Driving Belgium

As we plan our driving trip around the Benelux countries, I%26#39;ll probably be on here a few times asking questions.

I%26#39;ll start with this one. We definitely want to visit Brussels, Gent %26amp; Brugges but don%26#39;t want to be changing hotels every night. Can we, or is it advisable, to find a hotel centrally, perhaps in Gent and drive into Brussels %26amp; Brugges or does someone have any other ideas on how to do it?

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Yes, Gent would be a perfect base. It%26#39;s less than half an hour to Brugge and a little over half an hour to Brussels. By train, that is. I wouldn%26#39;t recommend driving between cities. Traffic can be dense and parking in the cities is expensive.

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Brussels, Gent and Brugge lie on the same railway line (to coastal towns like Oostende, Knokke, Blankenberge), with Gent exactly half-way between the other two, so this is a very good location to base yourself in and then visiting the other two BY TRAIN.

I would not advise you to drive to or rather in Brussels, it is quite a difficult city to find your way around, with an inner ring road in tunnels, and if you drive to Brugge you might have to park on the edge anyway. Belgian drivers have a certain reputation also. If you do decide to drive, please bone up on the Belgian rules of the road: there is an automatic %26quot;priority to the right%26quot; rule that takes many visitors (and not a few others) by surprise.

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Many thanks for your great advice. Looks like we%26#39;d better change our plans somewhat. We%26#39;re flying into Amsterdam %26amp; had planned on getting rental car there %26amp; driving down into belgium. Now I think we%26#39;ll take the train from Amsterdam to Gent (assuming that can be done), see Brussels %26amp; Brugges, then rent a car to drive into the countryside.

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It%26#39;s perfectly possible to travel from Amsterdam to Gent by train. There will be one change involved, in Antwerpen Centraal (maybe an opportunity to see %26#39;my%26#39; city, too!). The total journey A%26#39;dam airport - Gent Sint-Pieters takes 2 hrs and 43 mins. on the intercity train. No need to buy tickets in advance unless you prefer to travel on Thalys (which is supposed to be high speed but takes 16 min. longer - Belgian/Dutch logic).

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Sounds perfect. Do you have a web site for trains in Netherlands/Belgium?

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Sure!

http://plannerint.b-rail.be

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