Belgium in 1.5 days

My husband and I are planning a trip to Europe from 12/24-1/5. In this time, we would like to go to Paris, London and Belgium. My mother and Bomma were from Antwerp and I would love to see this city. We would also like to spend some time in Brussels.

Is it possible to take the train from Paris to Brussels/Antwerp and spend 1.5 days seeing both cities before leaving for London? Or, should we just pick one city? (e.g., leaving Paris on 12/29 in the morning for Belgium, and leaving Belgium for London on 12/30 in the evening.) Any advice is most welcome!

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You can do whatever you want! Thalys (www.thalys.com) from Paris-Nord to Bruxelles-Midi takes 1h22, local (IC) train from Bruxelles-central (you can start from Midi, central or Nord) to Antwerpen-Centraal takes about 40 mins, and the Eurostar to London from Bruxelles-Midi takes about 2 hours (www.eurostar.com). So you could arrive in Brussels from Paris on 29/12 (better get used to European way of writing dates) and leave Brussels for London on the evening of 30/12, with a sidetrip to Antwerp in between.

Alternatively, the Thalys to Amsterdam stops in Antwerp as well as Brussels, so you could stay there and visit Brussels on the way back to catch the Eurostar, leaving your luggage at Midi and continuing by train to Gare centrale, which is near the Grand%26#39; Place.

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Thanks so much, you advice is very helpful. It seems we are a bit early as fares are published 60 days in advance. Can you tell me the best website to purchase all of our tickets?

I think we are planning on doing what you said - take the Thalys from Paris to Antwerp on 29/12 in the mid afternoon (leaving our luggage at the Antwerp station while we look around), and return on to Brussels in the evening to spend the night. We%26#39;ll then spend the day on 30/12 in Brussels and leave that evening.

My only major concern is that we may be spreading ourselves too thin for that amount of time and the two cities. We can postpone our trip to London by one day, and spend two nights in Brussels instead of one. We would then be heading to London on New Years Eve. Do you see any major advantages/disadvantages to either plan?

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