgium.

Any thoughts?

Charisma

I used to live in London and made the trip to Brugges. I did an overnight trip, I took a bus to Dover then a ferry to Belgium, bus to Brugge. It was a long trip but I was a student so I didn't have a lot of money to spend. It was definitely worth the trip! Brugge was like a fairytale city!

Robespierre

Well worth it! Travel time will be about 4 hours, so I'd probably take the 16:39 from Waterloo. Eurostar is offering a 'free' ride from Brussels to anywhere in Belgium right now.

Calculate the cost of flying into London and home from Brussels (with one train trip), and compare that to a round trip to London (plus two train trips). All other things being equal, the former itinerary would be preferable.

111op

I've not been to Bruges, but I suspect that it'll be an easy train ride from London, probably about 2.5 hours. You can take the Eurostar to Brussels and change there.

I don't know if the connection in Lille is better.

Timewise it's definitely feasible.

111op

I guess it takes longer than I expected -- London-Brussels is about 2.5 hours. So Robespierre is right.

The Brussels/Bruges train ride is about 40 minutes though, right?

Robespierre

You didn't say how much time you could allocate, but don't overlook the possibilty of seeing a little more of Belgium and Holland with a Benelux Eurailpass. It also gets you a discount on the Eurostar, making it very cheap* indeed.

*(The <i>absolute</i> cheapest way to ride the Eurostar - with restrictions - is to buy a day return ticket and abandon the return portion.)

BTilke

The ride is only 2.5 hours, but don't forget you &quot;gain&quot; an hour with the time zone change. And the ride from Brussels Gare du Midi to Brugge (no &quot;s&quot; at the end; it's Brugge in Flemish or Bruges in French) is 50 minutes. Yes, it's a very worthwhile trip, but I would do it as an overnighter, not a day trip. For one thing, it would be a VERY long day, for another, Brugge is magical at night when the day trippers have gone. If I were to do one overnight, I would leave on Thursday morning and come back late Friday afternoon. Week-ends can be quite crowded; but on Mondays or Tuesdays some stores, museums, etc. are closed. So Thursday and Friday are the best days to see Brugge. It's true that you can get to Brugge free from Brussels with your Eurostar ticket, which is nice, but it's not a HUGE savings...Belgium has some of the most reasonably priced train fares in Europe. You can get from Brussels to Brugge and back for as little as 15 euros round trip on certain days.
FYI, if you do go to Brugge, the direct trains have Ostende or Knokke/Blankenberge as their final destination and usually leave from tracks 13 to 16 at the Gare du Midi-- Brugge would be your second stop...first Ghent, then Brugge. If you sit on the right hand side of the train going to Brugge, you get a slightly better view...a small castle, an old windmill, and a few other interesting bits.

flanneruk

Although the Brussels-Bruges* train fare is trivial, it's worth remembering that a lot of Eurostar deals are for anywhere in Belgium: your Belgian domestic train ticket is often thrown in as part of the deal.

*'Bruges' is the ONLY correct English spelling for this town. The municipality of Bruges and the European Commission get it right: why so many Americans insist on mis-spelling it is hard to understand.

MyriamC

BTilke:
&lt;The ride is only 2.5 hours, but don't forget you &quot;gain&quot; an hour with the time zone change.&gt;
I think it's just the opposite: people coming from Great Britain <b>loose</b> an hour. Or am I wrong at this early hour?

BTilke

Sorry, Myriam, I mean gain, as in moving an hour ahead, that is, the trip itself &quot;gains&quot; or adds an hour over the trip back.
And FlannerUK, Bruges is NOT the only acceptable English spelling. Where on earth did you learn that? Many guidebooks list it as Brugge and Bruges. And since it IS in the Flemish part of Belgium, why not learn the Flemish spelling? The Bulletin, the anglophone newsmagazine for Belgium, which, by the way, is edited by a Brit, spells Brugge as...Brugge. And, FYI, the mistaken spelling of Brugge as Brugges is not purely an American thing...Canadians, Japanese, many nationalities, even BRITS have made that spelling mistake...we saw that often enough during the five years we lived in Belgium.

