Has anyone travelled from Scotland to Brugge before? Best/cheapest route?

[WeAllHaveWings]

Looking for some help from anyone who has travelled to Brugge from Scotland before as we are not finding any easy/cheap options.

ds needs to travel to Brugge arriving on 30th-31st July and departing sometime between 2nd-4th August.

We used to do Scotland to Brussels regularly.

There is/was a ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge - that's certainly easy with a car, but probably not cheap at short notice in summer.

Alternative would be train connecting to Eurostar into Brussels and connect back up to Bruges.

If he is able to drive and take Dover Calais/Dunkirk ferry that is likely to be the cheapest option.

Or, fly Edinburgh to Schiphol and train down.

I went by train. Edinburgh to London, then Eurostar to Brussels and local train to Bruges. You can get the local train included with the Eurostar ticket.

We thought about the ferry, drive to Hull then take it as a foot passenger as he took that during his school trip in 2019, but it isn't there anymore.

He is talking about driving 🤦‍♀️ but frankly doesn't have a clue! He is a good driver but scooting about Ayrshire and Glasgow does not give you enough experience of driving long distance, through/in large cities, tolls, foreign roads/signs and god knows what the insurance/breakdown cover would be like for a teen (he hadn't even thought of that!)

Flights to Brugges are expensive/fully booked (probably due to the same football match he wants to go to), they are now looking at flights to Amsterdam and a train 🤦‍♀️

Looked at trains too and they are just as expensive as the flights. He was warned to book it weeks ago when the fixture was announced and flights were really cheap, but he wanted to wait until he got tickets! Going to cost him a fortune now 🤦‍♀️

Is he going to the football, my hubbie is going on the 31st for the killie game 😀

Yep, @Firefightress1 the same one and just making arrangements now!

You could look at flights to other Belgian cities and then train.

If looking at trains don't forget that split tickets can often be cheaper. Fir example Glasgow to York then York to London. Also east coast train to London can be cheaper at times

Have you tried using the website Rome to Rio?
Here are the eleven options from Glasgow, as an example. link

If you can’t find a flight to a nearby place (it doesn’t need to be a Belgian city as there are heaps of places you can easily get a train from) then maybe a train to London, coach to Brussels (often much cheaper) and train to Bruges? Coaches are really cheap and frequent all across the continent and remember Belgium is small so there are lots of places nearby

Hull-Zebrugge ferry service doesn't run anymore, only option from Hull would be to Rotterdam.

Ryanair fly to Charleroi and there will be trains from there to Bruges via brussels

Ryanair Edinburgh to "Brussels South" ie Charleroi, then Flixbus to Brugge?

Travel by coach from Edinburgh to Bruges on Wed, 31 Jul (flixbus.co.uk)

about £100 each way. Long trip but doable.

Awesome, my hubbie is going with his brother and my 8 year-old nephew. They booked flights and a hotel, I think it was reasonable but they booked as soon as the fixture was announced. He just got a ticker in the ballot, they booked Serbia last time and they didnt get through.... I was raging😂

Mine are flying to Eindhoven and train from there. Via London. It's utter madness in my opinion! 😀

If flight to Zaventem too expensive, then the alternatives are Charleroi and Schiphol.

From Charleroi, there are coaches to Brussels for onward train to Bruges. Might also be able to book the Flibco bus straight to Bruges, would take about 2.5hrs.

Schiphol would involve more changes but more flight options, including from Glasgow. Train directly from airport to Antwerp, from there to Ghent and then another to Bruges.

How savvy is he? Has he travelled independently at all? Charleroi is grim but an easier connection. Recommend Ghent to stay if Bruges full/expensive.

We did Ryanair to Brussels Charlerois then Flix bus to Bugges was very straightforward and super cheap.

Sorry meant to reply sooner to say thanks for all the ideas. 💐

ds and his friends have settled on a flight to Amsterdam and train(s) to Brugge - don't know the details or even if they have accommodation booked yet but he tells me it is "fine" 🙈 At least he isn't driving now which was the main worry!

All this for 90mins of football! Hope they win!

Bruges is a gorgeous city so I hope they have a good time.

Just warn them that Belgian beer is quite a bit stronger than in the UK

I literally did the trip your son is doing yesterday. Flew Edinburgh to Schlipol, few days in Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Bruges. All went fine, everything was very punctual. It was beautiful, preferred Bruges to Amsterdam but I'm sure that your son will enjoy both immensely. Literally everyone I spoke to spoke English so it was very easy if you needed help getting somewhere.

Bruges is in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium so they prefer either Flemish or English - they're not very keen on French😀

If flights to Antwerp or Brussels are booked, look at flights to Paris or Dussledorf. From either one the the train to Bruges will take about 4 hours.