GETTING AROUND IN
BRUSSELS
FINDING YOUR WAY
AROUND BRUSSELS
Brussels was already an important city in the Middle Ages (14th-15th
century). Hence, the street plan is rather chaotic. The best thing you can
do is to get a free street map from your Hotel reception desk, or from the
Tourist Information Office in the right wing of the Town Hall which is
situated at Brussels' main town square "GRAND'PLACE".
TRANSPORT
Taxi's :
You have to go to a taxi stand (taxi's won't stop for you if you try to
make them stop by waving in the middle of the street) There is no typical
'taxi-look'. Taxi's can be of all different colors and car brands.
Official taxi's have on top of the roof an illuminated panel (called
'sputnik' by the cab-drivers) with the mention " Brussels Gewest - TAXI -
Région de Bruxelles".
There is a starting price (which depends on the time of day). If you go
outside of the city limits, the rate goes up.The cost of a taxi drive from
the airport to the center is approx. 30 € .
Public Transport
:
There is a wide-spread network of public transport with trams, busses and
metro. One same ticket can be used during one hour on all forms of public
transport and costs 1,40 € . You can buy tickets from the driver of the
tram or the bus, or in the underground metro stations where they are sold
at booths. Also available are day-cards, 10-drive tickets or 5-drive
tickets. After having purchased the ticket you are obliged to validate it
in the orange boxes inside the vehicles or at the entrance of the metro.
There are regular controls. The Brussels metro is considered to be very
safe. (However: always take care of your personal belongings, wallets and
purses: PICKPOCKETS operate all over the world)
Trains to other cities :
Brussels has three main train stations (North, Central, Midi). Trains to
Belgian cities go from all three stations . In the Midi-station (or
South-station) you can take the Thalys train to Paris (1h20min) as well as
the Eurostar train to London (2h40min). For prices : check at the station
counter.
Some travel times: Brussels-Bruges = 1h, Brussels-Ghent = 40 min, Brussels
- Antwerp = 35 min, Brussels - Liège = 1 h, Brussels - Amsterdam = 3h,
Brussels - Cologne = 2h.
TOILETS
There are very few public toilets in Brussels. If you find one, expect to
having to pay 0,5 €. So, always carry some small change on you. You can
always find public toilets in the train stations and in some metro
stations.
An easy solution to find a place to go when nature calls is to look for
the nearest hotel or fast-food restaurants (a rule which you can apply in
all the cities all over the world).
Sometimes you may even have to pay when you go to the toilet in the café
that you are drinking your beer in.
