Antwerp Travel Forum

I will be going to the Netherlands and want to take a short 3 day tour of Belgium as well ... I really wanted to go to Antwerp for a long time and I'm wondering if I can fill up two days or one would be enough ?

Also does anyone know about bus connections between Amsterdam and Brugge ? I tried Eurolines but there seems to be no bus connection to those cities ... any other suggestions ?

thank you very much ,
Ariana

If you go to https://webapp.eurolines.nl/eurolines/ssl_index.asp it lets you fill in Belgium (Belgie) as a country of destination and Brugge as a place of destination but does not then allow you to choose a place of departure in the Netherlands! However, if you fill in Gent as destination, you will find you can leave from Amsterdam (but not on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday). On a Tuesday, for instance, the bus leaves at 08:30 and arrives in Gent at 14:45 (calling at Antwerp on the way, and there are 2 additional services to Antwerp later in the day). If you can't find anything for Gent on the Dutch website, it might be worth checking with Eurolines in Belgium, tel. +32-2/274 1350 (this number is in Brussels, but if they tell you you have to come here to change buses, it would be better to get off in Antwerp or Gent and continue by train, which in either case would take only 30 minutes to Brugge).
Of course, trains are not only faster but may even be cheaper than buses (for example, the train from Brussels Airport to any Brussels station costs 2.80 EUR whereas the bus costs 3 EUR). You could take a train from Amsterdam to Antwerp and from there to Brugge, or you could go by Eurolines bus to Antwerp or Gent and take the train from there, or if you have some reason for shunning trains altogether, and have plenty of time, then you can also continue by local bus from Gent (I can't find any bus connection from Antwerp) on De Lijn service no. 58 to Eeklo and Brugge. If you can handle Dutch you can check out their website, http://www.delijn.be, otherwise you can phone them on +32-3/218 1411 (03 from within Belgium, of course).
If you decide to leave the bus at Antwerp and continue by train, the bus station is on on Franklin Rooseveltplaats, a short distance northwest of Centraal Station, which is where you would take the train to Brugge.
See also http://www.b-rail.be/main/E/ but bear in mind that if you look for trains from Amsterdam, it will give you the schedule but not prices, which it will only give for journeys starting and finishing within Belgium.

If you want to travel easy I would recommend you just to take the international train Amsterdam to Antwerp (not TGV!).
It will give you less worries.
Eurolines has such awfull departure or arrival times and it just takes ages and is not so comfortable.
If you travel to Bruges further on and it is during a weekend, then take a weekend ticket (half price) from Antwerp to Bruges
if it is in a weekday, you might take a b-dag ticket (regular ticket with extra's in Bruges); or if you are under 26 you have reduction as well.

I don't know what your interests are but I could spend a week in Antwerp `-)
Depends a bit of interests, time you are visiting, if you like to walk a lot or going out to clubs or going to some of the local pubs, .......
I know that if i take people around I can only visit a part of the city and maybe one location indoors and then the time is up :)

Hello there,

How nice of you to visit lovely Antwerp.

You can fill your one whole day in visiting the centre of the city ('t Stad in Dutch). -if- you have a guide showing you around ofcourse. :) Of course, if you know all the places, it's easy to fill a whole day. If you're somebody who likes to scout on his or her own, then two days would be sufficient. Or, in other words, if you dearly wish to visit the Zoo, Aquatopia, the Rubenshouse and several (other) museums, you can spend quite some time in Antwerp, perhaps a whole weekend if you wish so.

I live just 50 minutes driving from Antwerp, and I'm there every weekend as possible. If I arrive early in the morning and leave at the next morning, I've really seen everything there is to see in downtown Antwerp.
But that doesn't take away that it's a most wonderful city to visit!

Hope you will like your stay, and we hope you'll put some feedback of your stay on the forum!

-Ronald

Ronald
it really depends on one's interest.
I have been spending many hours in Antwerp and still haven't seen everything.
1 day and see all? LOL
you must be kidding :))