Travelling to Maastricht in August

[DanielDeronda]

Hoping to attend a music festival in Maastricht at the end of August. Need to be in Maastricht for 2-3 days but open to visiting other cities nearby.

What would my options be by train? And how near are the likes of Amsterdam, Brussels etc. And how much would fares be?

 

[DanielB]

Hoping to attend a music festival in Maastricht at the end of August. Need to be in Maastricht for 2-3 days but open to visiting other cities nearby.

I think Maastricht itself is most worth to visit in that area. For cross border trips, for example to Liège or Aachen looking into the Euregioticket is worthwhile.

What would my options be by train? thr

For what? Visiting other cities nearby? Liège and Aachen as mentioned above can be reached by direct trains (if they are not cancelled, Arriva is not the most reliable over there).

And how near are the likes of Amsterdam, Brussels etc. And how much would fares be?

Amsterdam is 2,5 hours by direct train, € 31,20 one way for a direct train. Worthwhile is to book in advance: NS offers the PrijsTijdDeal online with up to 60% discount. Those are not available to popular destinations like Amsterdam Centraal, but you can circumvent that by booking to Amsterdam Sloterdijk (one stop further) instead. No one will stop you leaving Amsterdam Centraal with that ticket.
If you're travelling to Amsterdam on a weekend it is even be worthwhile to order an OV chipcard and get a WeekendVrij subscription (call customer service to order from abroad). One month that subscription is already cheaper than a return ticket Maastricht - Amsterdam. And after month you can simply pause NS Flex online so you don't pay the subscription anymore but still have the card ready for a next visit.

 

[biko]

To add to the previous reply, trains to Amsterdam are half-hourly.

To Brussels it’s an hourly connection with one change in Liège which takes 1h46 in total. A ticket is €25,40 for a single but it might be possible to get a cheaper ticket by splitting on the border or by using a senior or younger people discount. Others can advise better on fare options on this route.

But in general, I agree with Daniel that Maastricht and surrounding cities are interesting enough to spend time and Amsterdam or Brussels are too far to be worth it.

 

[dutchflyer]

To get there by train from the UK means also doing the Brussel-Liëge (splendid Calatrava newly built station)-then now ARRIVA train to Maastricht. Perhaps just plan that visit when in transit anyway?
Note that the slightly faster and much more used direct connection Maastricht-Aachen (Aken in Dutch) is by a expressbus also of ARRIVA, takes 55 mins and runs every 15 mins daytime.
Here in Nederland there are NO automatic discounts for ju/senior or the like-and getting the needed personal chipcard (with foto+name on it) for it is a major hassle from abroad-not worth it for most people just a single trip.
I am not really sure what festival is held then-but if it is a major one, expect most hotels etc to be fully booked long before and also quite pricey. Though festivals often have space allotted for people coming with their own tents or the like. Maastricht is known here for its very varied and colourful international student population coming there for the university.

 

[rvdborgt]

And how near are the likes of Amsterdam, Brussels etc. And how much would fares be?

bahn.com is good for planning.
For fares from Maastricht to Belgium, have a look at www.b-europe.com. For fares to a Dutch station, check www.ns.nl.
Splitting tickets in e.g. Visé can be cheaper in some cases. Without knowing your age and travel dates, there are too many options to list.
If you're coming from the UK by train, then you could consider to visit Brussels on your way to Maastricht or on your way back. London-Maastricht is fastest via Brussels - Liège.

 

[Amalie]

I too would highly recommend Maastricht and Aachen. Liège can also be nice. It’s somewhat touristy, but you may also want to check out the nearby town/village of Valkenburg too. If you do insist on visiting either Brussels or Amsterdam, I would recommend Brussels, simply because it’s faster to get there, so you’ll enjoy more of your time there. Frankly, the longer train trip from Maastricht to Amsterdam isn’t ugly by any means, but neither is it extraordinarily beautiful either, so I wouldn’t say you’d be particularly missing anything in the trip itself.

 

[DanielB]

But in general, I agree with Daniel that Maastricht and surrounding cities are interesting enough to spend time and Amsterdam or Brussels are too far to be worth it.

Yeah, the Netherlands is often considered as a small country, but few people realise that Maastricht is actually further south than the northernmost end of France.

 

[parkender102]

The most cost effective way of reaching Maastricht from most places in the UK is cheap (Ryanair) Flight to Brussels Charleroi (last time I flew Charleroi to Manchester it was 23 Euros) then Flixbus from right outside the Terminal to Maastricht (2.5 Hours) - currently £6.95 travelling next week. Flying to Maastricht from most places ends up costing hundreds of pounds.

Currently Eurostar are doing a Flash Sale £35 one way if you prefer the train and then onward travel from Brussels to Maastricht. Not an expert on Dutch / Belgian Railways though!

