As a general rule, tickets cost less the further ahead you book.
You can book most Eurostar journeys up to 120 days (4 months) in advance. Most other European train journeys you can book up to 90 days (3 months) before travel.
If you are travelling to Belgium from a Eurostar station in the UK you may be able to save money by purchasing a Eurostar Any Belgian Station ticket. This allows you to travel to, and from, Belgium on just one ticket. What's more you can break your journey up and stay in Brussels for up to 24 hours. These tickets are not valid on high speed services (Thalys/ICE).
If you’re planning a journey more than 90 or 120 days in the future, search for tickets as usual, then opt to receive an email reminder.
We’ll then send you an email as soon as tickets for your chosen journey go on sale. So you can get in quick to grab the best fares.
You can sometimes find cheaper tickets if you treat each connection as a separate journey.
That’s because when showing you the ticket options, we apply the same class of travel and flexibility to all sections of a journey.
You may find that there are more ticket options when you search for each stage of the journey individually.
- Check which, if any, connections you need to make.
- Make a note of each individual train journey and the relevant timings.
- Search for each individual stage. You’ll then see all of the class and flexibility options available for each train journey.
- Choose the travel class and ticket flexibility for each stage of your journey, adding them separately to the shopping basket.
- Make sure you allow enough time for your connections. Try to match the times you were first given or allow a little longer.
- Once you’ve added to the basket all the trains you need for your complete journey, you can proceed to checkout.
You’ll get the best fares by booking as far in advance as possible.
Child, youth and senior fares may be offered on some trains. The conditions around who qualifies for such fares – and the extent of the discount – tend to vary between train operators.
Check our individual train guides for full details of available tickets on particular routes.
Most train operators occasionally promote discounted and special offer fares. Keep an eye on The Train of Thought, the official Rail Europe blog, where we regularly post advance details of these, giving you a head start on grabbing a bargain.
Some train operators offer discounted tickets if you’re travelling in a large group, generally of 10 or more people. Phone the Rail Europe call centre on 08448 484 075 (open weekdays 9am-5pm) to arrange this. Unfortunately we can’t take bookings for 10 or more people online.
