On another website I saw the following message.


<the cheapest way to travel between AMS and PAR is not to take Thalys, but the regular international train. It might take a bit (but not much) longer and you may have to change in Brussels (though not always) and it's much cheaper. I am not sure you can book it online but you can certainly see the connections etc on www.ns.nl or www.bahn.de>

When I pulled up the trains they only listed Thalys trains, not the regional or local ones. Are there regular trains between these cities and how would I go about getting on one?

the only direct Amsterdam to Paris trains are indeed Thalys trains - i think what was meant perhaps was that if you could not get a good fare on Thalys Ams-Par you can take an hourly IC train Amsterdam to Brussels then opt for the Brussels to Paris Thalys train.

thalys have a Byzantine fare structure with allotments of cheaper tickets and full fare costing a whole bunch more. Early bird gets the worm. www.thalys.com for booking from Amsterdam or Brussels. SMILYS fares are return tickets but are often cheaper than a one-way - throw away the return but hard to get as train approaches. I always advise trying both ends if in U.S. thalys.com often has the best fares but also always try raileurope.com as they can be surprisingly competitive at times (French Railways largely owns their U.S. subsidiary RailEurope) - but fares often are wildly different. For any RE product and Thalys i always advise www.budgeteuropetravel.com and having someone do a manual search - raileurope.com does not always show the cheapest actually available fare IME and what others have said. Byron at b e is an expert who you can actually talk to and ask questions, etc. You can call RailEurope too but they will charge +10% to talk to anyone when buying i believe and then the person may not know more than the fare IME. In any case just do not show up and buy a ticket or you could pay $100 or even more.

There actually is a way to avoid the Thalys train - take an IC train to Amsterdam (flat fare strucutre on these so no need to buy in advance) and then take a local to Lille and then hop a TGV to paris from there - but about two hours longer. Yet as this TGV has a fairly normal fare structure at the last minute i guess it could save a bundle - but with two changes of train, etc.

Note if going to Bruges as many do then take IC trains Amsterdam-antwerp-Bruges

then regional train Bruges-Lille then TGV - just as quick as going via Brussels and hopping Thalys trains.

Thalys trains have obligatory reservations, even if seats remain - all tickets issued however come with the seat reservation included.

I did the reverse a couple of years ago. For reasons I won't go into, I took a local train from Amsterdam to Brussels -- bought the ticket with no problem in Amsterdam the night before traveling. Before departing for Europe, I bought a Thalys ticket online at a discounted price from Brussels to Paris. For that I needed a reservation. One thing I will point out is that when I arrived in Brussels it was a long walk from the arrival terminal to the (main) terminal for my next train. I was glad I allowed two hours for the change -- it allowed me to stop for a meal and walk at a leisurely pace.

Hi E,

If you take the Thalys to Brussels and then a regular train to Amsterdam, you can save money and lose little time.

The tracks from Brussels to Amsterdam are not yet up to par for very high speed.

If you book 3 moths ahead you can get one way ticket on Thalys for 43 dollars. I did in July.

Thank you all for your comments. Appreciate your help on this one.

Did you say cheap? www.eurolines.fr/ gets you from Paris to Amsterdam for 37 Euros (unless you're under 26 or over 60, then it's 34.-), departures at 7:30, 9:30, 11:30, 13:30, takes 8 hours.

If you want to really do it on the local and regional trains, don't bother with reservations, just go to the station and buy your ticket (for as far as that particular train goes until you have to make a switch) and hop on. It will take a long time to get there, but it can be done.

Ira - i keep asking when in Dutchland about those new high-speed tracks that are in place and should be running - the answer is always vague

supposed to go into service in 2007 no one can say it seems when they may actually open to Thalys and the new hi-speed domestic Sprinter trains. For now yes IC trains are marginally slower simply because they stop more than the Thalys, which i believe still use the same old tracks.