Could anyone suggest the best train route/tips for getting from Patis to Bruges and then on to Amsterdam. We land at 8:45 am in Paris this Tuesday (9/22), and need to get to Bruges. We did not pre-book train tickets per some other suggestions. Hope that was not a mistake! We are in no particular rush after landing. We will be leaving Bruges on Saturday morning to head to Amsterdam.

Thank you.

I did read other posts regarding this very question that were very helpful. For the experienced people traveling this area.. Which is the best option ? Thalys and connecting in Brussels? We will be taking a day trip to Ghent from Bruges. Should we purchase the tickets that allow is to travel To more than the one destination in Belgium?

I think you've pretty much got it nailed. Take the Thalys to Brussels, buy tickets on the local train to Brugges (a little less than 2 hours), hit Ghent on the way back (I really loved Ghent) and then back to Brussels to pick up the train to A-Dam. I went from Ghent to Antwerp to pick up the Thalys train, but I wanted to see Antwerp.

You need to make the Thalys reservation as soon as possible, I went in December and the train was full. In fact some passengers were sitting on luggage between cars.

You will pay between 106 and 151 euros for a ticket in second class tomorrow. By booking ahead, you could have paid 36 euros.

Are there other trains besides the Thalys out of Paris? I just looked at the schedule and it's sold out ! A bit panicked since we leave tomorrow night. In the states you can pretty much grab a train anytime. My mistake !

voyages-sncf.com is showing trains direct from CDG to Bruxelles Midi tomorrow .

You can also take a train from Paris to Lille and connect to Bruges there. In that case, you would prefer trains to the Lille-Flandres station instead of the Lille-Europe station. They're about 400 meters apart which is an easy walk, but the trains to Bruges leave from Lille-Flandres.

Odd - go through Thalys and it does indeed not turn anything up - but displays as from voyages-sncf.com, whose front end does list trains as available. If that doesn't work, try booking from Paris Gare du Nord to Brussels.

Thank you for the input! We are going to take our chances and grab the first train we can after arriving. I don't think prices will very much between today and tomorrow. And it appears there is availability with a couple options.

no, prices won't vary between today and tomorrow