Youtube Channel Planes, Trains, Everything has an episode regarding this journey - Scott is passionate about Train and Bus Travel but as a canny Scot he does like a bargain and frequently features ridiculously cheap flights and flight/Bus/Train combinations.

 

[zwk500]

I lived in Maastricht for a year when doing my MA, travelling from various bits of the UK at various times before, during and after. By *far* the easiest way to get there is Eurostar to Brussels, then the hourly IC to Liege-Guillemins and it's usually a 7 minute transfer to the S47 to Maastricht IIRC. Flights to Maastricht airport from London were only on Mondays and Fridays when I went there, most people flew from Eindhoven or Brussels airports instead. On the way to Maastricht I'd recommend stopping in Leuven, although Brussels is also worth a couple of hours for lunch. I personally didn't like Liege, although that was partly because the traffic was bad with the tram construction.

Maastricht city is great, and if you exhaust the bookshops, cafes and churches (the Basilica of St. Servastius is worth going round, and the terrace outside the City brewery has an excellent townscape with tremendous beer) hire a bike and cycle along the Maas for a bit. I'd also agree with the recommendations for Aachen - get the 300 bus across, at off-peak times it takes less than an hour, and you can also hop off in Vaals for a short hike up to the highest point of the Netherlands (it's the tripoint with Belgium and Germany) if you want. Aachen Cathedral and Treasury is excellent value.

Amsterdam would need to be a full day trip to be worth it - the train takes more than 2hr each way IIRC. I wouldn't advise going there if you don't have much time. If you want to do more of the Netherlands (well recommended!) I'd suggest doing that as a separate trip and staying somewhere like Utrecht, which is nice and central and lets you get around to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Nijmegen/Arnhem etc really easily.

 

[parkender102]

Thumbs up for Utrecht - lovely place! I suppose it depends on where in the UK you are travelling from to get to Maastricht - I imagine if coming from Edinburgh or Glasgow etc you've got to factor in 5 Hours on a train to London before even getting on the Eurostar. Similar for anywhere in the North like Liverpool / Manchester / Newcastle / Leeds.

Last year I returned from Rhodes (Greece) overland - the initial intention was to return all the way home to North Wales by Surface Transport. So it was Rhodes (Ferry) - Athens (Train) - Thessaloniki (Flixbus) - Sofia (Train) - Bucharest (Train) - Budapest (Train) - Vienna (Train) Brussels. 2-3 days each in Thessaloniki, Sofia and Bucharest and at least a half day in the other stops (I'd visited before a few times). Unfortunately Brussels - London (Eurostar) then London Euston - Chester was going to be around £200 and an all day journey (admittedly the Olympics were on at the time in Paris). It was 23 Euros Brussels to Manchester with Ryanair - 1 Hour Flight............No Contest!

 

[Amalie]

Even if you don’t intend to explore the actual city of Liège, the train station itself (Liège-Guillemins) is one of the prettiest modern train stations in Europe and worth to see between the short transfer to the RE to Maastricht. Although do not expect much at all in the way of shops or eateries.

 

[zwk500]

Thumbs up for Utrecht - lovely place! I suppose it depends on where in the UK you are travelling from to get to Maastricht - I imagine if coming from Edinburgh or Glasgow etc you've got to factor in 5 Hours on a train to London before even getting on the Eurostar. Similar for anywhere in the North like Liverpool / Manchester / Newcastle / Leeds.

Indeed - Although OP's location is given as Reading, so relatively lighter on the travel to St Pancras. Also remember that you've got to add in time for getting from the airports to Maastricht - if you fly to Brussels, that'll mean getting on the same IC/S-train as you would have by Eurostar. I think Eindhoven to Maastricht was about a 30 minute train ride, but no idea what the transfer from Eindhoven Airport to the train station is like (probably not too bad, given the Dutch are quite good at that sort of thing).

Also worth looking at where the flights actually go to - Schiphol is still a couple of hours or more away from Maastricht, and only London and Manchester have direct flights to Eindhoven, while if you fly to Brussels then you'll end up on the same IC and S-train combo as you would from the Eurostar.

 

[rvdborgt]

I think Eindhoven to Maastricht was about a 30 minute train ride, but no idea what the transfer from Eindhoven Airport to the train station is like (probably not too bad, given the Dutch are quite good at that sort of thing).

Eindhoven-Maastricht is just over 1 hour. From the airport you're looking at 1h 45 minutes, which is the same as from Brussel-Zuid.

 

[Thames99]

How about using the Harwich-Hook ferry which has very reasonable Dutchflyer tickets from Liverpool Street? Sadly it no longer includes travel to any NS station as it used to.

