Belgium is one of our favorite destinations when it comes to Europe. With its old cities, full of breweries, chocolate shops, its picturesque canals and the amount of different plans available, we are sure you will not be disappointed.
However, it can be difficult to getting around the country if not public transport is well known. In this article, we tell you how to get around Belgium by public transport, so you can save both time and money and enjoy your vacation as much as possible.
Types of public transportation available
Belgium has a well-developed and efficient public transportation system, including trains, streetcars, buses y bicycles public. In addition, in the larger cities, such as Brussels, there are also public meter, bus night or even electric scooters. Below we will tell you in detail how you can use each of these services.
How to travel by train in Belgium
The Belgian railway system is one of the most advanced in Europe and connects all major cities in the country. In addition, it also offers international services to neighboring countries such as France, Germany y Netherlands. One of the typical tours is to take advantage of the visit to Belgium to end up spending a few days in Amsterdam and the Netherlands in general.
Our recommendation is that you use them to move between the main Belgian cities, such as Ghent, Antwerp, Bruges, Leuven or Brussels (fares are usually in the region of 10€) . On our last trip, we dedicated one day to visit each city and went and returned each day by train. The ideal is to use the SNCB official website (the Belgian commuter train company) or the mobile app that works quite well, both to calculate journey times and distances and to buy tickets.
They have different offers on the web, we summarize the main ones below:
- Youth ticket: Reduced price for under 26 years of age a 7,6 / trip.
- Youth ticket multi: Reduced price for under 26 years of age the fertilizer from 10 trips: 59€ if you buy it on the web or 57€ if you take it by the app.
- Youth Holidays: If you are under 26 years old and you are going to Belgium for your summer vacations, you can purchase unlimited travel passes for 19€ per week o 31€ one month.
- Kids Children travel free if they are under 11 years old!
- Weekend ticket From 7 p.m. on Friday to 7 p.m. on Sunday, train tickets are half price to encourage the use of public transport during the weekend.
- Standard Multi Bonds: Bonds of 10 trips by 9,6€ each.
- We recommend that you take a look at the website and if you are not sure, you can always ask us on social networks!
The operation of the trains in the stations is similar to that of all Europe, you can get on the train with the ticket on your cell phone and the conductor will scan it when scanning the train. We assure you that they usually do it, we were there for a week and we only got rid of one day of being asked for the ticket.
As for the quality of the trains, most are modern and comfortable, and some offer services such as free wifi and plugs. They do not tend to be very crowded unless you take them during busy tourist seasons or rush hours when people leave work.
✈️ Be careful if you are going to or coming back from the airport.
You will have to pay a supplement when you buy your train ticket. You will be fined if the conductor scans your ticket and you have not paid for it.
How to travel by streetcar in Belgium
Streetcar service is another popular form of transportation in the country and is an efficient way to get around the cities. Streetcars are available in the larger cities, such as Brussels and also in some smaller towns, such as Ghent y Antwerp. You can see the route they follow on Google maps.
These streetcars run quite frequently and allow you to enter without paying the ticket, although once inside, you will have to look for some white machines where you can swipe your credit card directly to be charged 2,6€ for each trip.
How to travel by bus in Belgium
The bus service in Belgium is another cheap and flexible option to move around the country if you see that there is a train strike (as it happened to us), if the train schedules don't suit you or if they are too crowded. There are bus companies such as FlixBus connecting the main cities, for example if you land at Brussels airport and you want to go to Ghent, Bruges or Antwerp, you can hire a bus that will take you directly to your destination.
The times are very similar to those of the trains so if the bus station is closer to your accommodation than the train station, don't think twice and take advantage of it! There are also local bus services in the smaller towns although we did not try them.
Buying the tickets is very easy, you just have to enter the flixbus web site from here and select for example a bus from Brussels airport to Ghent or Bruges.
We also leave you the location where the buses are usually waiting to depart to the different cities.
- Click here to open it in Google Maps
Organized excursions
Another option if you are going to be in Belgium for only a few days and you prefer to forget about having to organize excursions to each city is to contract a organized tour to the area you are most interested in. We particularly liked Bruges although Ghent also has a very special charm.
Here are some of the most famous ones so that you can hire them through Civitatis.
How to use rental bikes in Belgium
Another option that we really liked was rent a bike to visit one of the cities on our route, Leuven. Next to train and bus stations all over the country there are usually bike stands or stores that allow you to rent bikes for a few days hours or full days.
We took advantage of a spectacular day (and it was December) to rent a couple of bikes and it was a very cool experience, we saw the whole city pretty quickly and when we wanted to visit a building, eat or drink something, we just had to tie the bike with the padlock that we had been loaned We recommend it!
🛴 Electric scooters
Another option that we also used, especially in Brussels, was to travel by electric scooter. There are a lot of apps available to use and also in Belgium, it is not forbidden for two people to go on the same scooter so for a quick trip it can come in handy.
Rent a car in Belgium
Of course, you also have the option of renting a car in Belgium although it depends a lot on what your plans are. If you are traveling to see the nature of the country, make routes the countryside, the mountains and visit the villages more remote if it is worth it rent a car that gives you the freedom to move wherever you want.
If you are going to visit the typical cities, it is not necessary as they are very well connected by public transport as we have told you in this article.
👇 You may also be interested in:If you want to read other articles ideal for your trip that complement Getting around Belgium by public transport you can visit our posts about Belgium.
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