By car
By car
The cheapest way to get to Belgium 3â¬/100km from anywhere in Europe if you are a little flexible and lucky is usually taxistop (http://www.taxistop.be)
By car
Major European highways like the E-19, E-17, E-40, E-411 E-314 and E-313 pass through Belgium.
By ship
There are overnight ferries to/from Zeebrugge from Hull in England and Rosyth in Scotland, but they are not cheap. There's also a vehicle-only daytime service from Oostende to Ramsgate in England.
From Germany
You can take a bus between the train stations of Eupen Belgium and Aachen Germany which is quite fast and less expensive than doing the same trip on an international train ticket.
By bus
You can get to Belgium from all over Europe on Eurolines (http://www.eurolines.be) coaches. International busses have stopovers in Antwerpen, Brussels north-station, Leuven & Liege.
Due to the Bosnian war in the 1990'ies there are bus companies serving the Bosnian diaspora, which provide a cheap and clean way of getting to the other side of the European continent. Semi tours (http://semi-tours.com) runs three times per week from various destinations in Bosnia and Hercegovina to Belgium and the Netherlands, Off-season approx. 132⬠for a return ticket.
By plane
Brussels Airport (http://www.brusselsairpor...) also known as Zaventem due to the town in which it is mainly located is Belgium's main airport IATA code BRU. It is not located in Brussels proper, but in surrounding Flanders. The airport is the base of the national airline Brussels Airlines (http://www.brusselsairlin...). Other full-service airlines use BRU, as well as budget carriers such as Vueling (http://www.vueling.com/), JetairFly (http://www.jetairfly.com/) and Thomas Cook (http://www.thomascookairl...).
There is a train ⬠5.10 running every 15 minutes to Brussels centre taking 25 minutes, some of them continuing to Ghent, Mons, Nivelles, and West Flanders and bus lines number 12 and 21 ⬠3 at the vending machine/⬠5 on board every 20 to 30 minutes to Place Luxembourg European Parliament district. The bus stops at NATO and Schuman for the EU institutions on its way to the centre. There are also two trains per hour to Leuven, taking 13 minutes.A taxi to the centre of Brussels costs around ⬠35 - cheaper if booked in advance. Taxis bleus: +32 02 268 0000, Taxis Autolux: +32 02 411 4142, Taxis verts: +32 02 349 4949.
Brussels South Charleroi Airport (http://www.charleroi-airp...) IATA code CRL, about 50km south of Brussels, mostly serves low-cost carriers, such as Ryanair (http://www.ryanair.com/) and Wizzair (http://wizzair.com/). You can get to Brussels Gare du Midi on a coach in about an hour â¬13 one way, â¬22 return. If you're going to any other part of Belgium, buy a combination bus+train ticket via Charleroi Sud train station from the TEC vending machines outside the airport for at most â¬19.40 one-way.
However, if you are really stuck, it is not unusual for taxi drivers to take credit cards. The price of a taxi ride to Brussels is a set fare approximately â¬95 as of May 2006 and you can check with the taxi driver if he will accept your credit cards or not.
Antwerp Airport (http://www.antwerpairport.be/) IATA code ANR has some business flights, including CityJet (http://www.cityjet.com/)'s reasonably priced link to London City airport. Other airports include Oostende, Liège and Kortrijk, but they only handle freight and charter flights.
Flights to airports in neighbouring countries might be worth considering, especially to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport which has a direct rail link to Brussels, also making stops at Antwerp and Mechelen.
By train
There are direct trains between Brussels and:
Amsterdam, Luxembourg normal trains, running every hour
Paris, Köln/Cologne, Aachen, Amsterdam Thalys (http://www.thalys.com/)
Lyon, Bordeaux, Paris-CDG airport and many other French cities TGV Bruxelles-France (http://www.voyages-sncf.com/).
London, Ebbsfleet, Ashford, Lille and Calais Eurostar (http://www.eurostar.com/). Tip: If going to another Belgian city opt for the "any Belgium Station" ticket £5.50 one-way in 2nd class, and your local transport is included in your Eurostar ticket. Depending on the distance this may work out cheaper then getting a separate ticket. Note: Passengers travelling from the UK to Belgium go through French passport/identity card checks done on behalf of the Belgians in the UK before boarding, rather than on arrival in Belgium. Passengers travelling from Lille/Calais to Brussels are within the Schengen Area.
Frankfurt, Köln/Cologne ICE (http://www.bahn.de/p/view/international/englisch/international_guests.shtml)
Zürich, Switzerland, via Luxembourg normal trains, 2 daily
They connect with domestic trains at Brussels' Gare du Midi/Zuidstation, and with all Eurostar or ICE and some Thalys tickets, you can finish your journey for free on domestic trains. For all high-speed trains, you need to book in advance for cheap fares, either online or using a travel agency. There are no regularly scheduled sleeper trains anymore.
You might want to check the TGV connections to Lille too. The trains from the rest of France to Lille are more frequent and usually cheaper. There is a direct train connection from Lille Flandres to Ghent and Antwerp. If your TGV arrives in Lille Europe, it will take a 15 min walk to the Lille Flandres railway station.
Plan your trip with the Deutsche Bahn timetable (http://reiseauskunft.bahn...). It has all domestic and international connections across Europe.
Smoking is no longer allowed in Belgian trains.
From The Netherlands
For a list of border-crossing buses between Belgium and the Netherlands, you may consult the list at (http://www.xs4all.be/~rvd...).
In order to avoid paying for an international train ticket on the route between Amsterdam and Antwerp, you can get off in one of the border stations of Essen Belgium and Roosendaal the Netherlands and walk to the other on foot. You can follow the main road between the two places and will need to walk some 10 kilometers in a flat and open, though particularly uninhabited terrain.
Apart from being a peculiar result of ancient European history, the town of Baarle formally Baarle-Hertog in Belgium and Baarle-Nassau in the Netherlands is a possible change point, since the town's main bus stop Sint-Janstraat is operated by both Flemish Belgian and Dutch buses.
The Flemish Belgian company De Lijn operates a border-crossing bus between Turnhout in Belgium and Tilburg in the Netherlands, both of which are termini in the respective country's railway network.
There's a bus line 45 operated by the Flemish Belgian company De Lijn going between the train stations of Genk Belgium and Maastricht the Netherlands. There is another bus line 20A departing from Hasselt, going to Maastricht. A train connection is non-existing in this place, but it is being built at the moment.