THALYS Amsterdam-Paris run.....
I'm going from Amsterdam to Paris and would like to make an afternoon stopover in Brussels. Do all the THALYS trains stop in Brussels or are some direct to Paris? Also, does the Gare Midi in Brussels have luggage storage lockers or room? Is it possible to buy an Amst. to Paris ticket, get off for a few hours and catch a later Thalys to Paris, or do I have to buy 2 tickets (Amst.-Brussels, Brussels-Paris)?
Thanks for any help! |
Re: THALYS Amsterdam-Paris run.....
Stacy Shinsel wrote:
> I'm going from Amsterdam to Paris and would like to make an afternoon > stopover in Brussels. Do all the THALYS trains stop in Brussels or are > some direct to Paris? Also, does the Gare Midi in Brussels have luggage > storage lockers or room? Is it possible to buy an Amst. to Paris ticket, > get off for a few hours and catch a later Thalys to Paris, or do I have > to buy 2 tickets (Amst.-Brussels, Brussels-Paris)? All of the Thalys trains from Amsterdam to Paris make a stop at Brussels Midi (for about 10 minutes) and then continue on to Paris. Thalys trains are entirely reserved-seat. So, if you plan to stop off in Brussels, then your journey would continue on a different train, which suggests that you will need a separate ticket. I don't know what the pricing rules are in such a case. That is, the prices for two entirely separate tickets Amsterdam-Brussels and Brussels- Paris are somewhat more (EUR 20-50, depending on the type of ticket) than is a ticket Amsterdam-Paris -- but I don't know what the rules are for a broken journey. But, unlike with standard trains, you _cannot_ simply buy a through ticket, get off in Brussels, and then continue your journey on a later train (because seat reservations are for a particular seat on a particular train). As for luggage storage, the last time I noticed, there were indeed lockers at Brussels Midi -- but it has been over a year since I looked, and things could now be different. -- greg byshenk - [email protected] - Leiden, NL hate spam? |
Re: THALYS Amsterdam-Paris run.....
Stacy Shinsel wrote:
>I'm going from Amsterdam to Paris and would like to make an afternoon >stopover in Brussels. Do all the THALYS trains stop in Brussels or are >some direct to Paris? Also, does the Gare Midi in Brussels have luggage >storage lockers or room? Is it possible to buy an Amst. to Paris ticket, >get off for a few hours and catch a later Thalys to Paris, or do I have >to buy 2 tickets (Amst.-Brussels, Brussels-Paris)? >Thanks for any help! >-- >Posted via http://britishexpats.com All Thalys trains stop at Brussels. Brussels South (Bruxelles Midi) is quite a modern train station. It has luggage lockers. If you travel by Thalys seat reservation is compulsory. I have to guess now, but I do not see any reason why you should not be able to have a seat reservation Amsterdam to Brussel-Midi first and a couple of hours later Brussels-Midi toParis. have a nice journey Bert Kraaijpoel (change .ned into .nl) |
Re: THALYS Amsterdam-Paris run.....
Stacy Shinsel wrote:
: I'm going from Amsterdam to Paris and would like to make an afternoon : stopover in Brussels. Do all the THALYS trains stop in Brussels or are : some direct to Paris? Also, does the Gare Midi in Brussels have luggage : storage lockers or room? Is it possible to buy an Amst. to Paris ticket, : get off for a few hours and catch a later Thalys to Paris, or do I have : to buy 2 tickets (Amst.-Brussels, Brussels-Paris)? I went the other direction in September. But I took Thalys only from Paris to Brussels (Midi), then took the InterCity (IC) train from Brussels to Amsterdam. They leave once an hour most of the day. True, the IC train is nowhere near as nice as the Thalys train, but it was fine. Thalys vs IC: The IC train is a bit cheaper. I've also been told that the tracks from Brussels to Amsterdam are not rated for super high-speed travel anyway (is this true?) so Thalys wouldn't save you much timve vs. the IC - perhaps a few more stops? My stopover in Brussels worked out very well by the way - no problems. It's easy to get from Midi to Central station in Brussels, too. Look at the readerboards, hop on any train going between the stations. Quick and supposedly free. There are storage lockers at Midi (as of September 2002), however you must have EXACT change. Not too little OR too much! I think the large lockers are 3.30 EUR. If you have 3 EIR and two 20 cent pieces, the locker will not give you change, and it will spit the coins back out - it will not accept even 10 cents too much! And good luck finding change at the train station! Took me almost 20 minutes til I found a kind traveler with spare change. The stores would not give me change unless I bought something, and the bathroom attendant nearby did not have small coins (so she claimed). Anyway, take lots of loose change if you want to use the lockers. Midi also has a manned luggage storage room near the lockers, for like 2 EUR a bag - not sure how late it is open, but you could always do that. Just ask them. I felt more comfortable leaving my stuff in lockers, personally. Andrew -- ----> Portland, Oregon, USA http://www.bizave.com/photos/ <---- Andrew's Photography ----> http://www.moviepundit.com/ <---- Andrew's Movie Website ************************************************** ***************** To respond by EMAIL, please DO NOT hit "reply". Email address scrambled for security. Instead, please visit the web page: http://www.bizave.com/cgi-bin/contact.cgi/subject=Re:%20Re:%20T- HALYS%20%20Amsterdam-Paris%20run...../newsgroup=rec.travel.europe/messageid=zcasdddh- [email protected] |
Thanks so much for the info!
