SShprints

Hello!
I have a 7 day trip coming up over the New Years holiday. I will need to travel by rail in the following circuit:
Dusseldorf Airport>>Amsterdam Dec 29
Amsterdam>>Antwerp Jan 3
Antwerp>>Brugge>>Antwerp (same day) Jan 4
Antwerp>>Dusseldorf Airport Jan 5

Do I book these ahead of time, or should I buy my tickets by just going to the train station or via the hotel?

The most important of this bunch is the last leg. I have a flight to catch out of Dusseldorf at 1:05pm on January 5 and need to ensure I make it to the airport 90mins before the flight.

thoughts?

Man_in_seat_61

To and from Germany you'll find cheaper tickets if you pre-book at www.bahn.de/en - though reservation is optional, you can ALWAYS rock up, buy a ticket at the Standardpreis and hop on. The issue is price, not availability.

All the others you can buy at the station on the day, no reservation necessary, UNLESS you want the high-speed Thalys train between Amsterdam and Antwerp rather than the classic hourly InterCity IC train, as Thalys fares work like air fares, reservation required and prices rise as departure approaches.

SShprints

my worry about precooking the dusseldorf to amsterdam wing is that if my flight ends up delayed and I arrive late, will I lose the money?
I don't care about Thalys..its a quick trip regardless.

The last leg..antwerp to dusseldorf is giving me issues. it says that only a bus is available

PalenQ

You may want to price the Germany-Benelux railpass if you want full flexibility to hop any train anytime vs full fare tickets and even discounted ones - Thalys is about the only exception to flexibility as it charges a hefty supplement for passes. Offhand you may not be traveling quite long enough on trains for the pass to pay off but I do not know the current pass prices but worth a check.

For lots of good info on trains in those countries check not only Man in Seat 61's commercial site www.seat61.com but also these fine sites - www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

For pass prices Man in Seat 61's site www.seat61.com has Rail Europe as an official sponsor and click on the commercial linkto Rail Europe for current railpass prices.

Cowboy1968

What's the problem with the bus on your last leg? It will cost you only 14 euros to get from Antwerpen to DUS airport, with one change at Düsseldorf main station. And the IC Buses are comfortable.

There are earlier connections which use trains only take as long as the one with the bus, but you have to leave Antwerpen at 6.30am and cannot book any connections that involve Thalys trains on bahn.com
I *think* you need to do that on Thalys' website or b-europe.com - but someone else who knows this better should comment.

Travelforbeer

Have you considered staying over in Brugge on 4 Jan instead of backtracking to Antwerpen? Go directly to DUS on the 6:06 AM train from Brugge that arrives (1 change) at DUS at 9:51 AM? I would think a night in Brugge is better than another night in Antwerpen... But what do I know, I've never been to Antwerpen...

SShprints

thanks!
the issue with a bus is that busses are typically more impacted by bad weather and I am very tight on time…but alas, it looks like weather will be ok..so bus it is.
The reason I chose Antwerp as base for both nights is because its closer and more central to both Dusseldorf and Amsterdam.

PalenQ

Ironically about buses and trains being impacted by bad weather - a few Januarys ago I took a day trip by train from Amsterdam to Duisburg (don't ask me why!) and the return German portion of the train was scrubbed because of icing that the train could not handle and we were put on a bus instead!

But yes generally trains are more reliable - buses can get caught in traffic jams, etc.