We'll be in Bruges for a couple of
nights in April at the end of an England/Belgium trip.

Two members of our family have a flight back to the US from Brussels
on a Friday morning at 11:00. If we
remain in Bruges the night before (Thursday night), would they have trouble getting a train from Bruges to Brussels that Saturday morning in plenty of time to catch the flight? (i.e. a 7:00 or 7:3o train out of Bruges)?? I'm not sure where to find the train schedules.

WOULD YOU DO THIS (vs. spending the last night in Brussels)????

There is no direct train from Bruges to Brussels Airport.

You would have to take a train from Bruges to Brussels (one of the 3 main stations), and then change for the train to Brussels National Airport.

Checking Belgian Railways website, the trip takes 1.5 hours total.
http://www.b-rail.be/main/index.html

To me, it's a bit too risky, as Bruges is quite far distance-wise from Brussels (1 hr by train). The fact that it'll require 2 trains at that early hour in the morning leaves no room for any potential problems. Sure, if everything works smoothly, you can take a 7am train out of Bruges and be at the airport by 8:30am. But what will you do if there is an accident on the train track, or if there is a train strike, or if there is just a delay due to whatever reason?

Personally, I would not do this. I would stay in Brussels the night before. If something happens to the trains, I know I can still get to the airport by taxi.

You can still enjoy your last evening in Bruges. Just take a late train into Brussels the night before your flight, and you can sleep peacefully without worrying if you may miss your flight the next morning.

Look up the trains at
http://plannerint.b-rail.be/bin/quer...n?L=profi&

There are several that allow you to make it - pick an earlier rather than later one for obvious reasons:

5:31 (arr. 6:56),
5:58 (arr. 7:26),
6:31 (arr. 7:56),
6:58 (arr. 8:26),
7:31 (arr. 8:56)

For Bruges input Brugge, for the airport input Brussel-Nat.-Luchthaven/Bruxelles-Nat.-Aeroport.
These all require a change of trains at Brux. Noord.
Once in a while there is a train that requires a change in Gent-St.Pieters, taking a few minutes longer.

Depends also a bit on your check-in deadlines. If you had to be at the airport 2 hrs prior to departure, I would probably use a connection that got me to the airport 2 1/2 hrs earlier.

IMO, it's more a matter if your family members can enjoy the last night in Brugge when they have to get up very early next morning.

If they want to be on the safe side, there is one hotel on the airport premises (Sheraton, I think), and many more hotels in the nearby town of Zaventem which run their own shuttle buses to the airport.

I doubt that (m)any locals from Brugge would be willing to pay for a hotel to avoid taking the train in the morning, but since your family members have to pay for a hotel (either Brugge or Brussels) anyway, it will probably not matter budget-wise.

I would probably not stay in downtown Brussels (the train from there to the airport can break down as well, and that does not necessarily have to happen in a station where you - and 200 others - try to get a taxi) but leave Brugge after dinner, arrive in the airport's vicinity around 10 or 11 pm, and have a decent sleep before the morning flight.

I want t chime in and say that of all the many, many ---too many! -- airports I have passed through, Brussels had the most stringent, complicated, lengthiest security, and they were not about to be rushed or give people breaks. I believe one of the reasons is that, on my plane, there were perhaps some dozen Orthodox Jews, I'm guessing people who frequently from the Antwerp to New York City, because these are two of the most important cities in the diamond trade. And the Belgians are not taking any chances.

I don't know if you plan to go to Brussels at any point in your Belgian tour, but the Grand Place in Brussels is very, very much worth seeing. I would find the right hotel, and go see the square and have yet another fantastic Belgian meal in Brussels.