Hello...here's a question you probably don't get very often...

We are planning to book the Thalys from Belgium (either Antwerp or Brussels - haven't decided which yet) to Amsterdam.

My experience on other European trains is that the seats are sometimes in groups of 4 with pairs facing each other. Two questions:

1. Does the reservation website show a diagram so that we can get seats beside each other rather than across from each other?

2. Is there any way to tell in which direction the train is going? We would prefer to sit facing front.

Thanks.
SS

Hi ss,

>Hello...here's a question you probably don't get very often...<

No less than twice a month.

You can't rely on a train to always go in one direction. There are many times when they pull into a station and go out "backwards" instead of continuing in the same direction..

I can't help with seating charts, maybe others can.

Enjoy your visit.

I consider the traveling direction one factor I don't have a total control, but I have strategies to deal with it.

1. Book 1st class face-to-face (vis-a-vis) seating if 2. One of us is always facing forward by swapping seats. Book 2 facing each other in either class if traveling in 4.

2. Move seats after the train leaves the station plus a few minutes to make sure no one else reserved the seats.

If what makes you uncomfortable is the feeling of being pulled backwards, then Thalys, Eurostar, or TGVs pose little problem. They travel at a constant speed for a long time, so unless you are watching, you cannot tell which direction you are traveling.

The last time I traveled on Thalys from Paris to Belgium with my husband, we were assigned seats next to each other (not facing each other). I think that is the usual assignment.

I traveled Thalys Amsterdam - Paris and was assigned the seat ( I booked 3 months ahead at a discount).
Even in July, the train was not full so I changed seats to face forward.

I thought Thalys was the one train sytem that did show you seating specifics, more or less correctly. But it's an empirical question, just go and look at the scheme and see if you can see direction rather than asking us if you can.

Thalys trains do not change directions between Brussels and Amsterdam, nor Paris and Brussels IME

If you do not want to take the Thalys then just hop the hourly IC trains between Brussels and Amsterdam, as i did recently - these trains do not even accept reservations so you select where you want to sit -and as they start in Brussels Midi you can board first and nab choice seats - IC trains hava a flat fare structure - always the same price and a normal price of about $35-40 - you could pay much much more on the Thalys and then have to sit in the seat assigned as Thalys trains are often IME full - even with the hard to get SMOOVE fare you would not save much taking the Thalys - Thalys trains do save about 45 minutes i guess over the IC trains however. You could buy the IC ticket just before boarding the train.