davewheeler1

Hi Folks,

I am planning a five day trip to Luxembourg and Belgium, for my wife
and I plus baby. The Benelux railpass seems like a good idea - would
this be the cheapest option for the following itinerary?:
Luxembourg-Ghent(presumably via Brussels)-Bruges-back to Luxembourg

ALso, any decent low cost hotel recommendations welcomed!

Many thanks

Keith Anderson

On 27 May 2005 05:22:15 -0700, [email protected] wrote:

    >Hi Folks,
    >I am planning a five day trip to Luxembourg and Belgium, for my wife
    >and I plus baby. The Benelux railpass seems like a good idea - would
    >this be the cheapest option for the following itinerary?:
    >Luxembourg-Ghent(presumably via Brussels)-Bruges-back to Luxembourg
    >ALso, any decent low cost hotel recommendations welcomed!
    >Many thanks

Might I suggest you take a much more scenic route from Luxembourg into
Belgium?

The route from Luxembourg to Liège via Troisvièrges and Trois Ponts is
delightful - follows the valley of the Amblève river and you see more
of the Ardennes scenery. It's slower than the direct Luxemborg - Arlon
- Brussel/Bruxelles route but IMHO well worth the detour.



Keith, Bristol, UK

DE-MUNG for email replies

michaelnewport

[email protected] wrote:
    > Hi Folks,
    > I am planning a five day trip to Luxembourg and Belgium, for my wife
    > and I plus baby. The Benelux railpass seems like a good idea - would
    > this be the cheapest option for the following itinerary?:
    > Luxembourg-Ghent(presumably via Brussels)-Bruges-back to Luxembourg
    > ALso, any decent low cost hotel recommendations welcomed!
    >
    > Many thanks

check out www.nmbs.be

oystein

You don't tell so that much about your interests, but I try to give you
some suggestions about the best of the Benelux and surrounding areas.

Me myself is a Norwegian living and working in Rotterdam, that spends a
lot of my sparetime visiting places in the close or a bit farer
surroundings.

The first thing I notice is that you include Luxenburg, but exclude the
Netherlands, why? First I think, Luxenburg with all due respect is of
limited interest and second really exploring Belgium means that you
need to see Netherlands and both the Flamish and French part (unless
you know some or all of the three "parts" by heart allready of course;)


If you do go to Luxenburg (not important in my view), keep in mind that
Trier, Germanys oldest(?) town, very beautiful indeed, is only a short
traintrip away from Luxenburg city. That could be a nice alternative
for instance if you wake up Saturday morning and find the city left,
because so many people only come to Luxenburg city to work. That means
that you, as in Brüssel, can get a nice deal at some of the business
hotels in the weekends. 50-60% discount is realistic.

When it comes to Belgium, I can highly recommend Antwerpen. The area
around Grote Markt is very nice just for walking the streets, finding a
nice cafe, visiting the cathedral of our lady (if you are going to
visit one church i Belgium this is the biggest, and the finest Gothic
cathedral in Belgium), go shopping or visit some other museum (the
Ruben museum is an obvious opportunity). Unless you are in a very hurry
or terrible on readin g maps;) you can reach most places on foot. Close
to the central station there is a nice zoo, may be something for your
child, depending on age of course. I found Antwerpen much more
interesting than Brüssel, more compact to explore on foot, big enough
to have a lot to offer - small enough to "cover" in a day or three, it
has the blessing of relatively few tourists and is arguablely the place
to be to explore Belgiums older and current history and culture.

I haven't been in Gent jet, but I definately would like to go. I will
combine it with Antwerpen, as it is only a short trip by train.
Virtually all trains stop in Antwerpen, so if you want to go north to
the Netherlands or south to Brüssel - Antwerpen is the place to start.


Brügge is undoubtly a very nice town to visit. This is both its
strenght and weeksness though. Because it is far to popular there is
far to much tourists there (on any time a year!), virtually all shops
in the entire town is tailored to sell to tourist (rather high to
compleatly tasteless prices, souvernires, chockolate, bears, cafes,
restuarant, more souvernirs.... you got the picture) and even after a
short visit, it is evident that many of the locals are frustrated about
that the town has ended up as a "green tourist plant".

On the French part, I am affraid I can not help you, but I am sure
there are others that can fill me out...

When it comes to the Netherlands, I hardly need to tell you about
Amsterdam, exept for mentioning that if you don't feel that urgent
drive fro having to see Amsterdam, just because you ae in the
Netherlands, you are absolutely right.

If you arrive to the Netherlands from Belgium, Roosendal and Dordrecht
(the first? trainstops on the Dutch side) is probably not worthwile.
Rotterdam could be worthwile (1 hour from Antwerpen), depending on your
interest. Some suggests the artmuseum is even better than in Amsterdam,
anyway if you are the slightest interested in art, Boijmans van
Beuningen is the place to go. The museum and the nicest park in town is
close to the same metro station, Dijkziegt.Continue two metro stations
to the west, Delfshaven, if you want to explore more or less the only
street in town that was not bombed to pieces during the WWII. A nice
place to stroll by the channell for a while and visit a cafe or two.
Getting off the train at Rotterdam C, you will at once see in what it
means that Rotterdam is "a different Dutch city", "the only Dutch sity
with a skyline". If that made you courious you have to get off the
train yourself, because I will not give you any further explaination.

