Maastricht

From World travel guide

Maastricht is a city in the Dutch province of Limburg. Maastricht is close to Belgium and Germany. It is the most southern city of the Netherlands because of its geography.

Contents 1 Understand 1.1 Information 2 Talk 3 Get in 3.1 By air 3.1.1 Airports 3.2 By train 3.2.1 Train stations 3.3 Train information 3.4 By car 3.5 By bus 4 Get around 4.1 By car 4.2 By bus 5 See 5.1 Civic Buildings 5.2 Museums 5.3 Tourist Attractions 6 Do 6.1 Cinemas 7 Eat 8 Drink 9 Sleep 10 Get out 11 External links 11.1 City Guides

Understand

The town is a good mix between students (mostly medical and business) and locals, who keep the town alive and fresh.

Information

The VVV is the local tourist agency, and in fact, the tourist agency throughout the entire country. If ever you're lost in the Netherlands, just look for a VVV. They'll help straighten you out, and sell you a map too!

For information about all (cultural) events in Maastricht, try to find a copy of the 'Week in Week uit'. They are distributed all around the city.

Talk

Maybe even more than in other parts of the Netherlands, people know how to speak foreign languages. So don't worry if you don't speak Dutch, many Maastricans are happy to converse with you in English, German or even French.

Get in

By air

There is an airport near Maastricht, the Maastricht Aachen Airport, which you can reach by the local bus system, or by taxi. Flights to Maastricht are more expensive, but more convenient than flying into another city, such as Amsterdam, and travelling to Maastricht by train.

Airports

• Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, http://www.schiphol.nl/
• Eindhoven Airport, http://www.eindhovenairport.nl/
• Liege Bierset, http://www.liegeairport.com/
• Maastricht Aachen Airport, http://www.maa.nl/
  • Daily direct services to Amsterdam, Berlin and Bucharest.
• Rotterdam Airport, http://www.rotterdam-airport.nl/
• Brussels, Belgium Airport, http://www.brusselsairport.be/

By train

There is an extensive rail system in the Netherlands. Although Maastricht is not considered an international rail station, the international stations in Liege, Belgium, and Aachen, Germany both have routes to this city. In addition, the international airport in Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, has a train station located in the bottom level with which you can reach Maastricht.

Train stations

• Maastricht
• Maastricht Randwyck

Maastricht serves direct trains to Haarlem, Heerlen, Roermond and Liège.

Train information

• Belgium Railways, http://www.b-rail.be/main/E/index.php
• Die Bahn (Aachen, Germany), http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
• Nederlandse Spoorwegen , http://www.ns.nl/
• French Railways, http://www.voyages-sncf.com/

By car

By bus

• Bus 420 from Aachen serves Maastricht on an hourly basis.
• Belgian busses come and go to Hasselt, Tongeren, Lanaken and Liege.
• Eurolines Netherlands has a busstop at the Central trainstation in Maastricht. In Liege is the belgian Eurolines stop, which serves different routes as the Maastricht' stop.

See wikimaas for more info.

Get around

By car

By bus

The city has a bussing system called the Stadbus (Literally: "City Bus"), that travels over most of the city and to surrounding areas. You can buy a fare on the bus for the trip, or buy it in advance on a pass called a Strippenkaart "Strip-card".

You can purchase the Strippenkaart at the Train Station, any Post Office or Magazine Shop. There are two denominations, €6,40 and €19,20. The lesser of the two has 15 strips on it, and the larger 45. So, each strip costs about €0,42, and each trip on the bus takes at least 2 strips. So a ride on the bus might cost about €1. Depending on where you go, the fare increases. This is much cheaper then buying the fare on the bus, as a trip purchased from the driver might cost between €1,60 and €2,20.

See

Civic Buildings

• City Library, http://www.centreceramique.nl/
• University of Maastricht Library, http://www.unimaas.nl/default.asp?template=portal.htm&id=BR3ME17V0PW523A24OV2&taal=en (restricted access for students and employees)

Museums

• Bonnefanten Museum, http://www.bonnefanten.nl/
• Spaans Gouvernement, http://www.museumspaansgouvernement.nl/
• Natuurhistorisch Museum, http://www.nhmmaastricht.nl/
  • Complete with the Maastricht Dinosaur and everything!

Tourist Attractions

• The Caves, http://www.vvvmaastricht.nl/Dagjeuit/?lang=en
  • A local Marlestone mine, tours given in Dutch

Do

Cinemas

• Lumiere Cinema, http://www.lumiere.nl/
• Minerva Cinemas, http://www.minervagroep.nl/minerva-maastricht/index.html

Eat

• Sour Meat (Zoervleis)

Drink

Maastricht has many bars, restauraunts, pubs and dance clubs, located on Vrijthof and Market Squares, and in the center of downtown it's nearly impossible to walk around and not see anything to do.

• Maastricht is great for a night out (Maastricht is home to both a University & Institute). therefore, lots of students, also lots of foreign companies are based here so a mixture of international pubs & clubs can be found here.

• Maastricht is known for its yearly "Carnival," a tradition celebrated in many towns in the south of the Netherlands.

Sleep

Get out

By plane

External links

• http://www.maastrichtnet.nl - For all cultural events
• http://www.maastricht.nl
• http://www.vvvmaastricht.nl/ - The local tourist agency, the VVV

City Guides

• http://www.maastrichtweb.com/
• http://www.wikimaas.tk - Maastricht Independent City Guide - This is an elaborative wiki with all the information you won't find at boring tourist information sites and guides.

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