Slow down to make your holiday more sustainable

The most obvious alternative to flying is train travel, although a slower journey could reduce the time spent on Mallorca’s beaches or in Florence’s museums. Dave Price, chief product officer at digital-ticketing company Trainline, says the trick is to take a holistic view of the benefits, and also make the journey part of the holiday experience.

Going from Britain to the Italian capital by rail, he suggests, can bring the added delights of “breakfast in London, lunch in Paris, with dinner and a night in Milan before getting a morning train down to Rome.”

Mark Smith, who has been blogging about train travel as “The Man in Seat 61” since 2001, agrees: “You can spend 48 hours travelling from the UK to Greece or Morocco if you don’t get on a plane, and that experience is something worth having. You get away from the stress of airports and flights, and the train journey becomes part of the holiday.”

He adds that booking a berth on one of Europe’s new or expanded sleeper train routes can be another adventure, meaning you wake up in a different country while paying for one less night in a hotel. You can snooze from Brussels to Berlin and Prague, while in France the overnight options from Paris include Nice and Aurillac, with more routes planned for 2025 and 2026.

“Not only is rail travel seven times less polluting than flying, but when you add up the time spent getting to, through and then from an airport, travelling from the UK to Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam is actually quicker by train”, adds Mr Price. 

Slow travel does not equate to “lost” time but is a growing part of the experiential travel trend that encompasses a reduced pace to connect more deeply with the places and people en route.