4.9
4.6Travel to BelgiumExperience Belgium Travel: Rail Connections & City Guides
By Lucy Dodsworth
Belgium is an easy country to travel around, particularly if you want to combine several cities in one trip. I visited last Christmas and travelled to Brussels, Ghent and Bruges over the holiday season in 2025. Short train journeys made it simple to move between destinations without losing much of the day, with buses and trams to get around cities. Belgium is also very well-connected internationally, so it works well as a stop on a longer European trip, with direct international rail connections from Brussels.
Canals in Bruges
Routes Overview
Brussels, Ghent and Bruges make an easy combination for a first trip to Belgium. Trains run frequently, the journey from Brussels to Bruges takes around one hour, and you can get from Brussels to Ghent in around 35 minutes and Ghent to Bruges in around 28 minutes. I’d still check the specific service before travelling. So you can easily stay in one place and take day trips out. I stayed in Ghent for the holidays in 2025 and visited Brussels and Bruges by train. Brussels also works well as a start or finish point if you’re arriving internationally. Popular connections such as Antwerp to Brussels are also easy to book.
Street art and cafés in Brussels
Onboard Experience
For my trip, trains were the easiest way to travel between cities, but buses are another option. SNCB/NMBS runs the domestic rail network, while FlixBus connects major Belgian cities and international destinations. Brussels is also a major European rail hub, with Eurostar services to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Cologne, plus ICE connections towards Germany. Locally, STIB/MIVB covers Brussels, De Lijn covers Flanders and TEC covers Wallonia.
Tram in Ghent
Station Tips
Brussels has several major stations, and knowing which one you need can save unnecessary travel across the city. International trains normally use Brussels-Midi (also called Brussel-Zuid or Brussels-South, which are all the same station), but Brussels-Central is much closer to the Grand Place and historic centre. Many direct Ghent and Bruges services call at both Brussels-Central and Brussels-Midi, but confirm your specific train. So if you’re in central Brussels, check whether you can board at Central rather than having to travel to Midi.
Best Time to Travel
I travelled around Belgium at Christmas, which was a great time for a multi-city trip, with festive markets in Brussels, Ghent and Bruges, and short journeys between them. Weekends around Christmas can get busy though. If I wanted to spend more time outdoors, I’d choose late spring or early autumn. Summer brings longer days and outdoor events, but popular destinations like Bruges can be particularly crowded during the summer holidays.
Things to Know Before Traveling
Belgium doesn’t have one system covering local buses and trams across the whole country. Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia all have different operators, ticketing and apps, so something that works in one city may not apply in the next. This isn’t a major problem for most visitors, but it’s worth checking the local operator before buying tickets or passes, particularly if your trip takes you outside the main cities. Checking the transport app for each region before setting out for the day made this much easier.
Scenic Routes
The journey I’d choose is Ghent to Bruges by train, not for the scenery but because it shows how easy travelling around Belgium can be. It’s a short direct journey, so you can comfortably combine the two cities in a day. I used this route to visit Bruges at Christmas while taking advantage of cheaper accommodation in Ghent, and the short connections are also useful if you want to see as much as possible in a brief trip.
Booking Tips
Domestic Belgian trains are flexible, with no seat reservations on ordinary SNCB/NMBS services and regular domestic tickets generally valid for the chosen route and date rather than one specific departure. Passengers still need to follow any applicable date and peak/off-peak conditions attached to the fare. International trains work differently. Eurostar tickets are tied to a specific departure, while other international services can have different fare conditions depending on the ticket type. Cheaper fares can sell out, so I’d book those earlier. On routes served by both trains and coaches, it’s worth comparing journey time as well as price. FlixBus can be a useful alternative, but double-check the departure point as they can vary.
Travel Tips
Belgium’s different languages can make station names confusing. One that took a while to work out is that the same station can appear under different language versions of its name, such as Brussels-Midi and Brussel-Zuid. For local buses and trams, check which regional operator you need, but I found it was often just as easy to walk as to make a short public transport journey.
Conclusion
Belgium is particularly good for travellers who want to combine several cities into one trip without spending hours getting between them. I found Brussels, Ghent and Bruges straightforward to link together, especially for a short multi-city trip. Next time, I’d head in a different direction and explore more of Wallonia, stopping in Dinant and Liège. That would give me a very different side of the country from the cities I visited in December 2025.
Horse and cart in Bruges
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