Cheapest Day Trips from Antwerp by Train
Cheapest Day Trips from Antwerp by Train
Antwerp earns two or three days on its own before you start catching trains out of it. The Cathedral of Our Lady, the free MAS rooftop, Plantin-Moretus, and the Diamond District streets fill that time without repeating themselves. Once the city core is behind you, a few short, cheap rail hops add a change of scene without swallowing a whole day. This guide sticks to the closest, lowest-cost trips, the ones that pair with a city-focused stay rather than replacing it.
| Day trip | Time from Antwerp | One-way fare (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Mechelen | 17-20 min | €6-9 |
| Ghent | 46 min-1h | €9-14 |
| Brussels | 45-48 min | €9-11 |
SNCB reset its national fares on 15 October 2025: standard second-class tickets now cap at €20.90 one way, riders under 26 or over 65 get a flat 40% off any day, and weekend travel takes 30% off. Every fare above is the weekday adult ceiling, so check the cheaper option at belgiantrain.be before you buy.
Mechelen, the cheapest hop
Trains leave every 8-15 minutes and reach Mechelen in 17-20 minutes for roughly €6-9 one way, the shortest and cheapest trip on this list by a wide margin. St Rumbold’s Cathedral and its carillon anchor a compact old town you can cover in half a day, so it slots into even a short Antwerp stay without stealing a full one. This is the trip to take if you only have a spare morning.
Ghent, the better-value canal town
Ghent runs 46 minutes to just over an hour by direct train, roughly €9-14 one way. The Graslei waterfront, Gravensteen castle, and the Van Eyck altarpiece in St Bavo’s Cathedral give you a full canal-and-guildhouse day for noticeably fewer coach tours than Bruges, and from Antwerp it is both shorter and cheaper than Bruges too.
Brussels, frequent and quick
Direct trains leave about every 15 minutes and take 45-48 minutes for around €9-11 one way. The Grand-Place costs nothing to stand in, and one paid sight, the Atomium or the Magritte Museum, is plenty for an afternoon there and back.
What to skip on a city-focused trip
Bruges (1h25-1h35) and the coast at Ostend (1h34-1h45) are worth doing, but each eats most of a day in transit and fare, so they belong on a longer, day-trip-led plan rather than a stay built around Antwerp itself. If that is your shape of trip, the full ranked network sits in the Antwerp Belgium day trips guide .
For the city sights these trips are built around, see the Antwerp city guide , and to slot a hop into a fixed number of days, the 3 day Antwerp itinerary shows where it fits. Buy each ticket the evening before rather than weeks ahead; SNCB fares do not drop for advance purchase.