Brussels is easy to reach by plane, with flights arriving at its
airport from every corner of the globe. In addition, the city is on the
main routes heading inland from the Channel ports and is well connected
by train to major cities across Europe, including direct from London via
the Channel Tunnel. Brussels itself has a good public transport system,
which puts the main points of arrival - its airport, train and bus
stations - within easy reach of the city centre.
By air
Planes land at Brussels' international airport in Zaventem, 13km
northeast of the city center. There are two tourist information desks in
the arrivals hall. One is Info Tourisme (daily 6am-9pm), which has a
reasonable range of information on Brussels and its surroundings and
shares its space with Espace Wallonie, representing OPT, the Wallonian
tourist board; the other is Destination Belgium (daily 6.30am-9.30pm),
where the emphasis is on the Flemish-speaking regions. Destination
Belgium (but not Info Tourisme) will make hotel reservations on your
behalf anywhere in Belgium, a service that is provided free - you just
pay a percentage of the room rate as a deposit and this is then
subtracted from your final hotel bill. In addition, the arrivals hall
has all the facilities you would expect of a major airport, notably
bureaux de change, a bank, a post office and ATMs.
From the airport, trains run every fifteen minutes to the city's three
main stations. The journey time to Bruxelles-Centrale (the nearest
station to the Grand-Place) is about twenty minutes; the cost is ¬2.35
one-way, and tickets can be bought from the ticket office in the airport-complex
train station. If the ticket office is closed, you can pay the ticket
inspector on the train at no extra charge, but there is a small
surcharge if the office is open and you still choose to pay the
inspector. Trains run from around 5am until midnight; after that you'll
need to take a taxi into the city centre - reckon on paying around
¬34.70 for the trip. Finally, there's an hourly bus service (6am-11pm)
from the airport's bus station through the city's northeastern suburbs
to the Gare du Nord; the journey takes about 35 minutes - much longer
during rush hour.
By train
Brussels has three main train stations - Bruxelles-Nord, Bruxelles-Centrale
and Bruxelles-Midi. Almost all domestic trains stop at all three, but
the majority of international services only stop at Bruxelles-Midi,
including Eurostar trains from London and Thalys express trains from
Amsterdam, Paris, Cologne and Aachen. Bruxelles-Centrale is, as its name
suggests, the most central of the stations, a five-minute walk from the
Grand-Place; Bruxelles-Nord lies amongst the bristling tower blocks of
the business area just north of the main ring road; and Bruxelles-Midi
is located in a depressed area just to the south of the city centre.
Note that on bus timetables and on maps of the city transit system,
Bruxelles-Nord appears as "Gare du Nord", Bruxelles-Centrale as "Gare
Centrale" and Bruxelles-Midi as "Gare du Midi". The former name stands
for the mainline train station while the latter signifies the métro
stop. If you arrive late at night, it's best to take a taxi to your
hotel or hostel - and you should certainly avoid the streets around
Bruxelles-Midi.
If you need to transfer from one of the city's three main train stations
to another, then simply jump on the next available mainline train. There
are services between the three stations every ten minutes or so; the
journey only takes minutes and all you'll have to do (at most) is swap
platforms. In addition, Bruxelles-Midi and Bruxelles-Nord are linked by
underground tram - the prémétro - with several services shuttling
underneath the city centre between these two stations. Thus, there are
two ways to reach the Grand-Place from either Bruxelles-Nord or
Bruxelles-Midi: either take a mainline train to Bruxelles-Centrale, or
take the prémétro to the Bourse station; from either it's a brief walk
to the Grand-Place.
By bus
Most international bus services to Brussels, including those from
Britain, are operated by Eurolines, whose terminal is in the Bruxelles-Nord
station complex. Belgium's comprehensive rail network means that it's
unlikely that you'll arrive in the city by long-distance domestic bus ,
but if you do, Bruxelles-Nord is the main terminal for these services
too.
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