Thanks to this site, I am in a position to start implementing my Amsterdam to Paris Trip.
I have 2 questions:
1. I am strongly considering the Amsterdam to Paris via Brussels (spending a few hours in Brussels). I can leave Amsteram no sooner than 10am and must be in Paris by 7pm. The %26quot;sigth see Brussels for 2 hours%26quot; is our current leading choice, Being Canadian, however, causes us to think one more time about Vimy (near Arras). Should we strongly consider this option? What are the timing and logistic challenges? Is there a train? Car rental?
2. The cheapest option for booking the Thalys from Brussels Midi to Paris Nord seems to be via www.thalys.com vs. ww.raileurope.com - which Thalys recommends for people %26quot;in America%26quot;. There is a big price benefit to deal with Thalys though. When I go to book it shows that you must be in Belgium, Netherlands, etc and does not give an option for Canada. Any ideas on this???? How would you handle refunds, etc?
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1. The Brussels forum is not really the place to ask about getting from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Vimy in France. However, a quick check of train timetables shows that you cannot get to Arras from Amsterdam by train in less than 4 hours, and if you can%26#39;t leave till 10.00 it would take SIX hours (dep. 10:26 arr. 16:29), via Antwerp-Berchem and Lille-Flandres.
2. If you book on Thalys from Amsterdam to Paris you cannot stop in Brussels, you would have to book 2 separate tickets, Amsterdam-Brussels and then Brussels-Paris; furthermore, if you qualify for the cheapest tickets (RETURN only) these are not refundable at all, so that problem doesn%26#39;t arise. However, if you tell the system you want the ticket delivered in the Netherlands, it should be possible to select Amsterdam-Centraal as the place of delivery, and pick it up at the station. Or, of course, you could leave buying it till you get there, which I would recommend for the Amsterdam-Brussels leg in any case: if you are breaking your journey in Brussels, you might as well take the InterCity rather than Thalys (on that route they both take 3 hours although this should change in November when high-speed track comes into operation), and you cannot book this in advance, you just turn up and buy it at the station). You may be able to find the price on www.ns.nl but I would expect it to be around €50 single.
There is an InterCity train from Amsterdam-Centraal at 10:26, arr. 13:16 at Bruxelles-CENTRAL, which has the advantage of being only 5 minutes from the Grand%26#39; Place. However, you would then have to get to Gare du Midi (by underground tram from Bourse or by train from Gare centrale) for the Thalys to Paris. On weekdays, these currently leave, for example, at 16:43, arr. 18:05, 17:13 arr. 18:35 and 17:43 arr. 19:05. Again, if you tell the system you want the ticket to be delivered in Belgium it should be possible to pick it up at Gare du Midi (but you must allow plenty of time to collect it!), or you could buy it in Amsterdam the day before. For prices see www.thalys.com. From previous questions on here, I am not sure that dealing with Thalys is necessarily cheaper than dealing with raileurope: it is true that raileurope only mentions the most expensive options (for instance, not giving Intercity options for routes served by Thalys/TGV), but it seems to me that at least between Brussels and Paris, you won%26#39;t qualify for any of the cheaper ones anyway. So check both again, for the Brussels-Paris trip only, assuming that you will buy your Amsterdam-Brussels InterCity ticket on the day.
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