Eurorail - Multitude of Qs for trip next month

[njpsyc]

Hello all,

I have a trip booked to Amsterdam --> Brussels --> Munich next month and the last thing I need to do is purchase my Eurorail passes. I have checked several sites and done some research and needless to say I am in over my head. Any help on the following questions would be greatly appreciated.

The Plan: We are landing in Amsterdam on Thursday, on Monday morning we are taking the train to Brussels, on Wednesday morning we are taking the train to Munich.

Where I am having trouble:
- All the sites I go to only allow me to indicate the city I would like to go to "Amsterdam" or "Brussels". But when I booked the hostels, they indicated that "Brussels North" would be the station to go to. How do I ensure that the train takes me to that specific station. In other words, if there are multiple station in a city, how do I indicate the correct one? Does a train to Brussels stop at multiple locations (Brussels South, North, etc)?

- I am aware of the need for reservations for trains in addition to passes. I would like to buy these in advance. Everywhere I read has said that it is easy to book the reservations when we arrive, but we would really rather take care of it now, just so that we don't have to worry about it when we arrive. We don't mind spending a little extra money to make the reservations, but we don't want to be ripped off (which apparently, a lot of the sites that offer this are).

Thank you in advance for your help.

[Libby]

Hey there, sounds like your trip is in the same area that I'm doing.

I purchased a Benelux-Germany pass for 5 days of unlimited travel. That pass covered Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg and Germany. It's a kick ass deal! That way it doesn' tmatter how far I have to travel or if I need to change stations a few different times, my pass covers it.

I start in Brugge, then go to Maastricht in the Netherlands and then north to Bremen, Germany.

I'm waiting to get there to book my travel. I've done that in the past and found it worked the best.

[herrbert]

I know that passes on the other side of the Atlantic are different, and have different prices, but are you sure that for just two trips you need to buy a pass? I think just buying two seperate tickets, will work out cheaper. (although train travels are pretty expensive in these countries)

For Amsterdam - Brussel Noord you can go here. onlineboeken.nshispeed.nl/microtips/display, you can change the destination in Belgium (click the link, under where it says Brussel-Zuid, if you click it it opens a window, asking you first to select the country (select Belgie, for Belgium), and then look for Brussel-Noord.)

Brussels-South (Brussel-Zuid) is the stop that is used for the Thalys, so that's why it shows up automaticaly in most cases.

It's not the best website, and not everything is correctly translate if you change to English. (would think the dutch would do a better job.) I checked for a random day, and the trip shouldn't cost you more than 36,60 euros.

That leave the ride to Munich.
I know there are some magicians on the boards that are good at finding bargains on Deutsche Bahn tickets, so I hope they show up to do their part of the magic.

P.S. it would help, if we have the specific dates.

[Libby]

For me buying the pass was way cheaper. I paid just over $300 (the price had JUST gone up) and that's for 5 days unlimited travel. I have a few bigger trips to take and when I worked out the fairs, it was in my best interest to get a pass.

But you shoudl look into what it will cost you before you buy one.

[njpsyc]

Thank you all for the help. I will expand a little bit on the trip. Any more help is greatly appreciated.

I'm getting to the Amsterdam airport, and taking a subway to central where I can then walk to the hotel. In 4 days we need to take a train from Amsterdam to Brussels North.

Now the sites I have been to list the only one option "Amsterdam". Where is this station? Does this mean that it stops at all Amsterdam stations, or is there only one? This has me really confused.

[herrbert]

Apr 6, 2009 13:56:27 GMT -5 njpsyc said:

Thank you all for the help. I will expand a little bit on the trip. Any more help is greatly appreciated.

I'm getting to the Amsterdam airport, and taking a subway to central where I can then walk to the hotel. In 4 days we need to take a train from Amsterdam to Brussels North.

Now the sites I have been to list the only one option "Amsterdam". Where is this station? Does this mean that it stops at all Amsterdam stations, or is there only one? This has me really confused.

You chose Amsterdam Centraal (and as you guessed, it means Central), If you only see Amsterdam, they mean Amsterdam Centraal. This is the big Station at the IJ-river. If you walk on the Damrak, you can't miss it. You will not pass all the other stations in Amsterdam. They are just there to give you the option to start your trip at another station, resulting in you getting a ticket to get to Centraal, were you switch to the train to Brussels. If you opt for Hi-Speed, than note this is not the Thalys (which is faster, but more expensive.)

If you have any doubts, just ask the information desk at Amsterdam Centraal to help you. You are most likely to get to Amsterdam Centraal straight from Schiphol Airport (which is a train, not a metro btw, but that's only a small detail.) All the people in the Netherlands speak English, so don't worry about a language barrier here.