travel from paris to amsterdamn
 

hi- <BR>i will be in paris mid-july. how easy is it to get from paris to amsterdamn? how long would it take and what are general price ranges? thanks, any information would help alot. <BR>-sara

There are several trains a day from Paris to Amsterdam from the Paris du Nord station. The trip time is about 4 and 1/2 hours. Run a search on this board. I'm sure there have been threads about it before. Enjoy.

The train you want is the Thalys. They have a website at thalys.com -- it take 4 hours from Paris-Nord to Amsterdam-Centraal. It is very much like the Eurostar. [Actually I liked it better:)]

The Thalys trains are kind of expensive: www.sncf.com (the French railway site) shows a fare of 503 FF for 2d class from Paris to Amsterdam. A possible alternative would be the overnight train, which leaves the Gare du Nord at 23:16 and arrives at Amsterdam Centraal at 7:10. A 2d-class couchette costs 477 FF; a 2d-class sleeper, 586 FF; and a reclinable 2d-class seat, 409 FF.

I checked the Thalys website, and it shows the same 503 FF fare for a one-way ticket; but it also shows a 468 FF fare for a non-exchangeable, non-refundable round trip ticket.

We made that trip. It was very relaxing after 6 days in paris with our kids. One recommendation I can make if you take this train ride is to pick up food before boarding. There are many food shops in the train station. The ride itself is not particularly scenic. I thought the ride was even less than 4 hrs. I guess it depends on how many stops it makes. We took a morning train. Bought the tickets at the station. No problems at all.

<BR>We took this very same trip last Wednesday. The Thalys high-speed train seems to run twice a day directly from Paris-Nord to Amsterdam-Centraal Station. <BR> <BR>Also, every hour a train leaves Paris-Nord for Brussells-Midi. Then you can switch to an inter-city train to Amsterdam CS. I think this took us 5.5 hours. We were on a Eurail pass, but it might be less expensive than the direct Thalys. <BR> <BR>One thing to remember is, even if you have a Eurail pass, many of these trains require a reservation. <BR> <BR>Have fun!