To see a nice, typical, traditional Dutch town, I can highly recommend
Leiden and/or both. We are talking traditional Duch houses, channels,
cafes, and all that.... If the touristattack on Brügge scared you (in
a sense it should), Delft and Leiden is nice alternatives. They don't
focus too much on Belgian chocholate and beers there, but on the other
side you can buy that in Antwerpen, Gent or Brüssel. Personally I
prefere Leiden, it is slightly bigger, the big stundet populations have
ment a miracle when it comes to finding something as progressive as a
coffie bar (no-not a coffie shop that you have all over the place - but
a coffie bar, that does not neccesarily need to be run buy
Starbrucks;), second hand bookstores, music shops that are open on
Sundays and sell LPs (!), and not a single shopping mall (that has
raped so many other Dutch towns). If you are not so familiar with
Benelux, the things I describe probably don't seem very special, but as
you will experience yourself Benelux isn't exacly very progressive...
You can easily see for instance Leiden, den Haag and Delft in a day,
buying a return ticket from for instance Amsterdam or Rotterdam, and
travel on as you like. I have not been to the art museum in den Haag
myself, but people who should know say it is realtively small, with
nothing but the important pices of art. May be an idea to have a look.

Utrecht is a nice town, but not very different if you have seen
Amsterdam and the "microversions" in Leiden and Delft. Don't turn
around and run back into the train when you see the shopingmall though.
If you just get through that vomit-looking pice of architecture you
will find a nice and relatively big city on the other side. If you want
to see "different" Dutch towns add Groeningen, Maastricht and/or of
course Rotterdam.

Have a very nice trip,

best regards,

Jan

Chancellor Of The Duchy Of Besses O' Th' Barn And

<[email protected]> wrote:

[]
    > If you do go to Luxenburg (not important in my view), keep in mind that
    > Trier, Germanys oldest(?) town, very beautiful indeed, is only a short
    > traintrip away from Luxenburg city. That could be a nice alternative
    > for instance if you wake up Saturday morning and find the city left,
    > because so many people only come to Luxenburg city to work.

We spent an afternoon in Luxembourg city after spending the day before
in Trier, which I agree is definitely worth a visit. (I wouldn't
describe Trier as 'very beautiful' myself though- but it's pleasant, and
the Roman sites are interesting.) This was a Saturday afternoon in early
October- lovely day too- and the city was very busy. There were lots of
open air markets, and the restaurants were doing brisk business. It
certainly seemed that a lot of the visitors were from other countries,
but it was far from quiet!

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

Lennart Petersen

<[email protected]> skrev i meddelandet
news:[email protected] oups.com...
    > Hi Folks,
    > I am planning a five day trip to Luxembourg and Belgium, for my wife
    > and I plus baby. The Benelux railpass seems like a good idea - would
    > this be the cheapest option for the following itinerary?:
    > Luxembourg-Ghent(presumably via Brussels)-Bruges-back to Luxembourg
----------------------
Don't think the Benelux pass pays back just for that trip but it's good
value for more extensive trips in the three countries.
Price is E126 (1cl E189) ,can't be bought in Netherlands but is valid there.
It's for 5 travelling days out from a month.
While in Luxemburg you can take advantage of the excellent "Oeko-Billjee"
ticket, at a bargain price of E4:60 it's valid for a full day until 8:00
next day busses and trains in the whole Luxemburg
    > ALso, any decent low cost hotel recommendations welcomed!
---------------
The newbuilt IBIS opposite Brussels Midi station was convenient and good
for money in my opinion.
But try to stay at least one night in Ghent being a wonderful city.

davewheeler1

Lennart Petersen wrote:
    > <[email protected]> skrev i meddelandet
    > news:[email protected] oups.com...
----------------------
    > Don't think the Benelux pass pays back just for that trip but it's good
    > value for more extensive trips in the three countries.
    > Price is E126 (1cl E189) ,can't be bought in Netherlands but is valid there.
    > It's for 5 travelling days out from a month.
    > While in Luxemburg you can take advantage of the excellent "Oeko-Billjee"
    > ticket, at a bargain price of E4:60 it's valid for a full day until 8:00
    > next day busses and trains in the whole Luxemburg
    > >
    > > ALso, any decent low cost hotel recommendations welcomed!
    > ---------------
    > The newbuilt IBIS opposite Brussels Midi station was convenient and good
    > for money in my opinion.
    > But try to stay at least one night in Ghent being a wonderful city.

Many thanks to all who responded! I now have some interesting pointers!