What is the best way to travel from London to Bruges? I don't particularly want to take the chunnel from London to Paris and then to Bruges. I understand that there are ferries from England to France, and I am considering this as an alternative to rail.

Has anyone traveled from London to Bruges, but not via Paris?

Thanks!

MoMeck

You can get the Eurostar to Brussels. No need to go to Paris.

There are only three options:

- By train (through the tunnel) changing at Lille or Brussels
- Drive, using the ferry or tunnel
- Fly to Brussels, then get a train

There's no sensible way of getting to Bruges via a train and ferry. It IS theoretically possible to get a Eurolines bus to Brussels, then a train to Bruges - but I'd rather eat my hand off.

What is "chunnel"?

There's a Channel Tunnel. And that's where the trains go.

Why would you spend 2x the time going by ferry? Is it a claustrophobia issue? If you'll be with a companion, can you take a happy pill (valium, codeine, other that'll knock you out)?

If you get the Eurostar to Brussels you should get an any Belgian station ticket to get you to Brugge.

>>I don't particularly want to take the chunnel from London to Paris and then to Bruges.<<

Heck, I wouldn't want to take the Eurostar <u>to Paris</u> to get to Bruges either . . . But why do you think you need to go via Paris?

For Eurostar, you can look at the route map. http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/destinations/route-map
Click "Bruges" on the map and it shows the route the trains take from London to Bruges via Brussels. The yellow part is on Eurostar and the white part is on a Belgian railroad system train.

You can also skip Brussels and connect Lille to Bruges as mentioned above.

It is usually little faster to go via Brussels. Also Lille to Bruges on Belgian IC train skipping Brussels requires a train change at Kortrijk. You can play with train options at www.bahn.com.

Thanks for all the suggestions and recommendations, especially web sites!