Taking the train to Greece- A beautiful start to a holiday
Breakfast in London, lunch in Paris, pizza in Milan, gelato in Bari and a swim in Greece before breakfast. Travelling by train is most definitely my new favourite way to travel.
I lost the love of flying a long time ago, even though I had it down to a fine art. I was flying regularly for work. 15 minutes to the airport, well organised hand luggage, the same spot in the car park and a sprint through the airport to the taxi rank. It was efficient, soul-less and exceptionally annoying when it went wrong (last minute hotels, lack of next-flight availability and ridiculous queues for taxi’s to well located, but expensive hotels). Did I mention that I can also be impatient? I hate a queue.
When timing dictated I had to fly this year for work, I was reminded of what a pain the whole thing is. Queue here, queue there, queue for coffee, stress over the dimensions of my cabin bag, wear so many clothes to avoid having to pack them that you’ve lost weight before you board!
PLUS there’s the carbon impact of flying. This summer we travelled by train from London to Greece as part of our commitment to fly less and to try another way.
I had a mindset shift
Rather than thinking gosh, it’s going to take us 48 hours with 2 nights on route to get from London to Greece when we could fly in half a day, it became more about –how much time have we got for lunch in Paris and my google searches included ‘things to do in Bari in 2 hours’. The journey became part of the adventure and I loved it!
The journey is part of the holiday
The flat lands of northern France, changed into undulating hills as we blasted through France at 293km per hour. We just made the Alps before it got dark and the train slowed down so we had the chance to drink in the beauty of the evening sunshine. A night in Milan satisfied Ian’s craving for Italian pizza and a glass of primitivo before we collapsed at our hotel, already feeling like we’d been away for a few days.
The next morning, we were back on the train, 7 hours to Bari. We sped down through Italy, along 200km of the Italian coast, flanked by turquoise seas, and a multitude of resorts. Bari surprised us with a pretty old town, and the best gelato we’ve ever had. We boarded a ferry as the sun was going down. We were now into the second night of our holiday and we were totally relaxed, it felt great to be travelling overland and it started to feel that we had really earnt our right to collapse in Greece, having reconnected with France and Italy on route.
We slept in a cabin on the ferry and woke up as we were passing Corfu. The ferry ride was 11 hours or so and we’d opted to do that overnight. We approached Greece in warm early morning sunshine, seeing the mountains on land drop into the bright blue sea. Greece looked lush, warm and empty. Within an hour of arriving in Greece (Igoumenitsa), we’d collected our hire car, driven to a gorgeous little resort (Plataria) and I was swimming in clear, warm seas whilst Ian ordered breakfast. Perfect.
After 9 days in Greece, it was time to start thinking about the journey home. I had thoughts about flying and how much quicker it would be. It didn’t feel quite so adventurous going home overland, the way we’d come. Again, I was proved wrong. We were in the zone of slower travel. Eleven hours on a daytime ferry (with dolphins!) and 2 days of 7-hour trains felt daunting- but once I was on the train with nothing to do, there’s nothing to do but embrace it. I read books, daydreamed out of the window, listened to podcasts and strolled around the train. I messaged friends I’d been meaning to contact for ages and I used to the time to think about things that I always put off. As we travelled back on the same route, we knew where to get gelato and the good spot for cocktails.
One other thing worth mentioning, is that from leaving south London, the first time we queued for more than 10 minutes, was the gelato shop in Italy! I really have found my new favourite way to travel.
Reasons why I’m a convert to slower travel: It freed my mind and nourished my soul.
· I find airports to be stressful and annoying.
· I have pledged to fly significantly less. There is a huge carbon impact to flying that cannot be ignored.
· As someone who never sits still, enforced sitting is great!
· It provides freedom for your mind to wander. I found myself admiring the engineering behind large bridges, planning overland trips to Istanbul and Slovenia and remembering school trips to Italy.
· You feel connected. There were a large number of homeless people outside Milan station- it reminded me how lucky I am to be able to travel and that I have to use my luck to support others
· You sample different cultures on route- the café culture in Paris, a family of bakers in a back street in Bari having a family gathering whilst we ate our pizza, Albanian lorry drivers laughing together in the restaurant on the ferry.
· The joy of a pleasant surprise. The back streets of Bari were great, we’d assumed it would be pretty grim by the port, it was anything but!
· Did I mention that the only time we queued on route for longer than 10 minutes was to get gelato!
· There is no baggage restriction and no annoying liquid restriction.
· I used to fly to Dublin regularly and would see my step count hover at around 10,000 steps walking through the airports. I left our hotel in Milan, took the train to Paris, changed stations in Paris and arrived in Kings Cross all on less than 2500 steps. Train travel is more accessible than you may think.
· It reminded me that I don’t just travel to get to the destination, travel itself is a joy.
Further Positives: Taking the train can cut your carbon emissions by up to 90%
Calculations based on two people travelling one way
Train - London to Bari, Italy (via France) 110kg CO2e
Ferry- Bari (Italy) to Igoumenitsa (Greece) foot passengers 20kg CO2e
Train & Ferry London to Igoumenitsa (Greece) Total 130kg CO2e
Flying (London Gatwick to Ioannina (nearest Airport to Igoumenitsa) 340kg CO2e
Carbon saving by taking the train and ferry instead of flying 210kg CO2e
Carbon saving for the whole journey (both ways) 420kg CO2e
Using the train and ferry saved nearly half a tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent compared to taking the plane.
Carbon information can be found at seat61.com
How we arranged our journey
The oracle that is Seat61.com takes any hassle and fear away from booking. This site is amazing.
We used Trainline.com to book the train tickets, Booking.com for accommodation and Venturis Ferries from Italy to Greece.
Cost
We did upgrade to business on the train and we had a decent cabin on the ferry as we were travelling overnight. We took a standard Eurostar train from London to Paris.
For two it was £1300, compared to a flight which would have been £800 before we added on speedy boarding or hold luggage (we compared prices on the day we booked it, in August, for a September departure). It is more expensive, but we treated it as an exciting part of the holiday rather than just a way of getting to our destination.
Notes on carbon calculations:
For flight emissions I used Heathrow Airport’s Carbon Calculator
For the ferry from Bari to Igoumenitsa the distance is 444km. Numbers from seat61.com suggest that we should allow 22.4g of carbon per person per km as a foot passenger.
Carbon information for the trains was taken from Ecopassenger