We are going to Amsterdam over Easer break for 2 or 3 nights and then on to Brugge for 2 nights and then on to Paris for 5 nights. Can train tickets for this be booked in advance from the states.

It has been my luck in our past trips to book from the states thereby eliminating one thing I have to do upon arrival. Because we may be travelling on Easter Sunday and the holidays are generally a big travel time I want to be sure to have reservations. Is this possible?

I did this same itinerary this summer. There was no need to buy tickets from Amsterdam to Brugge ahead. We did buy Thalys tickets for Brugge to Paris (we did stay in Brussels for one night to check it out...)ahead of time as you do get seat reservations. 2nd class was just fine. We booked through Rail Europe as there was a sale going on that made it worthwhile to go through them. Do a search on this site to get more information. What portion of the trip will you be traveling on Easter Sunday?

Like Andeesue says, no reason to buy the Amsterdam-to-Brugge ticket in advance. The trains have no reserved seats, and I didn't find any deals to buy them cheaper early.

For Thalys, there are often Smily advanced roundtrip tickets that are cheaper than a standard one-way. Just throw away the return. You'll be buying a Brussels-Paris Thalys <b>ABS</b> ticket. ABS stands for Any Belgian Station, and adds &euro;1.50 for each ticket, and you can ride from anywhere in Belgium to connect to your Thalys to Paris in Brussels.

[If you get the Smilys, you'll need to buy ABS for both ways, so your cost is actually &euro;3. It'll still be cheaper than a standard ticket between Brussels and Brugge, which is 11.8&euro;]

We did book our tickets ahead on Thalys from Amsterdam to Brugge (Brussels) and also on Thalys to Paris. Both trains were completely full (in June).

But I'd share your concern on an Easter Sunday. I have no idea, but I could imagine that being a very busy day -- or a very slow one.

I would book tickets if you take a special train like Thalys; where you have reserved seats. There's also a regular intercity train between Brugge and Amsterdam, with a change of trains in Antwerpen Berchem. I don't think there's an advantage to booking this in advance.

The hourly Intercity trains from Amsterdam to Brussels do not have reserved seats, like all other domestic trains in Belgium and the Netherlands. If you use the Thalys, then you can (and should) book in advance, but they are only slightly faster between Amsterdam and Brussels, less frequent than the Intercity trains and cost more.

Andeesue: We are debating if we should travel on Easter Sunday from Amsterdam to Brugge or wait until Monday. My thought is that there may not be much to do in Amsterdam on Easter so why not make the train trip. But then again, Easter Monday may be an issue in Brugge if museums are closed due to the holiday. Can I purchase train tickets at Amsterdam's airport when we arrive?

rkkwan: What is Smily? I did do a train search on this site and there are a lot of questions and information that is fairly old.

This site seems not to have as much info for Amsterdam/Belgium in comparison other part of Europe.

Smilys (note the &quot;s&quot; at the end) is a discount fare on Thalys trains. Even though you'll be shown a outward segment fare and a return segment fare, you have to book a roundtrip ticket. The two fares added together are still less than the standard single (one-way) fare so just throw away the segment you don't use. Tickets must be booked a minimum of 14 days in advance at thalys.com and seats are limited for this special deal.

TimS: Thanks for the information. I will start to look at train schedules just to get an idea of what we should do.

I am doing the exact itinerary next July, two days Amsterdam, 2 days Brugge, and 5 days Paris. I have been doing research on the train schedules and pricing.

I found that purchase the 4-day Eurail Flexipass Benelux comes out cheaper than purchase the two one way tickets. The first class pass is only $260/person while the one way ticket from Brugge to Paris is $288/person. Check on their website http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/pa..._saverpass.htm

Pat

And here I am agonizing over &quot;when is Easter in Amsterdam&quot;. So when is it in 2007? I hope to be there in April!

Easter Sunday in 2007 will be April 8.

Pat_Rick:

Stop looking at raileurope for regular train prices. Theirs are highly inflated.

Full fare Brugge to Paris on www.b-rail.be costs way less than that, especially if you can buy the Smilys-ABS ticket more than 14 days in advance.

Amsterdam to Brugge is even less.

IMO, the best source of train info is Budget Europe Travel (BETS). A lot of Fodorites, myself included, have been dealing with them for years.

They are knowledgeable,friendly, and have all of the answers about individual tickets, prices, or rail passes and schedules.

You can reach them online at:

budgeteuropetravel.com

or telephone them at: 1-800-441-2387.

Nina

You can also take a regional train from Bruges to Lille and then a TGV from Lille to Paris. If PREM'S (discount) fares are available on the TGV, this is cheaper than Thalys from Bruges to Paris. Book Lille-Paris at www.sncf.com.

Easter Mon. in Brugge likely won't be a bigger problem than Mon. period. Most museums anywhere, from NYC to Cairo, are closed on Mon., and the same is true in Brugge. Some of the private museums like the Diamond Museum and Choco Story are open daily. That said, we didn't find the museums in Brugge nearly as interesting or impressive as many other places. But we did find the city itself lovely for just walking around and doing not much of anything. Brugge is raved about so much that I was prepared to be disappointed, but we loved it.

Just took the Intercity train from Amsterdam Centraal to Brugge about a month ago and paid, as I recall, around 85 Euros for the two of us. That included the extra fee for buying tickets at the counter instead of from a machine. No credit cards, though, only cash. Trains leave hourly and the trip, including the train change at Antwerp Berchem, was a bit over 3 hrs.

Polly 229: Thanks for the added info about the museums. I also did not find any museum that interesting in Brugge. Are you saying that you cannot use credit cards to purchase train tickets from either the machine or the train desk?

In Holland i think if you use the machine you'll pay 1 euro less than going to a ticket window.

Cost for using the ticket counter to buy tickets in Netherlands is 1EUR for local trains, 3.5EUR for international (including Belgium).

The machine will accept credit cards, but you need a PIN. My card doesn't have one, so I have to pay the 3.5EUR. I don't know for certain if you have a PIN for the US credit card whether it will work then.