tomandjudy

Can someone tell me how long it takes to get from Paris to Bruges by train and how to find out the schedules.

PalenQ

About 2.5 hours via either of two routes - Thalys trains via Brussels - change at Brussels-Midi unless you take the about one a day obscenely early or late train that goes direct. The other route via a TGV from Paris-Nord to Lille-Flandres then change to train to Bruges takes just about the same time as Thalys route and often can be much cheaper.

Both routings offer discount tickets if bought far in advance but then you cannot change nor refund them I believe - normal walk up fare is much cheaper via Lille than Brussels and Thalys.

For schedules I always use the Wunderbar www.bahn.de or German Railways official site (for a good link to it go to www.budgeteuropetravel.com and click on the link 'best all-european train schedule - or some such wording and this brings you to the English schedule page where you will get all the timings for a certain date - if your date is too far in advance to be on yet just put in a dummy day of the week as these schedules rarely change that much - I reference this home page's link because it also gives you several useful tips on using the www.bahn.de site that may not be apparent at first glance.)

If you book way way in advance at www.thalys.com you may get the cheapest fare but the discounted tickets are limited in number and can sell out weeks or months in advance and again are non-refundable non-changeable I believe. Go to www.voyages-sncf.com to get discounted Paris-Lille tickets - the Belgian train Lille to Bruges is a flat fare I believe and not that expensive so just buy once you get to Lille - never a problem getting on the hourly train, some of which require a simple change of train at Kortrijk (I think).

If taking Thalys check on the ABS fare to Bruges from Brussels.

jamikins

An excellent resource for train travel (other than PalenQ above!) is Man in Seat 61 http://www.seat61.com/France-trains.htm

PalenQ

BTW ABS fare means that you can purchase along with your Thalys ticket an All-Belgian-Stations fare that allows you to go on any train from Brussels to Bruges within a 24-hr period (could be 48?) - meaning you could stay a day in Brussels if you want en route or a night!

PalenQ

If you are thinking of a day trip, not clear from your OP (Original Post) then about2.5-3 hours each way means of course 6 hours on the train and though Bruges is fairly compact - very compact in fact and can be seen is say 4-5 hours it's a lot of time on the train and can be really expensive from a train fare aspect as well.

PalenQ

and if just going and staying there then either Brussels or Lille (to me a surprisingly interesting large city) could be a few-hour stop before going onto Bruges - put your bags in a station luggage locker and look around for a bit!

TDudette

If it's a day trip, we took a good bus one through CityRama some years ago. Good luck.

PalenQ

TDudette - curious as to how long the bus took to get to Bruges - TGVs and Thalys trains roll about 190 mph so assume the bus would take much much longer? Not saying it is a bad option - could be the best for a day trip - perhaps cheaper or as cheap as return train fare, etc.

PalenQ

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-to-bruges.cfm

Though from 2007 this is one poster's experience on the bus and said it only took 2-3 hours each way though I find this hard to believe unless it takes a more direct routing than trains do.