BTilke

FlannerUK, if the city of &quot;Bruges&quot; only spells it that way, how odd that the city's web site in English is
http://www.brugge.be/toerisme/en/index.htm

laverendrye

I'm with FlannerUK on this one. Bruges has long been the English version.

However, I have no problem with English speaking people using Brugge, but I wish they would be then consistent and use the Flemish names for Gent, Ieper, Antwerpen, Oostende etc, and either use Bruxelles or Brussel instead of the English Brussels. By the same token, they should refer to the country as Belgie or Belgique, not the English Belgium.

As for me, I will continue to use the English names, unless I'm speaking French (unfortunately I don't speak Dutch/Flemish, in which case I would use the Flemish names).

BTilke

The use of the Flemish name Brugge is growing in popularity (as is Ieper instead of Ypres)...look at the hundreds of posts here with the term Brugge in the message. Obviously many people DO know what Brugge is and have no problem with the name. Would not be surprised if &quot;Bruges&quot; eventually goes the way of Peking. If you are driving to Brugge, once you hit Flemish/Dutch speaking areas, you won't see any road signs for Bruges. They will all be in Flemish/Dutch, another reason for learning the Flemish name (not everyone goes to Brugge by train).
Using &quot;Bruges&quot; is somewhat of a vestige of the French domination of Belgian politics. As for Brussels, given that it is supposed to be equally Flemish and French speaking (although that's not the reality), Brussels is a good compromise (ditto for the country name), although we do use Bruxelles when speaking to French speakers and Brussel when speaking to Flemish/Dutch speakers (and also Germans).
After living in the country for a while, we learned just how very prickly language politics are there and like many other expats, we adapted to using the names of the town in the primary language spoken in that town (we didn't ask anyone in Liege for info about Luik; nor did we ask people in Antwerpen to recommend restaurants in Anvers).

laverendrye

I agree that it is only polite, and given the language politics of Belgie/Belgique/Belgium, wise to use the appropriate version of place names when in Vlaanderen or Wallonie. However, between non-Belgian English speakers, I think that the English version is more appropriate. Hence, I will refer to Ghent and not Gand or Gent, when speaking or writing in English to non-Belgians.

By the same token, I refer to Cologne, Munich and Nuremburg in English, and Koeln, Muenchen, and Nuernberg when speaking German. And in French, my pronunciation of Paris and Montr&eacute;al will vary depending if I am speaking French or English.

English terms for places have evolved over the years, and perhaps Brugge will eventually supplant Bruges in English, just as Basel has replaced the French B&acirc;le as the standard English name.

PatrickLondon

I think it may take a time before we all start referring to Brugge. It's too open to feeble jokes and misunderstandings.

SaveThePanda

Hi,
I am thinking of doing the same trip and wonder how easy it is to get from the station the eurostar gets in to where the train to Bruges leaves from? Same station? Should you buy the ticket to Bruge in advance, too? Thanks for the help. STP

ron

Panda, it's the same station. If you have a Eurostar ticket it is valid for the journey to Brugge, if you make the journey within 24 hours of arriving in Brussels.

PalQ

Eurostar tickets are quite a bit cheaper in US now. So if you're in US you can get $90 round trip London-Brugge via the ABS ('All Belgian Stations') fare of Eurostar - you have to go to any Belgian the station the same day as your Eurostar arrives. Though it would be quicker to do Eurostar to Lille and then train to Brugge from there, you'd have to pay Lille-Brugge fare so Brussels is better option. Raileurope 800-438-7245 sells Eurostar in US but they charge a $15 booking fee (for the whole order not individual reservations) and a $15 mail fee. I've bought thru my RailEurope agent, Budget Europe and they don't charge the $15 mail fee and they are the Eurostar experts - will answer all your questions. $90 return fare is good only on trains Mon-Thu 11am-3pm, otherwise it's $120 for any train Mon-Thu and $150 for any train any day. The $90 can be hard to book - can do 120 days in advance. There is a $94 day return fare good on any train, but again hard to book. Compare fares at www.eurostar.co.uk to see which is cheaper.

aquadigio

lol nice to see people talk about BRUGGE ;-) or is it BRUGES international they normally use bruges, but locally you will only hear brugge

cheapest way from london is by eurostar
and in time probably the same as the airport with the check-in time delays and stuff