Practical Information

Language

Sometimes one place may have multiple names in Belgium, one in French and one in Flemish. Be aware of this, especially in Brussels. (For example, the BRUSSELS-MIDI station is also called BRUSSELS-ZUID.)

Arrival in Belgium

The two airports which service Brussels are Zaventem airport in Brussels itself and Charleroi airport in the south. From Zaventem one may easily reach Brussels quickly by train or bus. From Charleroi one may reach Brussels by shuttle bus.

If arriving by train from other countries, you may buy your ticket here.

Travel from Brussels to Louvain-la-Neuve

The conference will be held at the UCLouvain campus at Louvain-la-Neuve (not to be confused with Leuven which is in Flanders), which is a university town about an hour south of Brussels. It can be reached in one of two ways from Brussels:

The first is to get the S8 suburban train directly to the station LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE-UNIVERSITE. This train truns through the following stations before leaving Brussels proper: BRUSSELS-MIDI, BRUSSELS-CENTRAL, BRUSSELS-NORD, BRUSSELS-SCHUMAN (closed during EU summits), BRUSSELS-LUXEMBOURG. This will take you right to our LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE-UNIVERSITE.

You may also take a fast regional train (line 161) from any of the same stations. These trains will stop in OTTIGNIES (one stop before LLN), and from there you can change for a S8 train to LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE-UNIVERSITE. But these regional trains run less frequently.

Train information can be found here.

Accomodation

If staying in Louvain-la-Neuve, then there is just the IBIS hotel. Book well in advance since it may become full closer to the date. You will find that there are also options on AirBnB. There may be private options for accomodation as well, contact us for help with reservation.

If staying in Brussels, then we suggest staying near the stations of BRUSSELS-CENTRAL or BRUSSELS-LUXEMBOURG, since the S8 to LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE-UNIVERSITE runs through these stations. The areas around BRUSSELS-MIDI and BRUSSELS-NORD are considered by some to be rough areas, and BRUSSELS-SCHUMAN is sometimes closed during EU summits.