Booking Intercity Amsterdam to Brussels

I know I have seen posts related to booking Amsterdam to Brussels, but I haven%26#39;t had much luck in regards to this:

I am trying to book an Intercity train for 09/03/07 from Amsterdam to Brussels, and back to Amsterdam on 10/03/07. When I try to book online (on the Belgium train site) I have come across 3 issues:

1. No specific trains load for me to book (i.e. IC 633)

2. I cannot figure out if my trip qualifies for the Weekender discount since my trip starts in Amsterdam

3. I have had no luck using my credit card to purchase, the address is getting messed up -- is it for Belgium addresses only ?

I would hate to book without having this this information correct, really wouldn%26#39;t want to have to purchase 2 sets of roundtrips.

Please shed some light on this for me :) Thanks!

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%26gt;1. No specific trains load for me to book (i.e. IC 633)

Why do you want to book a ticket? it is about as useful as trying to book a trip with Chicago subway in advance. You CANNOT book a ticket for a specific Intercity train.

%26gt;2. I cannot figure out if my trip qualifies for the Weekender discount since my trip starts in Amsterdam

Then you have to look for the Dutch railway site, www.nsinternationaal.nl

%26gt;I would hate to book without having this this information correct, really wouldn%26#39;t want to have to purchase 2 sets of roundtrips.

To avoid this situation, simply buy your tickets when you plan to depart, or if you walk by the station or a travel office while you are in Amsterdam.

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altamiro is right: you can%26#39;t book an intercity train in advance. All you need to do is go to the ticket counter a little before your train leaves, buy a ticket and board the train. That%26#39;s it.

You can check on prices on the www.ns.nl website.

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Altamiro and Amboseli, thank you for your quick responses. I didn%26#39;t realize that these trains were similar to our Subway system here in Chicago, in regards to tickets. :) Thanks so much, I will just purchase our tickets at the stations prior to departure.

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I think there is some confusion here, it may be true that you can%26#39;t reserve a seat on an intercity train but you CAN buy a ticket in advance, including online, if you really want to - at least we can, I don%26#39;t know whether it can be done from outside any of the countries involved.

In Europe only highspeed trains (Eurostar, Thalys, TGV) need to be booked in advance like planes, for normal trains most people simply turn up on the day of travel and buy their ticket then, either from a ticket desk or a machine; although you could also go to the station the day before if you want to save time on the day of travel (but make sure to specify you would be travelling the next day, if you do, as it may make a difference to the price).

Also, you would normally buy your ticket from the railway company of the country you are travelling FROM, not TO (if you were travelling to Canada from the U.S., would you not buy your ticket in the U.S., rather than Canada?): thus in this case, Dutch and not Belgian Railways. I suspect that the weekender fares you refer to are the ones applied by Belgian Railways, solely for travel within Belgium (they are mentioned a lot for travel between Brussels and Brugge); but as has been said, you need to look at the Dutch Railways website.

I have often had difficulties using credit cards on foreign websites that appear to think everyone must have a zip code (and indeed a State or Province), so it would not surprise me if indeed local rail websites are set up for the structure of local addresses. This may explain why non-Europeans use www.eurorail.com, an American agency that sells tickets on trains run by European (national) train operators - but, they seem to sell only the most expensive ones, so I don%26#39;t recommend them.

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I checked the Dutch railways website for travel on March 9 and 10. The %26#39;weekend return%26#39; ticket Amsterdam-Brussels-Amsterdam costs 41.40 euro. Tickets (flexible) can be purchased online but homeprint is not possible for this specific ticket. You will have to collect them from a ticket vending machine in the station of your choice.

Unfortunately the booking section is available in Dutch only.

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Thanks again everybody. I did orginally start at the Netherlands website, but as I cannot even begin to translate Dutch -- I quickly retreated. Since the Belgium site allowed me to purchase tickets for the specific trip I entered (leaviong Amsterdam) -- I figured I could purchase on that website for the entire trip.

However I will make it easy on myself and purchse a day in advance at a machine/station -- thank you for the warning to ensure correct travel dates.

That being said -- thanks again...cannot wait to head over :)

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