Travelomania

Eurostar arrives 22.33 hrs @ Midi on a Monday night.
What are my options in getting to BRU airport by train ?

TIA !

fets_be

There's a train (4/hour) to the airport taking 20-25 minutes. Last train runs at 23.12 hrs. Price should be slightly over 5 EUR.

Otherwise, a cab would be around 35-40 EUR.

Do you have an airport hotel booked ? There are no flights going out at that time of the night.

Travelomania

Thanks ^

Assume will be the first one to check in for my flight early the next morning

Any other suggestions besides these ?

fets_be

if you have the cash to spend: Use Hotwire to get an airport hotel WITHOUT a shuttle. (There's only one, it's often available for $79 + tax)

Otherwise, there's a 24 hour Starbucks on departure level. There is NO free wifi in the terminal, you can buy a scratch card from the Starbucks staff, or pay by credit card.

Alternatively, hang out in the centre of Brussels, have a few beers and take an early train or the nightbus.

Travelomania

Awesome !
Many Thanks ... I rather prefer hanging at a SB than enduring a couple of sleepless hours @ an airporthotel for the few hours that are left before check-in starts.
Now ... that would be called risking it

Travelomania

Do you know if the Eurostar ticket covers this trainride ?
From the website:

fets_be

Yes and no. The EBS part covers the fare itself (about 3 EUR), but not the specific airport station surcharge (2 EUR and some change). I would guess the EBS option is more expensive than the 3 EUR fare which it could cover.

Travelomania

Thanks once again ^
Will buy another ticket for extra leg - hope ticket counter will be open that time of night. Perhaps there are ticket vending machines that'll take paper/coin €€'s ?
Never done this before that late at night at a foreign train station - so I'm not familiar
Otherwise I'll just risk it and use the Eurostar printed ticket


A little higher at ± €6.50

catandmouse

I've never managed to get the ticket machines of the SNCB to work. They appear to accept only Belgian bank cards (no credit cards at all). I don't think they take cash either. It's particularly pathetic at Zavantem where you can end up with long lines with a single employee selling tickets. You can tell it's a state-run operation with no notion of customer service (though one train guard took sympathy on me and sent me off once to the 1st class wagon when the train was totally packed).

fets_be

They're open from 4 AM until 1 AM, so should be fine there. As said by catandmouse, don't bother with the machines, they will only accept Belgian bank cards, and NO cash.

andreadbc

I've had a couple of good experiences buying Belgium train tickets on the SNCB website, no problems paying with a foreign card. It could save time and complications at the train station.

(just in case: Brussel-Zuid = Brussels Midi and Brussel-Nationaal-Luchthaven = airport station)

Travelomania

To be exact: €5.20 - I just found out after receiving all this great info and booked online @ SNCB .. piece-o-cake ^

Travelomania

Terrific info and just what I needed - Thanks ^

Mike Jacoubowsky

Are you saying that the hotel is on the airport premises so there's no need for a shuttle? I'll be arriving in July on the 11pm Thalys and was planning to stay at a hotel across from the Midi train station, then take the train from Midi to BRU for my 11am flight, figuring arrival at 8:30am at the airport would work fine. Do you think it would be better to do the Hotwire airport hotel instead? Thanks!

Travelomania

Thanks all for your great help.
My journey has been completed and just wanted to report my experience.
It took a mighty long walk from arrival platform of Eurostar thru a complete empty Midi-station, to the departing platform of the Airport train.
At that time of night there were no ticket windows - or any other - open that I noticed.
BTW it did not seem to be a place one would like to spend any night-hours alone waiting for the next train.
As seemingly the only passenger on the deserted train, was checked for my ticket, which I luckily had purchased online.
Arrived at a completely deserted terminal around 23.45, found the only Starbucks (no wi-fi) and spend the next 6 hours accompanied by a couple of other pax that had missed their flights and some dubious homies that seemed to enjoy their permanent hang out.
Glad it worked out so well with the help in this thread and I had no need for a hotel.