Travel arrangements around Brussels

I’ve now been going to Brussels every year in February since 2015 for FOSDEM and every time I need to check how to get from the airport into the city (and back). And every time I promise myself to finally write it down so that I don’t have to rediscover it again the next time.

So, here’s my little public transport Q&A/cheatsheet for getting into, around, and out of Brussels. This is all organized around the Hotel being the Motel One near the Royal Palace and FOSDEM being held at the ULB campus.

Getting around Brussels

• If you don’t have a Mobib Card from a previous stay, get one!
• Mobib Cards cost €5 and can then be charged with various tickets.
• Sadly, that card is not available at most vending machines (incl. the airport). Gate Centrale has a kiosk, though.
• How much is a 3-day ticket (for Mobib Cards)?
  • €18
• Public transport between Hotel and Delirium?
  • It’s only a 15-minute walk so I never really bothered 😂

Connections from and to the airport

Since we are a bit impatient, we normally take the train from the airport to Gare Centrale or Schuman. Sadly, the train is not included in the normal day pass and a normal ticket costs €9.

From Gate Centrale it’s then only a short walk to the hotel.

For returning to the airport we usually take bus line 12 from Schuman. To get there take lines 1 (👉 Stockel) or 5 (👉 Herrmann-Debroux) from Parc to Schumann.

From the Hotel to FOSDEM

There are a couple of options for getting to ULB, but these are the two that worked the best for me. No matter which you take, they all end up at the “ULB” stop.

• There is basically a direct connection with bus line 71 (👉 Delta). You just have to walk 5 minutes to “Royale”.
• Alternatively, if you don’t mind changing line, take the tram line 92 (👉 Schaerbeek Gare) from Parc and then change to line 8 (👉 Roodebeek) at Louise.