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München / Munich to Bruxelles / Brussels by train
Travel direct on the relatively new overnight train, or make connections between ICE trains during the day
There are now two optimum choices for taking the train from München / Munich to Bruxelles / Brussels:
(1) The daytime journey requires a connection between two ICE trains at Frankfurt (Main) hbf, but it's an exceptionally easy station in which to change trains.
(2) Or if you want to travel overnight the direct Nightjet train proved to be short lived, so travelling through the night also requires a connection.
Take the Nightjet train heading for Amsterdam, which typically departs at 22:50 and leave this train when it arrives in Koln shortly before 07:00.
Within 45min an ICE train will be usually be heading on to Bruxelles.
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Routes
by two daytime trains connecting in Frankfurt
Journey Summary
6hr 40 min - 6hr 45 min
Daily
Travel Information
Typically connecting in: Frankfurt (Main) hbf
Train 1, final destination: Essen Hbf (usually)
Train 2, final destination: Bruxelles-Midi/Brussel-Zuid
Though on multiple dates reconstruction works on the railways in the area around Frankfurt (Main) will be preventing either one of these trains calling at the city's main station.
When that is occurring, the connection between trains will usually be available in the station at Frankfurt Flughafaen, where the transfer between trains can either be made on the same or immediately adjacent gleis (platform/track).
up to 4 x connections per day
There are no direct daytime trains between Munchen/Munich and Bruxelles/Brussels.
This is the fastest routing for a train journey between the two cities.
*These journey times are dependent of making a connection between trains at Frankfurt (Main) hbf of between 20 and 25mins.
However, this connection is not guaranteed!
It is not particularly unusual for the ICE trains from Munchen/Munich to arrive more than 20 minutes late at Frankfurt (Main).
Though if need be tickets can be transferred free of charge to a subsequent departure and there are also options for extending the connecting time between trains when making a booking.
The 'Ticket Information' has more details of how to do this
Tickets
Book early and save: Yes
Online bookings open: 6 months ahead of the travel date
On the DB Bahn booking site look for journeys that have:
- 1 in the Chg. column
- ICE (and only ICE) in the Products column.
- a journey time of between 6hr 41min and 6hr 45mins.
On the English language version of DB search for 'Brussels-South' station and not Bruxelles-Midi.
Reservations are recommended for this journey, particularly on the train between Munchen and Frankfurt (Main); though they will be automatically assigned when booking 1st class end-2-end journey tickets.
General booking tips:
Use the earlier/later buttons to search for the cheapest ticket prices.
Journey options departing at different times can be cheaper than others leaving on the same day, so you may need to look through the day's departures to find the cheapest fares.
There can be particularly large differences in prices per departure on this route.
The cheapest 'Europe Saver Fare' deals can be particularly hard to track down if you will be making this journey on a Thursday or Friday.
Making the connection or extending the transfer time:
These journey times and the associated train specific tickets are are all dependent on making a transfer between ICE trains in Frankfurt (Main) station of around 25mins.
This connection is not guaranteed - it is not particularly unusual for the ICE trains from Munich/Munchen to arrive late in Frankfurt (Main) hbf station.
IF the ICE does arrive too late - then tickets/reservations can be swapped free of charge to subsequent connections at the Reisezentrum travel desk, though the fastest alternatives are likely to involve an additional connection at Koln Hbf into a Thalys train.
But the Reisezentrum travel desk cannot issue Thalys tickets as DB does not sell journeys by Thalys train; you will have to book the Thalys online and then claim the cost of doing so back from DB.
OR minimise your chances of encountering this stressful scenario, by
- clicking on the 'Change' button on DB Bahn
- clicking on 'Change Other Data
- increasing the 'Duration Of Transfer to 'more than 30 mins'
- and then click 'Search'
You can then access journey end-2-end train specific tickets which allow more than an hour to make the transfer between trains.
Where to book
| Ticket Provider | Approximate Cost | |
|---|---|---|
| DB Bahn | from €35.90 |
Train 1
Travelling On
Journey Features
Good to Know
Final Destination: Essen or Dortmund
Journey description:
This is a journey of six distinct phases
- Until Ingolstadt the train will be travelling on a conventional railway through a series of commuter towns.
- In Ingolstadt station the train will move on to the high speed line and travel at more than 275 k/mh for around 40 minutes until it reaches the outskirts of Nurnberg
- Between Nurnberg and Wurzburg the train will be back on conventional tracks
- On departure from Wurzburg comes the part of the journey with a wow factor, the train will be on the high speed line for less than 15 minutes, but there are some nice views as the train crosses some long viaducts; in particular look out for when the train will burst out of a tunnel and then immediately cross the River Main.
- Between there and Aschaffenburg comes the slowest, but most scenic part of the trip when the railway winds through some valleys.
- From there to Frankfurt the railway passes through a series of towns.
Train 2
Travelling On
Journey Features
Good to Know
Final Destination: Bruxelles-Midi/Brussel Zuid
All trains also call at: Aachen and Liege
Most trains also call at: Bruxelles-Nord
Journey description:
This route showcases high speed train travel at it's finest, the journey between Frankfurt Flughafen and Seigburg/Bonn in particular can fuel adrenalin!
For virtually the entire train journey from Koln to Bruxelles the trains, will either be travelling at up to 290 km/h on purpose built high speed lines, or up to 200km/h on section of railway, that has been re-engineered to allow trains to travel faster.
It is a journey of eight distinct phases:
- Until Frankfurt Flughafen the train will snake its ways through the city's suburbs
- The train will then spend around 40 minutes travelling at more than 270 km/h on the high speed line.
The video was taking on a train travelling in the opposite direction, but it gives a sense of what a thrill this train ride can be; this is a journey when it's especially obvious that you're travelling on a high speed train!
- Between Koln and Aachen the trains travel at up to 200 km/h on a re-engineered stretch of railway.
- Then for most of the the 25 min journey between Aachen and Liege the train will travel at up to 290 km/h on a high speed line; this is also the most scenic part of the trip.
- Then for around five minutes after departure from Liege, the train will travel fairly slowly on a route which ascends from the city.
- Next up is the HS2 Belgian high speed route as far as Leuven, in theory the ICE and Thalys trains can accelerate back up to around 290 km/h on this part of the trip.
- From Leuven to just north of Brussel-Nord station the maximum speed is 200 km/h.
- For most of the journey between Brussel-Nord and Brussel-Zuid the railway crosses the city centre in a tunnel.
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This second version of ShowMeTheJourney is exciting and new, so we are genuinely thrilled that you are here and reading this, but we also need your help.
We’re striving not to let anything get in the way of providing the most useful service possible, hence a facility has been set up with DonorBox which can be used to support the running costs and make improvements.
Instead of advertising or paywalls, your financial support will make a positive difference to delivering an enhanced service, as there’s a lot of ideas which we want to make happen.
So if you have found the info provided here to be useful, please consider saying thank you.
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