Strasbourg Travel Forum

hello,
few questions i have, would be grateful if u could help:
what is the best way to arrive to strasbourg from Brussels? is there a train? where can i find the info, and how long does it take?
also, i'd like to know if its better to take the airplane from Frankfurt or Paris when in Strasbourg. I know there are new TGV trains doing the Paris-Strasbourg route, but how expensive are they? Could a german train going to frankfurt be more convenient and cheap?
I would also like a suggestion for places to stay in Str.
thank you very much!!

There is a train (EuroCity) from Brussels Midi to Strasbourg daily at 7.37am arriving at 12.50. Cost of 2nd class adult ticket online is 63 Euro.
I'm having trouble getting prices for Strasbourg-Paris or Strasbourg-Frankfurt, but based on what I am getting from the SNCF website, it would probably be cheaper to go to Paris for your flight. Hotels in Strasbourg try www.venere.com or www.bookings.com.

http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml

will give you timetables for almost all European trains, and fares for those withing/starting from Germany.

http://www.b-rail.be/main/index.html

will give you times and fares from Brussels to Strasbourg (both sites in english).

It doesn't matter whether it's a German train or not: fares will be the same (except that high-speed trains are more expensive).

Trains to Strasbourg go from Brussels Midi station and take around 5 hours.

I would certainly investigate trains from Strasbourg to Paris/Frankfurt. Once you have taken into account cost and travel time to/from the airport, pluse check-in/baggage reclaim time, train will probably be quicker and may well be cheaper.

Budget airline fares are cheapest when booked well in advance. www.whichbudget.com and www.harefares.com list all European budget carriers and their destinations.

www.sncf.com will give you times and fares for trains from Strasbourg.

If you can understand French, you might prefer to use:

http://www.voyages-sncf.com/leisure/fr/launch/home/

Slight correction to "trains to Strasbourg go from Bruxelles-Midi" If you go via Luxembourg (Grand Duchy), which includes the only direct train (EC - Eurocity on weekdays at 07.33, 13.09 or 17.27 from Midi, taking a bit over 5 hours) they go through 5 Brussels stations: Midi, Central, Nord, Schuman, Luxembourg so you can leave from any of these.
You need to put Bruxelles- in front of each of these e.g. Bruxelles-Central when looking up timetables e.g. http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en.
Incidentally if you go via Germany I would have thought this more likely to include expensive Thalys to Cologne, but as B-Rail doesn't give prices for international journeys (although you might manage it by pretending to buy a ticket) you would in any case do best to go to the international ticket window of any of the 5 stations mentioned, to buy the ticket a day or so before.

When I put Brussels Zuid into the Belgian search engine it automatically came up with Brussels Midi, though there are direct trains from Brussels Nord.

Midi and Centraal are, in essence, the same station (I worried myself to death about this when I travelled by Eurostar to Bruges earlier this year!). I think Brussels Suid may be next door (???).

Midi and Central are NOT the same station! Trains between the 2 take only about 3 minutes, but you would not think they were next door to each other if you were to walk between them. Trains to Luxembourg go through 5 different stations on the way out of Brussels, which are named in timetables as follows: Bruxelles-Midi, Bruxelles-Central, Bruxelles-Nord, Bruxelles-Schuman and Bruxelles-Luxembourg. Or, since Brussels is officially bilingual (FR/NL), you can use the Dutch names: Brussel-Zuid, Brussel-Centraal, Brussel-Noord, etc.
Gare du Midi (means South) and Zuidstation are thus the same station - not to be confused with Gare centrale.

Then I am even more confused, because both featured on my through ticket from London. :-(

On Eurostar you can only get off (in Brussels) at Bruxelles-Midi/Brussel-Zuid, so I would have thought it was these 2 names (1 station) that would be mentioned on a Eurostar ticket, not Gare centrale. However, any ticket to Brussels is valid to any Brussels station, so it would cover transport to both Central and Nord. Local tickets to/from Brussels say "Bruxelles agglomération", but I don't remember what it said on my last Eurostar ticket.
I know a few Eurostars continue to Brugge and have always supposed these must reverse out of Midi since "normal" trains to the coast go in the opposite direction i.e. they start - in Brussels - at Nord and go through Central and Midi on the way to Ghent and Brugge (this is why it is possible for trains to Brugge to leave from the same platform at Central, at least, as the one at which trains from BRU airport arrive; if they were going in opposite directions it would always be necessary to change platforms).
What you will find in timetables which I think is confusing for people, is the indication EST which means Eurostar Terminal. D-Bahn even says that to change from EST to Gare du Midi, e.g. for the IC train to Brugge, requires something like a 17-minute walk: but EST is just platforms 1-2 of Gare du Midi!
Anyway, as long as people know where they are going that is the main thing. In Belgium you always have to be aware of the possibility of dual names, especially if you want to go to Mons and can only find Bergen.

Got off at Midi (I think, though suspect it was referred to as 'Central' as well), thought I'd got on the train to Brugge at Centraal.

Obviously I was wrong.

Hey ho. Apologies to the OP for any confusion I may have caused.

Midi is never (even by UK sellers of Eurostar tickets) called Central - otherwise what would Central be called?!! And the Eurostar goes neither to nor even through Central, although it would have to if it is ever extended to e.g. Amsterdam.
I am now certain your ticket will have said Zuid/Midi, and that in your head you have transformed "Midi" into "Central". I had visitors who did exactly this when I told them to go to Central for the Grand' Place - they went to Midi, apparently thinking this meant "middle"!

Quite possible.

I take no reponsibility for my head. It largely does as it pleases these days.