Maastricht

By plane

Maastricht is served by a small airport IATA: MST (http://www.maa.nl) with direct flights from selected cities in Europe. The flights from Amsterdam were discontinued on 26 October 2008.

Ryanair

(http://www.ryanair.com) flies to Maastricht from:

- Alicante Alicante Airport, Girona-Barcelona Girona Barcelona Airport, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife in Spain

- Dublin starting winterseason 2012

- London-Stansted starting winterseason 2012

- Bari, Milan-Bergamo, Trapani Sicily, Pisa-Florence Aeroporto Galileo Galilei Pisa in Italy and

- Faro and Porto in Portugal

Germanwings

(http://www.germanwings.com) has daily operations between Maastricht and Berlin-Schönefeld in Germany.

Other airports in the Netherlands include:

Amsterdam - Schiphol Airport (http://www.schiphol.nl/) is the biggest airport for the Netherlands, and is the entry point for most air-borne travellers. Schiphol is approximately 3 hours from Maastricht by train.

Eindhoven - Eindhoven Airport (http://www.eindhovenairpo...) is about an hour and a half from Maastricht, and mainly serves discount and charter airlines.

Rotterdam - Rotterdam Airport (http://www.rotterdam-airp...) is another Dutch airport, located about 2.5 hours from Maastricht.

Due to Maastricht's proximity to the Belgian border, some visitors prefer to use Belgian airports:

Brussels - Brussels Airport (http://www.brusselsairport.be/), another Belgian airport, is the second largest airport after Schiphol within 2 hours distance of Maastricht, and is another decent option for arriving by plane. A journey to Brussels is slightly under 2 hours by train, which to some people makes the airport a more attractive option than Schiphol. Taxi Brull offers a shuttle service between Maastricht and Brussels Airport for €66 two ways (http://www.brulltax.nl/in...)

Charleroi - Brussels South Charleroi Airport (http://www.charleroi-airp...) is Brussels' second major airport, also within train distance to Maastricht, and mainly caters to discount airlines notably Ryanair.

Liege Bierset - Liege Airport (http://www.liegeairport.com/) is located in Belgium, about a half hour from Maastricht.

The nearby airports in Germany offer many connections to chose from as well:

Dusseldorf (http://www.duesseldorf-in...),

Cologne-Bonn Airport (http://www.airport-cgn.de...),

Airport Weeze (http://www.airport-weeze....)

By train

Maastricht is well served by train, with train stations Maastricht, near the centre of the city, and Maastricht Randwyck, in the south. There are two trains departing from Maastricht Station to the northern destinations every hour. Some popular destinations include:

City	Duration	Price	Transfer
Sittard	0:14	€ 4.20	Direct
Heerlen	0:20	€ 5.50	Direct
Roermond	0:41	€ 7.80	Direct
Eindhoven	1:03	€ 15.20	Direct
Den Bosch	1:25	€ 19.40	Direct
Utrecht	1:56	€ 24.90	Direct
Amsterdam	2:26	€ 28.70	Direct
Nijmegen	1:45	€ 19.40	Roermond
The Hague	2:44	€ 29.90	Eindhoven
Groningen	4:18	€ 37.80	Utrecht

Prices in this table are one-way and non-reduced fare. For more information check the NS English language website. Local trains will take you to Valkenburg, Heerlen & Kerkrade, four times every hour.

There is an extensive rail system in the Netherlands. Travelling by train is generally a good experience in the Netherlands, although Dutch people will often complain that the trains are late and full. National train services are run by Nederlandse Spoorwegen NS (http://www.ns.nl/), and an elaborate timetable system including price information is available on their website. Prices for trips are determined by distance, with longer distances costing less per km than shorter ones. Tickets can be bought at the ticket office in the train station's main hall, but you can save yourself an extra service fee by buying your train ticket from a yellow-and-blue electronic ticketing machine note that some machines only accept European pin passes/debit cards and only older machines accept coins. Wherever you plan to buy your ticket, make sure you buy it before boarding the train, as it is not possible to buy a ticket on-board and you'll risk a € 35,- fine in addition to the ticket price. Tickets can be bought as either one way tickets, or as a same-day or same weekend return. If you plan to return in the course of a couple of days, you should simply buy two separate one way tickets.

Visitors who intend to travel a lot by train in the Netherlands may consider purchasing a Voordeelurenabonnement Off Peak Discount Pass, which will set you back €55,- but entitles you and three fellow passengers to reduced-fare tickets 40% off the price. Reduced-fare tickets can be bought from the same ticket-vending machines. The card can be purchased from any NS Ticketing Office, although an address, phone number, and passport photo is required you are initially issued a temporary paper card, which will be replaced by a plastic card about 3 months later.

By bus

Bus 50 from Aachen serves Maastricht on an half-hourly basis all days. Generally, travellers pay €5,50 for a one-way ticket Veolia Combikaart Zuid-Limburg. An all-day ticket that allows travel on South Limburg bus routes, including those to local cities such as Heerlen, is now €7.00. Travel time is approximately one hour from Aachen. See Veolia Transport for timetables Regio: Limburg. (http://www.veolia-transpo...)

Belgian busses come and go to Hasselt, Tongeren, Lanaken and Liege.

Eurolines Netherlands

has a bus stop at the Central train station in Maastricht. In Liege is the Belgian Eurolines stop, which serves different routes to the Maastricht stop.

Semi tours

(http://www.semi-tours.com) travels on Tuesday "Utorak" to/from Bosnia via Belgium, passing Maastricht, to Amsterdam. Return trip around €150, reservation by phone at the Belgian office. Bus stops at the central station.