How to travel within Belgium
Once you have reached your destination in Belgium and want to travel round the country, what methods of transport are advised?
Public Transport
Belgium has great public transport links throughout the country; it is especially excellent in most of Flanders. Public transport is therefore usually the best way to travel and is usually not very expensive at all!
- Train
The train service in Belgium is cheap an affordable that will get you to most destinations without to many changeovers. Belgium trains are however not always as comfortable as the English or French equivalent, they are often old and sometimes rather dirty although new initiatives have started to tackle this problem and if you are travelling to well-known cities you should travel usually in luxury.For more information on train time visit http://www.b-rail.be/main/index.html
- Bus
The bus services are usually excellent in Belgium, you can recognise them easily as they are white with a horizontal yellow line called “The Lijn”, they run a strict schedule and are usually on time. Apart for the cheap price, the other significant difference on most Belgian busses is that they have2 doors, one at the front and one at the back. The etiquette for the two door system is that you enter through the front of the bus by the driver and get out via the backdoor, although this system is not explained anywhere some bus drivers get really annoyed if you don’t follow it!
Buying your ticket on the bus can also cause great worry for many tourists and Belgian bus drivers will not have much time to explain you the system, so do try to get your tickets at the bus stop itself if you have the option. A great ticket option for especially tourist is to get a type of top-up card, you will pay an amount you chose and in exchange you will get bus card that you can use until the money runs out, this type of ticket is called the “lijnkaart %”. You use this bus card by entering the card into one of the yellow machines and entering the amount of zones you will be travelling through, this will probably be one. Don’t be fooled by thinking the number you need to enter is the amount of people you travel with; the number indicates the amount of zones! If you are travelling with 2 simply enter the card twice. I find this way of paying for the bus the most convenient, definitely for foreign speaking tourist; although you will usually be left with some money on the card, it will have saved you great hassle. Your average trip will also be slightly cheaper this way, costing €0.70!
So with €7 you can easily travel up to 10 times!
For more information visit http://www.delijn.be/index.htm
- Trams and Metro
If you are spending some time in big Belgian cities, you will have the change to use the tram and metro. These trams are run by the same public company as the bus service, namely “de Lijn”, so the same tips for the bus will exist for the metro and trams. The best known tram service is the “kuststram” or literally translated as the coast tram, this tram service runs parallel with the sea and will take you to most sea-side towns or cities, a great way to travel and see some different places at the Belgian coast. I do however want to warn tourists to be careful while walking on tramlines, as it can prove very dangerous. Trams can stop but it will take sometime to come to a complete stop, many people and especially kids are hit by trams every year sometimes with serious consequences, so please make sure you leave trams plenty of space.
Car
Belgians enjoy driving on the motorway and pretty much all big cities are connected by the motorways. If you look at a Belgian map you will no doubt see the thousands of roads all closely interlinked. The Belgian road network is therefore one of the best to get to your destination quickly, be however aware that you will have to drive on the right hand side of the road and all signs are expressed in km per hour! The national speed limit on the motorway is 120 km, which equals 74 miles per hour.
Bike
Belgians love cycling, it is regarded as the most popular sport and leisure activity; therefore you will find everywhere you go special designated cycling routes. A great tip is to rent a bike, if you didn’t bring one, and just follow one of the many signposted cycle routes as this is the true way to discover Belgium! In all big cities you will be able to rent a bike for a small charge; these bikes are recognised by their distinctive yellow colour. These bikes sheds can be usually found at car parks, stations or near a tourism kiosk.
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