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Alternatives to flying (1 Viewer)

James Blake

chasing the shadow of a lowskimming gull
Hi all

I came across this useful-looking website today. There's lots of info about getting round Europe and beyond by train and ferry, with details of the quickest and cheapest routes.

http://www.seat61.com

I'd be very interested to hear about any similar resources on the net.

happy travelling
James
 
Great site by the looks of it! Thanks for posting. I'd had a look but not really come across anything similar.

*awaiting stick from the pro-flyers...* :)
 
My favourite anti-flying website used to be one called www.amigoingdown.com. You could put in the details of any airline route you were travelling on and it would calculate for you your probability of crashing before you got there! Sadly, it seems to have disappeared now - I suspect an airline conspiracy! ;)

Helen
 
As an ex-pilot, I never fly anywhere! Ever! I go everywhere on the continent by ferry / train.
I had a really good mate who was a pilot for A** A***** who often used to have wild parties at which he and all the other pilots and cabin crew would get sh*t-faced hours before flying!
One time he was landing at Sc****l and got flipped by the jet wash of a 747: he was so hung-over, he flew the whole length of the runway in an F27 upside down, because he couldn't work out what to do to go up when inverted!
 
To which degree is it more eco friendly to travel by ferry compared to flying?

Obviously we're not talking jet fuel here,but they must burn off a considerable amount of fuel to push those holking great liners across the continent?

Not pro flight!,i'm just curious.

Matt
 
Oh, if you go by train over the continent, don't be fooled into buying those EuroRail passes - they cost a bloody fortune. We saved over £400 each by buying the tickets as we got to each place for the next leg over two weeks. It only cost us ~£150 to get from Venice-Ljubljana-Zagreb-Budapest-Bratislava-Vienna-Prague-Berlin with the most expensive being Vienna-Prague at ~£45.
But then we did get the Ryanair to Venice and Back from Berlin (£55 total), but the flights were packed, so represented good fuel economy compared to a half-filled BA flight.
 
Oddly enough, I've just spent an hour or so trying to find a decent wildlife holiday by ferry for next year, & I came across the same website - I've not found any similar ones yet.

(I've been trying to see if I can get the Newcastle-Bergen ferry, then get from there to a decent whale watching location fairly cheaply, but not much joy so far.)

If you want to see what ferries' CO2 emissions are like, Matt, there's a calculator here:
http://www.co2balance.com/pages.php?pageid=71

Adrian
 
turkish van said:
Great site by the looks of it! Thanks for posting. I'd had a look but not really come across anything similar.

*awaiting stick from the pro-flyers...* :)


The pro-realists perhaps. Not anti-ferry by any means, but the reality is they will only be an alternative for near-continent travel - cost and timewise, the train and ferry might fair well on a trip from the UK to Paris or Holland and certainly would have big attractions to northern Spain, i.e. for seabirds, but for further afield, it is not going to happen.


Example, I am planning a weekend in Sweden (one of nearest neighbours) in late winter, two alternatives looked at to get from Vilnius to Stockholm:

Alternative one
Each way. Train 6 hours to Klaipeda, ferry 14 hours to Karlshamnas, bus to Stockholm
So, allowing connections, return trip is well over 45 hours and costs in excess of 100 pounds.

Alternative two
Get on a plane - one hour and quarter each way. So, return trip is under 3 hours and costs 15 pounds


No seasick bag needed on the flight
 
I've been trying to see if I can get the Newcastle-Bergen ferry, then get from there to a decent whale watching location fairly cheaply, but not much joy so far.

Adrian

Let me know if you come up with anything Adrian - as you probably know, there are some great Orca areas up the Norwegian coast. I'd love to get to these if there was a reasonably priced non-aeroplane of getting there.

James
 
Edward said:
Do you get seasick on the Baltic, Jos? Wow, you'd best never come to Iceland by boat.

Interesting set of travel reports (except the third one, which is not great) in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago.

http://travel.guardian.co.uk/ecotourism/story/0,,1930896,00.html

E

Years ago I took the ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki and back - it was a beautiful way to spend a couple of days.

If I ever get round to visiting Iceland it's going to be by ferry - and I probably will be seasick. But I can see no alternative I'm happy with.

James
 
Edward said:
Do you get seasick on the Baltic, Jos? Wow, you'd best never come to Iceland by boat.

Sick of boredom - it's a sea without seabirds ;) Na, in reality, a trip across by ferry might be nice in winter - lot of seaduck, etc, but no true seabirds. Taking the ferry as a cruise might be a nice idea, but as a means of transport, it's basically only considered by those wanting to take a car with them. Think most go at night, so that would blow the seaduck too ;)
 
James Blake said:
Years ago I took the ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki and back - it was a beautiful way to spend a couple of days.

I don't disagree, but if it's a weekend trip to start with the beautiful couple of days doesn't leave much time to do anything once there. Would guess you took that in summer - winter would be 'orrible, too cold to sit out on deck and dark most of the time.
 
Helenelizabeth2 said:
My favourite anti-flying website used to be one called www.amigoingdown.com. You could put in the details of any airline route you were travelling on and it would calculate for you your probability of crashing before you got there! Sadly, it seems to have disappeared now - I suspect an airline conspiracy! ;)

Helen

I used to like this site as well Helen - pity it got closed down. Some of the survival rates for internal Russian flights using local airlines were REALLY scary.

Nick
 
Edward said:
Interesting set of travel reports (except the third one, which is not great) in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago.

http://travel.guardian.co.uk/ecotourism/story/0,,1930896,00.html

E

The Guardian said:
It has never been easier to see the world - or to destroy it. You can now fly to Hong Kong for just £75, pumping out greenhouse gases all the way.

Considering the amount of trees cut down and CO2 produced while making, printing and delivering The Guardian, not to mention the hot air of some of their columnists and the number of times they fly them out somewhere for something not that newsworth, it's a bit of pot/kettle/black situation...
Grouchy? Moi?
 
colonelboris said:
Considering the amount of trees cut down and CO2 produced while making, printing and delivering The Guardian, not to mention the hot air of some of their columnists and the number of times they fly them out somewhere for something not that newsworth, it's a bit of pot/kettle/black situation...
?

I couldn't agree with you more.
 
Nick Elliston said:
I used to like this site as well Helen - pity it got closed down. Some of the survival rates for internal Russian flights using local airlines were REALLY scary.

Nick

Yup, made me feel just great about all my safe W European flights!

Helen
 
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