 

[parkender102]

How about using the Harwich-Hook ferry which has very reasonable Dutchflyer tickets from Liverpool Street? Sadly it no longer includes travel to any NS station as it used to.

Good alternative if you are over that side of the Country - think there is an offer on at the moment. Used to use the Boat / Train connection back in the 1980's when Persil had a special offer on. 3 Tokens collected from Persil Packets got you a heavily discounted Rail Ticket to anywhere in the UK OR a handful of stations on the continent - Amsterdam / Paris etc. We used to get Chester - London Euston - London Liverpool Street - Harwich - Ferry - Hook of Holland - Train to Amsterdam and Return for about £30!

 

[duesselmartin]

Maastricht also has an airport and you might even find good deals with KLM.

 

[parkender102]

I know when Scott from Planes, Trains, Everything on Youtube was planning a trip to Maastricht the cost for flying there from Glasgow (probably with a change) was in the Hundreds of pounds category. Think this is why he went the £30 Ryanair Glasgow / Edinburgh - Brussels Charleroi plus £6:00 Flixbus Charleroi to Maastricht route.

Edit - may have been the Steve Marsh Channel on Youtube I saw this on and the Bus Company with the cheap coaches from Charleroi to Maastricht was Flibco at around £13.00 to Maastricht every 90 minutes - Flixbus also operate the route but not as often but half the price.

 

[newmilton]

Another vote for Utrecht. I spend a month there for work a few years ago. Canals, several excellent museums (including the Dutch National Railway Museum), and small enough to be easily walkable. Utrecht Centraal is the hub of the Dutch railway network with easy connections to everywhere else. A Dutch Chipkaart (prepaid like Oyster) is valid for all public transport anywhere in the country; and if you're into museums the museum card, valid for a year, pays for itself very quickly.

 

[Amalie]

If you wish to visit the Dutch National Railway museum, note that there’s also a shuttle train from Utrecht CS to the museum itself! If I remember right, it takes a bit longer than the other options, but it’s a fun novelty.

 

[rvdborgt]

A Dutch Chipkaart (prepaid like Oyster) is valid for all public transport anywhere in the country;

If you're just going to travel with full fare tickets, the you don't need a chipcard, since you can tap in and out everywhere with a contactless card.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

If you are in to preserved railways then there is the ZSLM which operates from Simpelveld to Kerkrade, an easy day trip from Maastricht. It also has occasional forays over the German border to Aachen.

 

[nwales58]

Liége tramway might be running by August, current supposed opening date is 28/04. The Calatrava roof is fine in summer, on a cold windy day it can be uncomfortable waiting at platform level or on the bridge.

 

[andersj]

If you're travelling to Amsterdam on a weekend it is even be worthwhile to order an OV chipcard and get a WeekendVrij subscription (call customer service to order from abroad). One month that subscription is already cheaper than a return ticket Maastricht - Amsterdam. And after month you can simply pause NS Flex online so you don't pay the subscription anymore but still have the card ready for a next visit.

Do you know if they charge a delivery fee for international delivery (Denmark) of the OV chipcard beside the 7,50€ for the card itself? The NS Flex Dal Voordeel in combination with co-travel discount might be a good deal for our visit to the Netherlands. iDEAL payment should be possible to get through Revolut or Bunq.

 

[rvdborgt]

Do you know if they charge a delivery fee for international delivery (Denmark) of the OV chipcard beside the 7,50€ for the card itself?

Not sure, but they don't mention it here.

The NS Flex Dal Voordeel in combination with co-travel discount might be a good deal for our visit to the Netherlands. iDEAL payment should be possible to get through Revolut or Bunq.

Ordering an NS subscription online only works with iDeal AND a Dutch address. You could change your address to a Dutch one after receiving the chipcard, e.g. Laan van Puntenburg 100, 3511 ER Utrecht.
To order by phone, you don't need iDeal, a bank account that accepts SEPA direct debit is enough. If ordering NS Flex fails because NS still illegally only rely on an automatic credit check, then the workaround is to order Dal Voordeel on balance, and after one month change it to NS Flex. Keep in mind you need to go to an NS ticket machine to load the subscription; for NS Flex, you only need to load it once, and any subsequent subscription changes are only done in the backend.

 

[andersj]

Thank you for the info and tips, it's a shame that it's so complicated - the co-travel also seems unnecessarily complicated to use.

In 2025 it's also becoming outdated to need a physical card to collect these discounts.

 

[rvdborgt]

In 2025 it's also becoming outdated to need a physical card to collect these discounts.

The successor of the chipcard (OV-pas) can also be used as a virtual card in your phone. No idea from when it will be available though.

 

[DanielB]

The successor of the chipcard (OV-pas) can also be used as a virtual card in your phone. No idea from when it will be available though.

Somewhere in 2026 is the plan, it's delayed by one year.