Vaals - Vaals

Vaals is a city in the very south of the Netherlands, in the province Limburg (Netherlands). It borders directly on Germany at the Dreiländereck or drielandenpunt with Belgium.

background

getting there

By plane

The closest airport is the 50.9125585.769536Maastricht Aachen Airport(IATA: MST) about 25 km away. He has, however, as well as the 50.6377785.444167Liege Airport(IATA: LGG), 50 km away) comparatively few connections.

They have a wider range 50.8658333333337.1427777777778Cologne-Bonn Airport(IATA: CGN) and the 50.9013888888894.4844444444444Brussels Zaventem Airport(IATA: BRU) .

By train

• The next train stop is Aachen West, City and regional buses from Aachen to Vaals usually stop at the train station Aachen Schanz; There are still direct connections at both stations Heerlen about Landgraaf, after Dortmund above Dusseldorf, to Duisburg and to Aachen main station. Connections from the Netherlands lead over Heerlen, Connections from Belgium can be made via Liege-Maastricht-Heerlen or via Liège-Aachen.
• The next stop on the Dutch train is Kerkrade Center, are more important Landgraaf and Heerlen (Dutch IC).
• The next stop on the Belgian railway is Welkenraedt (also IC and cross-border traffic to Aachen).

By bus

Long-distance buses do not stop in Vaals, but the city is connected to the train stations via regional buses Maastricht, Aachen and Eupen connected. All the necessary timetables in German can be found at Aachen Transport Association. However, three different tariffs apply, as Vaals is served by transport companies from all three countries.

In the street

By boat

There are no navigable waterways around the border triangle. Only Maastricht or Cologne can be reached by ship.

mobility

There are cross-border bus connections to Germany. Frequent customs controls take place here. In the center of Vaals there is a small bus station, from which buses stop in all directions (the bus stop for buses to Aachen is a little off the beaten track behind the roundabout). There are direct connections to the Drielandenpunt, to Maastricht and to Aachen. Just east of the city center, already on German territory, is the Vaals Limit stop, from which other buses to Aachen depart, also on other routes. However, line 50 from Maastricht to Aachen does not stop there.

Single trips to Aachen are with the German buses ASEAG (Lines 25, 33 and all others from the Vaals border) a little cheaper (€ 2.40) than with the (faster) Dutch bus line 50 from Veolia Transport (€ 2.50). If you drive this route more regularly, it is a trip with the OV chip card but much cheaper than the four-ticket from ASEAG (€ 1.70 instead of € 2.10 to Aachen Theater). However, the OV-Chipkaart in Vaals or Aachen cannot be topped up with cash or German bank cards at the moment, but you can do this with coins or Maestro cards at all stations of the Dutch Railways.

Basically, you have to note that if you change between a German, Belgian and Dutch bus you have to pay again, as there is no common tariff. So if you want to change to another bus in Aachen, it is always cheaper to take the ASEAG bus from Vaals includes, but this is still more expensive than a trip that is only carried out with one company. There is also the Euregio-Ticket, which is valid for one day on all buses in the Euregio Maas-Rhine and on some railway lines, including all bus routes in Vaals.

Tourist Attractions

Parks / landscape

The Tri-border area (Dutch: drielandenpunt) is located on the Vaalserberg. This is where the borders of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands meet. There is also a kind of park, most of which is in the municipality of Vaals and a small piece of it in Belgium. The area can be reached by car via the Belgian Gemmenich (Route des Trois Bornes) or via Vaals (Viergrenzenweg), for example when coming from Aachen via the German Vaalser district. The Dutch car park costs 2 euros.

The park includes a tourist information office, a (paid) maze of hedges, some play equipment and fast food outlets. You shouldn't think of it as too big or as an actual amusement park, but you can linger there for a long time. Coming from the parking lot you finally reach the actual triangle, which you can recognize from a distance by three flags.

A little further in the Belgian part of the park there is a restaurant-café and an observation tower, the 50-meter-high Balduin Tower. Signs remind us that the place was a quadrangle until 1919: This is where the tip of an approximately triangular neutral area pointed, Moresnetwhich until then was administered jointly by Germany and Belgium. After the First World War it became part of Belgium.

If you come from Vaals, the Vaalserberg is on the way to the border triangle. There is a restaurant at a large parking lot and the one right next to it Wilhelminators. This viewing platform boasts of being the highest place in the Netherlands at 353.5 meters (above Amsterdam sea level). (A volcano on a Dutch Caribbean island is higher, however.) Entry to the tower costs 3 euros; you can go up by stairs or elevator. Above all you can see a lot of trees and Vaals (to the north), further away to Aachen (west) and (to the south) Belgian landscape.

Park and Vaalserberg are part of a nature area that is ideal for hiking. The distances between Vaals, Vaalserberg and Park am Dreiländereck should not be underestimated. For the forest paths to the left and right of the tourist attractions, sturdy footwear is recommended.

activities

shop

kitchen

Cheap

medium

Upscale

nightlife

accommodation

Cheap

medium

Upscale

Learn

Work

security

health

Practical advice

Some Vaals speak a dialect that is more similar to the Aachen dialect than the Dutch.

trips

literature

Web links

• http://www.vaals.nl/ - Official website of Vaals