June 26, 2019

Travelling To Spa For The Belgian Grand Prix?

If you are travelling to Belgium this year for the Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps you may find our following guide helpful. Spa is one of the most rural locations on the F1 calendar and as such, can be more difficult to get to than other racetracks on the ‘circuit’ (no pun intended). Yes, once you are there, travelling between your hotel or campsite and the track itself can be very easy, but how do you intend to get there from the airport in the first place?

closest Airports To Spa

Depending on where you are travelling, routes into Belgium can be sparse. Below are the closest airports you will find to the circuit, most of which aren’t even in the same country.

• Maastricht Aachen Airport (MST), 80km from the circuit: limited seasonal connections to Alicante, Barcelona and Bari.
• Luxembourg Airport (LUX), 110km south of Spa: Luxair, the flag carrier of Luxembourg, flies to 20+ destinations in Europe. In addition, there are flights with British Airways (to London Heathrow), Easyjet (4 routes), KLM (to Amsterdam), TAP (to Lisbon) and more.
• Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN), 140km east of Spa: large number of connections, mainly with discount carriers. Airlines serving the airport include Germanwings (40+ routes), Air Berlin (17 routes), Ryanair (19 routes, including to the UK & Ireland) and Wizz Air (6 Eastern Europe routes).
• Brussels Airport (BRU), 140km west of Spa: a major international airport serving most European routes, plus destinations as far afield as the Middle East, Asia and the USA.
• Brussels South Charleroi Airport (CRL), 140km west of Spa: an important hub for Ryanair, which flies 50+ routes from all over Europe to CRL. Wizz Air also serves the airport with around 10 routes to Eastern Europe.
• Dusseldorf Airport (DUS): 155km east the circuit: a major international airport serving most European routes, plus destinations as far afield as the Middle East.

travelling To & From The Track

Lets work on the basis that you arrive into Maastricht Aachen Airport, the closest one to Spa, you have a few options on how you are going to get there.

Train

You can get a train from Maastricht City Station to Spa for around £25 per person according to today’s rates on Trainline.com, We don’t tend to travel alone to these things, so lets say there is 3 of us. That’s £75 on Train fares. A taxi from the Airport to Maastricht Station at a guess would be around €20 for 14km journey and at the other end, a taxi from Gare De Spa (train station) to the circuit would be around another €40 for 25km trip.

The other thing to bear in mind with the train journey is that there is no direct train to Gare De Spa, from Maastricht there are 2 changes, in Liège-Guillemins and in Pepinster. Keen travellers won’t be put off by this but it is something to consider when deciding how to get from A to B.

Car Hire

Our obvious favourite choice would be to hire a car but there is no bias attached to this article, all prices, distances and timings are what I can find online today. Sticking with arriving at Maastricht Aachen Airport, you can hire a car from various suppliers. All who offer different terms to suit different folks. Im just going to go with the cheapest I can find but with a household name and a car that will fit 3 adults and luggage for 4 days.

Hiring a car from Thursday 29th August at 10am and Returning on Sunday 1st September at 7pm. A compact car like a Vauxhall Astra, Citroen Cactus or VW Golf would cost £136.97 with Budget car Rental. Factor in the fuel cost, which 80km each way isn’t going to be much and you have a pretty good deal.

If you flight doesn’t arrive into Maastricht, the same car From Luxembourg Airport would be slightly less at £132.27 but would add another 60km onto your round trip. On the same note, if you do not mind driving a few extra KM’s, you can hire the same car from Cologne-Bonn Airport for less than £77. That’s around £60 less if you are prepared to drive a little further.

Other Transport Options

Aside from the train or car hire options, you may want to look into local buses or coach journeys. These can become expensive when travelling across border but the main reason for us not including them in our comparison is because it is 2019 and it should not take 5 hours to travel 80km’s.

If you are travelling to Spa for the Grand Prix or indeed Belgium for any other reason then our reservations team are here waiting to find you the right rental car to suit your needs. Contact us direct before making a booking and we will ensure that you will not find a better package elsewhere. Call us on 0113 88 00 748, chat with us online or email [email protected].