Paris to Amsterdam with a short stop in brussels
 

We will be in Paris for two weeks in February. We would like to take a 3 day trip to Amsterdam while we are there via train. We would like to stop in Brussels on the way for a few hours and geab some lunch/ do a little sight seeing. Trying to choose which train (thalys/ ic) will allow this, which drops you off at a more convenient location, and which tickets to purchase has became a little confusing. Going back Paris we will most likely just take the thalys train.
Would purchasing a Europass make all of this easier? Could we ue this pass on all the trains? Would we still need to make reservations for all of the trains? Thanks in advance. Seems the more I google the more confused I become.

I think you are better off buying point-to-point tickets rather than trying a rail pass, and if it was me, I'd just take the Thalys train. It's easy and straightforward, and there are direct trains from Paris to Brussels and then Brussels to Amsterdam. And if you book ahead on the Thalys site, you can get really good prices on tickets. The Thalys train stops at Brussels Midi station, which is fine. With only a few hours in Brussels, you'll probably want to go to the Grand Place, which is the central square in the old town. You can take local transportation from Midi station, a taxi, or just walk (about 20 min).

Not easy on Thalys, because you need reserved seats. You can't break your journey Paris - Amsterdam mid way. So then you need to buy 2 tickets, one Paris to Brussels, one Brussels - Amsterdam.

My suggestion would be to book Paris - Brussels on Thalys, and take the International IC Brussels to Amsterdam: you don't need to reserve those, you can walk right on, which gives you a lot of flexibility in Brussels. Takes an hour extra, compared to Thalys, but you get a lot in return.

A pass won't help you. If you want, you can even buy a train ticket at the ticket office. That way you could even have dinner in Brussels and then take the train to Amsterdam.

The train from Paris will take you to Bruxelles-Midi, but you can take the metro to a more scenic area.

These are just two trips, that's all (Paris-Brussels then Brussels-Amsterdam). There are not many trains that allow you to just stop off for hours in the middle of the trip and use the same ticket, given so many of the high speed ones now have reserved times/seats. In France, you can do that usually with TERs, though, but that's irrelevant.

Just seeing it as two trips should make it easy to plan the tickets. It is true Thalys lets you off not in the dead center where you probably want to be (Grand Place, don't know why they leave off the e). It's an easy trip by metro a few stops, though, a couple lines go there (3 and 4), get out at De Bourckère. I was just there for a day trip from Paris so bought some transit pass in a machine at Midi for the day.

The Thalys from there to AMsterdam takes about 2 hrs. You can also take the IC train Menachem mentions from gare Centrale which is very near Grand Place, but that trip takes almost 3 hours. Probably not as many trains, either, but given the time it may take to get back to Gare Midi, it's worth considering.

If you buy a Eurail pass, you would still have to pay a supplement for the Thalys and that is the best connection between Paris and Brussels, so you lose any benefit from a convenience perspective, and often the cost is not better. I would do as Menachem says and buy a Thalys between Paris and Brussels and an IC ticket from Brussels to Amsterdam unless you are time-sensitive, in which case, the Thalys. The Thalys is also a more comfortable train.

When you reach Brussels you can take a train from Bruxelles-Midi (half the signs will say Brussel-Zuid) to Bruxelles-Centrale (Brussel-Centraal) and walk to the main tourist areas around Grand' Place, or at Midi you can go down a level in the station and take the metro as Christina says, to De Brouckère, which is equally close to the GP in the opposite direction. You can leave your luggage at Midi either in the staffed left luggage service, or in the lockers. The staffed service costs EUR8. The area around Midi itself is a depressed area but not dangerous.

Enjoy your visit!

Lavandula

Sightseeing in Brussels for the brief time you will be there: the Grand'Place and the Horta house/museum:

https://flic.kr/p/7u7T59
https://flic.kr/p/7u7V7W

Even though you are only doing a few short train journeys, this website has so much information on train travel it's well worth looking at. We used it to help plan four weeks by train in France, lots of helpful stuff.

https://www.seat61.com/

Unless you have to be in Amsterdam at a certain time, I'd take the train suggested where you can just turn up, without prebooking. That way you can spend longer in Brussels if you like, or even take the short train ride to Ghent or Brugge. If it's dreadful weather or one of you is sick, you can always get an earlier train to Amsterdam. Much more flexible.

1 every 2 hours. I would take a train from midi/zuid to centraal.

Spend at least a full day in Brussels or forget it. A visit of 2-3 hrs is just a waste of time.

I agree. An overnight in Brussels would be even better. At least have dinner there. Food is much better than in Amsterdam

I'm going to circle back and ask more about this (on another thread). I'll be in Amsterdam for two weeks and would love an overnight trip to Brussels.