What options are available to go from Leuven/Brussels to Luxembourg?
- By
- Aparna Patel
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- 21 Jul, 2023
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Hitchhiking is fairly easy in Belgium. Any spot will probably get you in the right direction, Liège seems best but first going towards Ottignies to catch the highway there seem fine as well. (Still good to check the Leuven article on Hitchwiki though if you don’t have a lot of experience hitching.)
Hitchhiking is not easy in Luxembourg, for returning it’s best to get to the Capellen gas station on the highway. See Hitchwiki for a good way to get there from Luxembourg City.
A bit late for the OP but hopefully useful to others.
Taking a car is of course a major option here as the distance is not very big and trains are slow and inconvenient on this particular route. Now, if you are asking this it’s probably because you can’t drive, don’t have a car, can’t afford to rent one or otherwise don’t want to drive but ride-sharing might still be an option. As the area is mostly French-speaking (although Leuven is not, Brussels is technically bilingual, and many languages are used in Luxembourg), you might have better luck looking for it in French (it’s called “covoiturage”).
There is no bus connection between Leuven or Brussels and Luxembourg. So you have to go by train. There is an hourly direct train from Brussels to Luxembourg. There is no direct train from Leuven. You have to make a connection in Ottignies (on the Brussels-Luxembourg line). There is at least one train per hour between Leuven and Ottignies. Alternatively, you can travel through Liège (Luik). There is one train per hour between Leuven and Liège and one train every two hours between Liège and Luxembourg. Note that the ride from Liège to Luxembourg is a quite scenic one.
You can book tickets via SNCB Europe, the international website, as Luxembourg is not in Belgium. The price for a return ticket is 43 EUR in the second class and 72 EUR in the first class. This is a fixed price, as explained here. As there are no highspeed trains involved on this route, you don’t have to book the ticket in advance. You can buy it at the train station, even just before the departure of the train. The ticket is valid on any train on the route.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