We need to talk about Paris ...

Yes we really do. Oh Paris ... the city of love, of the Louvre, its vast metro network and many many more beauty. Who does not love Paris? After all you can just hop on a train from Amsterdam or Schiphol ( which, of course does not lay in the capital of Amsterdam ), and in about 3.5 hours you will arrive well rested in Paris.

Or do you ?

I travel to Paris quite often. By train. With a hop to another international one to the south of Europe. As it is very convenient and very fast. The international train has a restaurant on board, most of the time you will have WiFi (but if you have 4g or 5g you don't need WiFi) and you may bring that large heavy suitcase with you. No turbulence .. well you get the picture.

o .... IT IS CHEAP!

So naturally when I met family last weekend I was stunned to hear that they wanted to go by train and planned to drive to car to Lille and then take the train.
I asked "why not the train directly from Amsterdam?", she replied "Because I forgot to complete the booking process and now its very expensive". A return trip ( 2 persons ) would have cost 700 euros in total.

She was right. However I had a return ticket for end of year 2026 for 85 euros in total in my pocket. Bought in Feb 2026. ( Green IO Paris, be there or be square )

The problem : Trains don't do last minute price drops at all, they only increase pricing.

I looked it up, single tip with ns international within a week from now:
over 90 euros, sometimes even over 120 euros. So in total over 180 or 240 euros with ease.

Then I looked a govolta, the new supercheap provider. The first possible ride is 14 december. However ... single tip costs about 40 euros.

O .. and there is a catch with govolta. It takes FOREVER compared to the 3.5 hours with the established international train. This one from 14th of Dec 2026 takes almost 7 hours. Which can be great if you do a lot of work on the train, but it is a long time for the distance Amsterdam-Paris if you ask me.

So yeah ... we need to talk about Paris and international traintravels in common. I am very fond of Eurail/Interrail, however when you want to visit a city in Europe, book immediately and save a lot of money and effort.