Rail routes
Porto to San Sebastián without a plane, and why we stopped flying short-haul
An essay on giving up short flights, told through one slow route along the north of Iberia: five legs, four nights, what it cost and what it gave back.
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Latest dispatches
Branch Line is a slow-travel magazine: rail routes, long stays, honest budgets and packing lists, written by people who paid for their own tickets.
Seasons
A week in Hokkaido in February, by train, from Sapporo to the drift ice
A seven-day winter route across Hokkaido by rail: snow, hot springs and the drift ice on the Okhotsk coast, with layering advice and the delays to plan around.
Lessons learned
Seven mistakes we made on our first month-long rail pass
Reservation fees, wasted travel days, missed connections and a bag that was too heavy: what went wrong on our first rail pass trip and how to avoid it.
Budgets
What three months in the Balkans actually cost, line by line
Our real budget for a month each in Belgrade, Sarajevo and Tirana, travelling overland between them: rent, food, transport, work costs and the surprises.
Packing
The one-bag packing list for six weeks of trains, weighed item by item
Everything in a 38-litre bag for six weeks across three countries by rail, with weights, the things we cut after week one, and how the route shaped the list.
Remote work
Working a full week from Sarajevo: desks, data and the admin nobody mentions
How to set up a month of normal work from a rented flat in Sarajevo: choosing the flat, testing the connection, time zones, roaming and a weekly rhythm that held up.