You can travel by air, rail, boat, or car
to get to Brussels, depending on which is more convenient,
faster, and closer. Belgians national airline is Sabena.
Flights do come into Brussels Zaventem airport, but
many more come into surrounding country airports such
as Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, London and Cologne (especially
for travellers from the United States). If taking
a flight into surrounding cities, it is relatively
inexpensive to travel the rest of the way on train.
Belgium is a small a country, and there are no intercity
flights within the country. There isn’t a best
time of the year to go to Brussels – anytime
is the best time and because prices tend
to vary look out for special offers and discounts.
If flying from London, you could
expect to pay only between 80 – 90 pounds (round
trip) (115 Euros or $155 dollars) – if flying
in from Ireland, prices run around 160 pounds (231
Euros or 310 dollars). Flight time is about one hour
and 10 minutes if flying from London and about if
flying from Dublin it takes around 2-3 hours. If you
elect to take a connecting flight from Ireland through
London to Brussels the cost is around only 90 pounds
(129 Euros or 174 dollars) round trip. But these prices
can vary enormously so shop around!
Ryanair is one of the low cost carrier
and it flies into Charleroi (south
of Brussels) from Dublin, Shannon and Glasgow Prestwick
as well as several European cities. Another low cost
airline is Virgin Express. If you are traveling from
other European countries, some competitive airlines
are Lufthansa, Air France, Alitalia, SAS, KLM, and
BritishAir. If you are traveling transatlantic, you
will save if you purchase your ticket(including transatlantic
flight)from them as they can offer cheaper flights
within Europe. You will find cheap ultra-discounted
airline tickets at “bucket stops” in London,
Amsterdam, Paris, and Athens.
Cheap Fares Contacts
Air Europa, www.air-europa.com.
Aer Lingus, www.aerlingus.com.
British Midland: 800-788-0555, in Britain 011-870-607-0555.
www.flybmi.com.
Cheap Flights: www.cheapflights.co.uk.
easyJet, www.easyjet.com.
Europe by Air Pass: 888-387-2479, www.europebyair.com.
Eurostar Chunnel Train: 800-EUROSTAR, www.eurostar.com.
Go, www.gofly.com.
Spanair, www.spanair.com.
Ryanair: 011-353-1-609-7800, www.ryanair.ie.
Virgin Express: 011-32-2-752-0505, www.virgin-express.com.
Some reputable travel agencies include STA Travel
with an office in 86 Old Brompton Rd. London SW7 3LQ
– website: www.statravel.co.uk as well as usit
Campus with the main office at 52 Grosvenor Gardens,
London SW1W 0AG. They also have several branches.
In France there are several student
travel agencies that supply discount tickets to tourists-OUT
Voyages (Phone: 01 40 29 12 12) has a central Paris
Office at 39 Ave Georges Bernanos (5e) and several
office throughout the country. Some General Travel
Agencies that offer the best deals in France are Nouvelles
Frontieres (Phone: 08 03 33 33 33), 5 Ave de l’Opera
(ler) (website: www.nouvelles-frontieres.fr ) –
another is Voyageurs du Monde (Phone: 01 42 86 16
00) at 55 Rue Sainte Anne (2e)(Logan & Cole, pp.
70-73).
Tickets from Germany can be bought
at STA travel (phone: 030-311 0950) at Goethestrasse
73, 10625 Berlin.
If you travel from Netherlands it
is cheaper to travel by train to Brussels.
And if you are traveling from the US
– there is a high/low season that will affect
the price you pay (unlike within Europe); high season
is between June – September and Christmas and
New Years, where the cost will be higher. Low season
is from October to March and mid-season is April-May
and from mid-September to October. In the states you
will find some good deals at travel agencies called
“consolidators” – though you won’t
see the word “consolidators” on their
door. Some large consolidators can be found through
the yellow pages and major city newspapers such as
the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune,
and San Francisco Examiner (look in the weekly travel
section). One well-known consolidator leader is Ticket
Planet (800 799 8888) (website: www.ticketplanet.com).
Another website to check out is www.counciltravel.com
. During high season – flying from New York-
you should expect to pay around $1020 and during the
low season around $600. The same fairs from the West
coast would run about $1200 for high season and $800
for low season (Logan & Cole pp. 70-73).
