The Man in Seat Sixty-One has been one of my favourite travel websites for a few years now – it contains all the information you could ever hope to know about train travel around the world. Along with WikiTravel, this is an indispensable travel website: you’ll never buy an out-of-date travel book again!
Many people would rather not fly, or like me, simply prefer a more civilised, comfortable, interesting, adventurous, romantic, scenic, historic, exciting and environmentally-friendly way to travel. Travelling by train from London to Europe is really easy, but finding out about it (and how to book it) can be frustratingly difficult. Most travel agents only sell flights and packages. Eurostar concentrates on getting you only as far as Paris or Brussels. Even the specialist agencies that sell European train tickets tell you to ‘contact them for details’ and would rather sell you a railpass than get you from A to B. No-one provided basic train times, fares and ‘how to’ information for train journeys from the UK to Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Greece, Russia and so on. Let alone how to reach Morocco, Tunisia, Ibiza, Corsica, Crete or Malta by combining train and ship. I thought it was a gap that needed filling, and that I could easily fill it myself.
The Man‘s absolute top travel tip?
“Never travel without a good book and a corkscrew…”