Paris to Amsterdam, April 13th, 1 with Interrail Pass, 3 without interrail pass

There are engineering works planned, could happen that the trains show up a bit later.

If you don’t want to risk it:

There are alternatives possible that weekend: Take a TGV Inoui from Paris to Lille. In Lille (Flandres) you take the hourly regional train to Courtrai/Kortrijk that continues to Antwerp. From Antwerp you can continue your journey with the EC (change in Rotterdam) or ECD to Amsterdam.

A bit longer, but you’ll get where you need to be with a minimum of reservation cost (10/20 EUR per seat for tgv, all other trains are without reservations - cheaper than Eurostar, also for ordinary tickets).

EDIT: Eurostars to Brussels run as normal, you can take a Eurostar to Brussels and continue via EC (via Rotterdam) or ECD to Amsterdam.

Thanks ​@BrendanDB for the info and for the suggestion but those options still require chancing trains twice which I think is a bit much for my sister with her two kids and their luggage since they’re coming from Australia. I think I’ll look at Monday, April 13th, since there are no other options that are direct or have max one transfer.

For booking on Monday though, I’m not sure how I can book tickets so we’re all together if they don’t have an Interrail pass and I do. I don’t see an option to choose seats nor an option to book 3 tickets without an interrail pass while booking 1 ticket with an interrail pass… Any suggestions?

Eurostar to Brussels-Zuid/Midi and then the ECD to Amsterdam-Zuid is maximum one transfer, easy and convenient in the same station, a couple of tracks further than the one you arrive at :)

Ah, I couldn’t see that as an option on the 3rd party sites. I’ll try to look at those options and see how I could book it.

Double checked, ECD will only be running Antwerp-Amsterdam. Holidays mean engineering works, alas. So the options between Brussels or Lille have basically the same number of changes.

These happen in comfortable stations with at least hourly connections, and you’ll get the chance to peak at the marvellous station of Antwerp Central. Wouldn’t be to afraid of it, even with kids and a lot of extra luggage.But I understand you that just waiting a day gives you a bit of extra comfort and a day extra in Paris, your call :)

Note that the change in Kortrijk/Courtrai usually isn’t a real change, the train part from Lille gets coupled to another part and then continues to Antwerp. So you just stay on the train (unless mentioned otherwise by staff)