Transportation
Transportation
Arrival by air
Most of you will be arriving by plane at Belgium's National Airport, Zaventem, just outside Brussels
Since the conference starts in Antwerp on Monday morning at 9 a.m., we would recommend booking a hotel in Antwerp (for a list of hotels, see the link ‘Accommodation'). Furthermore, if you arrive on Saturday, you will have the opportunity to visit the city and get a discount on the airfare (weekend fares).
In order to go from the airport to Antwerp, there are two possibilities:
- You can take the SNBrussels Airline Expressbus to Antwerp, which stops in front of the Holiday Inn Crown Plaza hotel, or at its final destination, Central Station at the height of Keyserlei 45. (For departures, see: http://www.biac.be/bus/ ).
- Or, you can take the train from the Zaventem airport to Antwerp (http://www.brusselsairport.be/train/ ). The train station is located within the terminal building itself (at level - 1). There is no direct route to Antwerpen, so you will first have to take a train to Brussel Noord, where you can board a train to Antwerpen Centraal. There are trains to Brussel Noord on a regular basis (beware: the trains that stop in Brussel Noord may have different final destinations: Brussel Zuid, Quevy, Leuven or De Panne. However, they all stop in Brussel Noord). The duration of the ride will be about one hour. More information can be found at the website of Belgium's railway system: http://www.b-rail.be/main/E/index.php
From Antwerpen Centraal, you can take a tram, bus or taxi to your hotel. You can find the different destinations, itineraries and schedules on the website of Belgium's public transport system: De Lijn's website.
Another link to public transport in Antwerp (buses, taxis...): http://www.use-it.be/antwerpen/eng/publictransport.php#
The conference venue in Antwerp: Hof van Liere, Prinsstraat 13 (Location nr. 6 on the map)
- To Ghent
If you decide to stay in Ghent during the conference (see the link ‘Accommodation' for hotels and B&B), there are two direct trains from the airport per hour to Ghent's main station, Gent-Sint-Pieters: one at 27 minutes past the hour and one at 45 minutes past the hour. Again, more information can be found at the Belgian railway website:
http://www.b-rail.be/main/E/index.php
There are buses, trams and taxis available in the direct area of the train station Gent-Sint-Pieters: when you exit the train station, buses and trams are located on your left, taxis can be found on your right. More information on public transportation in Ghent:
http://www.use-it.be/gent/eng/publictransport.php
or
www.visitgent.be (link ‘tourism' at the left of the page and then ‘railways' at the bottom of the page)
When you stay in Ghent, trains, leaving at 5 or 31 minutes past the hour, will take you to Antwerp on Monday morning.
Other means of transportation
From Paris, Amsterdam or London, there are also high speed train connections. More information about timetables and reservations can be found at http://www.thalys.com/, http://www.eurostar.com/dynamic/index.jsp or http://www.eurail.com/ . These trains will most likely stop in Brussels, from where you can board a train to Antwerp or Ghent.
From Antwerp to Ghent
When you stay in Antwerp, you can take the train to Ghent on Tuesday morning. The journey by train from Antwerp to Ghent takes less than 55 minutes. There is a train at 6 and 37 minutes past the hour. This train will take you straight to Ghent's main train station, Gent-Sint-Pieters.
The conference venue in Ghent: Jozef Plateaustraat 22 (Location 18.01 on the map)
map.
Directions: At Gent-Sint-Pieters station you can take tram number 1 (When you exit the train station, buses and trams are located on your left), and you have to get off at the stop ‘Verloren Kost'. From there, it is only a short walk to the conference venue.