Hi again!
I finally spoke with Raileurope. The prices I quoted earlier are only good if it's round trip (no stopover), someone mentioned it also in 1 of the responses. They charge $7 one time train fee and the $15 mailing fee is free for purchases of $249+. I think we will do r/t brussels-amsterdam for $40 and r/t brussels-paris for $62 and will purchase it at raileurope since the only charge will be the $7 premium train fee which isn't too bad. It will give me peace of mind that we have the tix already. Oh yeah, the website doesn't ask for dates of travel (except at the beginning, they ask for a departure date). Does it mean we can travel back any date as long as we use the time we reserved?

I checked out rental cars and they're just way more expensive (after adding up the taxes and other fees).

Thanks so much, everyone, for your input! I'm sure I'll have more questions (especially with the next step which is finding hotels) .

As I understand Thalys, tickets include a seat reservation. It is obligatory. Thus you would not be able to get on just any train, but only on the one you booked. I use the International Express between Amsterdam and Brussels. No reservation required.

Stay in Amsterdam, not at Schiphol.

If you want hotel advice on this forum it would help if you would advise everyone of your budget. There are hundreds of hotels, B&Bs, and hostels in each city. Do you have a guidebook? Have you used the search box above for hotels in Paris and Amsterdam?

For a mid trip stopover I find Antwerp more interesting than Brussels.

Our budget is about $100-$150 per day for the hotel. It's tough to find hotels that will let all 4 of us stay. The only ones I've seen are the chains(Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza) but they're not in the City Center.

As I recall Holiday Inn Crown Plaza Amsterdam is near Centraal Station, slightly west and south. I walked in the door once and walked out. Extras at the hotel can be expensive.

Inquire at the Ambassade in Amsterdam. It is not far from your price range and is a unique experience in the best part of the city. Maybe they have rooms for 4? Maybe you'll need two doubles?

I definitely recommend buying your ticket online in advance- it saved me 50%- two things I found: the sites are confusing so give yourself plenty of time, and remember that the 14-day advance pricing is based ontheir local time. I once got closed out of a ticket sale at 12:01, because it was 6:01 pm there, and the rate expired at 6:00. Also, get a really good street map of Brussels.

Hi Em,

>Oh yeah, the website doesn't ask for dates of travel (except at the beginning, they ask for a departure date). Does it mean we can travel back any date as long as we use the time we reserved?<

NO. THALYS tickets are for a particular reserved seat on a particular train. This is what you get if you buy your ticket in Europe or from the SNCF rail site.

Make sure that this is what raileurope is giving you. They might be selling you an "open ticket" which will require you to make reservations at the train station - for an additional fee.

How do you purchase tickets at voyages-sncf.com? It wouldn't let me purchase unless i put an address and it only accepts addresses from the Netherlands. I'm trying to book a train fare from amsterdam to paris r/t.
I tried Thalys also but when I tried to book it, it's in a different language. But if I book Brussels-Paris r/t, it's in English.

Emijar- wish I could be more helpful, for me it was trial & error, until I realized I didn't even know HOW I had successfully found the right part of the site. Good news, though: If you are unable to print your ticket, just print your email confirmation and take it to any THALYS or sncf ticket booth. I had my ticket for Paris to Brussels printed at Gare St. Lazare on my way to Giverny. FYI, I thought 2nd class was fine for my short jaunts. WHen I bought a phone card, the automated instructions were in English until the point where you had to dial the actual phone number you were trying to reach, when inexpicably they switched to French! Sometimes it just takes patience and a good phrase book. Good luck.

Check out the hotel Excelsior in the 5th arrond. Not only will it be fairly centrally located, but they do have rooms the size you need. It's on Rue Cujas...

We will stay there in a few weeks. Hopefully I am not leading you--or us--astray.

Even though your trip starts in Amsterdam, you can purchase advance (discounted) tickets by using www.sncf.com. (I don't care for the Thalys website).

Leave the country as &quot;France&quot;. Doing so will not impact your booking <b>if</b> you are trying to buy a discounted, nonrefundable/nonexchangeable ticket. I say this because this kind of ticket can be printed from your own computer at the end of the booking steps. Since it is nonrefundable/nonexchangeable, no one else can use it and it has your name printed all over it, sort of a watermark.

The discounted tickets are only good for round-trip bookings. If you are traveling round-trip, fine. If you are only traveling one-way, that's ok too - just use the ticket you need. The one-way Thalys ticket will cost more than the discounted round-trip ticket.

Fill in the booking form with your travel cities, dates and preferred times, class, etc. Next, choose the 'outbound' portion, then choose the 'return' portion. If you have chosen discounted fares, you will see in the options for ticket issue a choice to print on your pc. Click on that. You do not need to provide your address but you do need to provide your name as it matches your id/passport. Enter your credit card details - you will be given a confirmation number. Then you should be able to print the tickets - you can do this immediately or later, and you can print several copies or go back and reprint if you misplace the ticket.

On the train, you show the ticket (really a full sheet of paper) and your id/passport to the conductor. I know this works b/c we just did it in October.

If you don't want to buy a discounted ticket b/c you think you might change the date/time of travel, I would <i>think</i> you could choose &quot;Netherlands&quot; and then choose to pick up the ticket at a Dutch international rail office, such as at Schiphol or Centraal. Not sure if you leave it as &quot;France&quot; that you could still pick it up at a Dutch rail office. Maybe someone else knows.