Train from Frankfurt to Brussels

[trieu_thai]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has any recommendation on high speed train from Frankfurt to Brussels? I did a quick Google this morning and apparently there's quite a few choices of trains and am just wondering if there's any real diff between them? Is it worth booking online before getting there?

Thanks

TT

 

[ozmille]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has any recommendation on high speed train from Frankfurt to Brussels? I did a quick Google this morning and apparently there's quite a few choices of trains and am just wondering if there's any real diff between them? Is it worth booking online before getting there?

Thanks

TT

It's been a while but from memory the fastest only direct option is the ICE train from Frankfurt to Brussels, if you want you can take the ICE to Cologne and swap to the Thalys there. ICE can be had from around the EUR39 mark OW

 

[atreides]

Yes, the ICE is a great option.

You can prebook on bahn.de and save. If you would like to prebook try and do it at least two weeks prior.

 

[Must...Fly!]

ICE would be the best way, as others have said book online! I am quite sure the route to Brussels is on one of the fast ICE lines once it gets out of city centres.

 

[anat0l]

I did the ICE (I think it was ICE 16 for train number on the top of my head) from Frankfurt/Main Airport to Brussels. Quite cheap, no changes required.

• If you book on bahn.de, you can have the choice of booking from Frankfurt/Main airport (F.-Fernbhf) or Frankfurt/Main central station (Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, or Hbf).
• Destination in Brussels is Brussels-Zuid / Bruxelles-Midi (Brussels South station, in Dutch and French respectively).
• If I'm not mistaken, when you book to travel to Brussels on certain fares (Europe Spezial), your ticket may allow you a free transport connection on the same day, e.g. you can travel onward on Belgian Trains (to Ghent, Liege, or even locally) using the same ticket.

 

[RB]

I believe this site is the place to go for all things rail-seat61.com. Sorry live link not working for some reason

 

[Major]

How to buy cheap European train tickets | Read this advice first!

 

[Must...Fly!]

Seat61 is an amazing resource! Really helps if you are planning a trip and you don't know what you are doing.

 

[medhead]

As mentioned go to bahn.de and search the route. The search results will show you the duration and the number of changes. Those are the main differences. You don't really need to know about the types of trains as that all evens out in the duration.

So I've just done a quick search for 20 December. The shortest journey is about 3 hours on a direct/no change ICE. then there are 3 to 3:30 hour trips on ICE and Thalys (THA)- one change. Those are the fastest trains. Then there are 4+ hour options that include multiple changes on trains like IC - intercity,RE - regional express and IR - (I'm not sure)

Price wise the cheapest on 20 December is 59 euro on a 4:37 hour trip and 79 euro on a fast no change trip for savings fares. Standard fares around 100 euro. There can be problems pricing for journeys on non-German trains.


Sent from the Throne

 

[trieu_thai]

Thanks medhead that really helps!!!

 

[here2go]

I love bahn.com (or bahn.de/en). A lot of Europeans use it to search timetables, then go back to their native website to make the booking!

I'm about to travel in Germany and Austria, and have made three point to point bookings off bahn.com. It can be a bit unnerving as the tickets will come back in German, and unless you know enough German to get by, you'll have no idea what you've just bought.

Another thing to consider is a discount card (Bahn Card). These will set you back EUR29 for 4 months, but my wife and I found the benefits outweighed the costs. The catch with this if you buy it over the website is that it will automatically renew unless you cancel it. German Rail had a special last month so we got ours for less. You can also buy the discount card over there before travelling, as it is not linked to the ticket, but with two young kids in tow (15-month old daughter strapped to my back while my wife chases the 3 yr 10 month son), pre-planning EVERYTHING has been order of the day, so disaster recovery is easier.

Gute Reisen!

 

[RB]

Also have a look on various Trip Advisor posts by a user under the name abalada-seems to have a vast knowledge of European trains

 

[munitalP]

ICE - Intercity Express or I Can't Express [how good this service is]