Tweet15-12-2010 om 12:36 by Amanda Potter

Many expats travel for the holidays, either to visit a destination or to visit family and friends in their home country. The first few times we tried flying from the Netherlands, we took ourselves up to Amsterdam, but who wants to add an extra three hour train ride to their travel time if you can help it? Looking in the area and outside the Netherlands borders opens up a variety of airline options for the busy holiday traveler.

Maastricht Aachen Airport

Located a little ways out of Maastricht, the Maastricht Aachen airport offers a limited number of flights to a handful of cities in Europe, but if you’re looking to travel to one of the select countries available, you certainly can’t beat the location. The airport is small, which keeps the overall hassle of flying down since there generally cannot be a lot of people there. You can reach the airport via car, taxi (approximately 25 euros from Maastricht), or bus #59.

Eindhoven Airport

North of Maastricht, I usually hear people talking about Eindhoven Airport when they are flying to Ireland, but you can fly to many places from here. Most of the direct flights are handled by commuter airlines such as Ryanair and as such are generally in this hemisphere. You can reach the Eindhoven Airport via car, taxi, or train and bus #401.

Brussels Airport (Zaventem)

The Brussels Airport is currently my preferred airport for traveling to the United States. As an international airport it flies to the places I need to go (namely Boston) and the rates are frequently cheaper than the ones from Amsterdam. This large, Belgian airport is about an hour or hour and a half high speed train ride from Maastricht (if you can catch the no-switch train). There is also a shuttle bus that runs from the airport to Maastricht.

Dusseldorf International

I have never flown through Dusseldorf, but it is one of several airports recommended by the Maastricht University for visitors to use and if you’re located closer to Dusseldorf than one of the other locations it may be right for you. Like the Brussels Airport, Dusseldorf is a large, international airport with flights all over the world, and is reachable via car, taxi, train, and bus.

Skip the Flights

Of course if you’re traveling within Europe, you don’t have to fly and put up with the heightened security frustrations that entails. Instead, Maastricht is a fairly convenient hub for traveling by train. Take a look at the NS Hi-Speed or Eurostar trains which leave from Brussels and goes to places like London and Paris. Taking the bus to Aachen can give you access to locations in Germany without flying as well. Book early to get the best prices.

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