I have another question: Can I make reservations for the Thalys on the internet or do I have to wait until I'm in the Netherlands to make them? Andrew, I'm also in Portland..actually out by Tanasbourne area. |
Re: THALYS Amsterdam-Paris run.....
"Andrew" wrote in message
news:zcasdddhjaxcdd4640305980- [email protected]... > Thalys vs IC: The IC train is a bit cheaper. I've also been told > that the tracks from Brussels to Amsterdam are not rated for > super high-speed travel anyway (is this true?) so Thalys wouldn't save > you much timve vs. the IC - perhaps a few more stops? This is correct. Hopefully one day the high-speed line will run all the way to AMS, but at the moment Thalys trains north of Brussels travel at "normal" speeds. To give you an idea of the difference in journey time between Thalys and IC: (information from http://reiseau- skunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/e , a German site which has excellent rail information for all of Europe): Amsterdam Centraal - Brussels-Midi: on Thalys, 2h36m, on IC, 2h51m - so only a 15 minute difference. The IC trains run every hour at xx23 from 0623 until 2023 daily. The fare as far as Brussels varies but a weekend return in 2nd class is about ?30. You can get fares information for Thalys at www.thalys.com HTH Peter |
Re: THALYS Amsterdam-Paris run.....
Stacy Shinsel wrote:
> I'm going from Amsterdam to Paris and would like to make an afternoon > stopover in Brussels. Do all the THALYS trains stop in Brussels or are > some direct to Paris? They stop in Brussels. At least some (don't know exactly, but there is a Thalys section at the train station B-Midi/Zuid). > Also, does the Gare Midi in Brussels have luggage > storage lockers or room? Last year there was a room there with a real human taking your luggage and money. The guy had a good laugh at me, because I dug out some 100 BFr bills which, as it turned out, had not been a valid currency for quite a few years then. Some years ago, lockers disappeared from many train stations and airports because of the possibility of bombs being "stored" there. I haven't noticed lockers last year at B-Midi. -Margaret -- mikulska at silvertone dot princeton dot edu |
Re: THALYS Amsterdam-Paris run.....
Stacy Shinsel wrote:
> Thanks so much for the info! > I have another question: Can I make reservations for the Thalys on the > internet or do I have to wait until I'm in the Netherlands to make them? Why don't you check their website??? (OK, it says you can, but why are people so reluctant to check the basic info by themselves???) -MM -- mikulska at silvertone dot princeton dot edu |
Re: THALYS Amsterdam-Paris run.....
Margaret Mikulska wrote:
: Some years ago, lockers disappeared from many train stations and : airports because of the possibility of bombs being "stored" there. I : haven't noticed lockers last year at B-Midi. There were lockers at Midi in September, 2002 - I used one. Andrew -- ----> Portland, Oregon, USA http://www.bizave.com/photos/ <---- Andrew's Photography ----> http://www.moviepundit.com/ <---- Andrew's Movie Website ************************************************** ***************** To respond by EMAIL, please DO NOT hit "reply". Email address scrambled for security. Instead, please visit the web page: http://www.bizave.com/cgi-bin/contact.cgi/subject=Re:%20Re:%20T- HALYS%20%20Amsterdam-Paris%20run...../newsgroup=rec.travel.europe/messageid=axczcasd- [email protected] |
Margaret,
Actually, I do most of my own bookings using the websites, but I figured I'd find out from people who had actually used the site. I've had a couple experiences booking things with the internet and then finding I had no reservation recorded when I arrived even though I had email confirmation. Once burned, twice shy, as the saying goes. |
Re: THALYS Amsterdam-Paris run.....
Stacy Shinsel wrote:
: Thanks so much for the info! : I have another question: Can I make reservations for the Thalys on the : internet or do I have to wait until I'm in the Netherlands to make them? : Andrew, I'm also in Portland..actually out by Tanasbourne area. Stacy, I'm forming a travel group in Portland - to talk about travel experiences, help each other plan future trips, or even find travel partners. If you want to find out more, email me via the web link at the bottom of this post. Andrew -- ----> Portland, Oregon, USA http://www.bizave.com/photos/ <---- Andrew's Photography ----> http://www.moviepundit.com/ <---- Andrew's Movie Website ************************************************** ***************** To respond by EMAIL, please DO NOT hit "reply". Email address scrambled for security. Instead, please visit the web page: http://www.bizave.com/cgi-bin/contact.cgi/subject=Re:%2- 0Re:%20THALYS%20%20Amsterdam-Paris%20run...../newsgroup=rec.travel.europe/messageid=- [email protected] |
Re: THALYS Amsterdam-Paris run.....
just buy a ticket to Brussells, and then get another ticket from
Brussels to Paris. It is easy as that. There is a train going to Brussells every 25-45 minutes from Amsterdam. Stacy Shinsel wrote: > I'm going from Amsterdam to Paris and would like to make an afternoon > stopover in Brussels. Do all the THALYS trains stop in Brussels or are > some direct to Paris? Also, does the Gare Midi in Brussels have luggage > storage lockers or room? Is it possible to buy an Amst. to Paris ticket, > get off for a few hours and catch a later Thalys to Paris, or do I have > to buy 2 tickets (Amst.-Brussels, Brussels-Paris)? > Thanks for any help! > -- > Posted via http://britishexpats.com |
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