Getting around in Brussels

Advantages: fairly cheap options
Disadvantages: train connections can be unreliable

...sentence could await you for getting caught three times, that after having paid fines of around £40 and £80 first and second time round, I would not recommend faredodging, especially when a monthly ticket is only just over £20. For one you will require a passport folder for the first time you buy a monthly pass, but thereafter you get a monthly ticket to slide into the laminated pouch. Of course you do need to be slightly on your guard as announcements ... Read review

Advantages: Cheap, reliable, on time.
Disadvantages: Basic.

Belgian trains are a wonder to behold! Most would appear to be more at home in the swining 60s - but they are all clean, cheap anfd punctual (someone tell Richard Branson how its done). For little more than 200 BF (£3.20) you can go more or less where you want. And if you travel at the weekend its even cheaper. Although at this price there is no excuse for skipping the fare, some do and are heavily penalised by the less-than-cheerful guards. ... Read review

Advantages: reliable, cheap
Disadvantages: none compared to English transport systems

...This was extremely cheap, made getting from one place to another quick and easy and meant that i wasn't too tired to enjoy a good meal and sample one of the excellent Belgium beers in the evening! I didn't catch a train from Brussels but I have used trains in Belgium, travelling from Antwerp, Brugge, Ostend and Gent. ... Read review

Advantages: Stunning architecture and lots of lovely different beers and chocolates
Disadvantages: Not a huge amount of well known attractions

...over eight floors and contains art and sculpture from throughout the centuries with works by Rubens, Picasso and Dali to name but a few. Entry is around €5.00. The Cartoon Strip Museum (Centre Belge de la Bande Desinée) is another interesting venue, with lots of examples of the Belgian comic strip Tintin, as well as others. Entry to this museum is €6.25. ***GETTING AROUND BRUSSELS*** There is a huge and wide-spread network of public transport made up of trams, buses and metro. You can buy tickets from the driver of the tram or the bus, or from booths in the underground metro stations. Trams, buses and the metro are all extremely frequent, the city network coverage is superb and they are simple and easy to use. The same ticket (costing €1.50) can be used during one hour on any of the buses, trams or metro. You can also buy day... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Short journey times. THE BEER! Good eating out!
Disadvantages: Not bursting with worthy sights like Paris or Amsterdam

...Brussels wouldn’t necessarily be most people’s first choice for a European city weekend break, with Amsterdam and Paris somewhat higher on the list, I suspect. However, it does have one major advantage if you live in or around London – it’s one of the two direct destinations served by the Eurostar train, the other being Paris, and of the two end destinations, it’s the nearer (in fact it’s only about as far as Liverpool is from London). So having saved up our Radio Times coupons to get a pair of £50 weekend returns*, this Saturday morning saw us bright (?) and early, boarding the 6.15 departure for Brussels from Waterloo. Two seconds after the doors locked, the group in the next seats realised they wanted Paris! Oops! Still, never mind, they got off at Lille, waited for the train behind, and everyone was happy. (* There are other... Read review

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Advantages: Reasonable Airfairs
Disadvantages: Connection at Brussels

...and helpful. This was repeated in all the airplanes. The connection in Brussels was not a problem, we had to hang around Brussels airport for approximately one and a half hours, but this enabled us to shop in the duty free (although not really duty free when travelling in EU) and get a bite to eat. However on the return journey the plane was delayed by an hour and this caused problems in Brussels. It became a worry that we would miss the connection at Brussels. When we arrived in Belgium, we had to run around the airport, go through passport control, and the get to the plane to fly back to London. The joke was after having all this stress and running halfway around the terminal, we got back on the same plane again. It is now quite funny, but we were not amused at the time. Overall not the best of experiences, but to be fair to Virgin... Read review

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