Belgrade to the Adriatic by rail: eleven hours, 250 tunnels, then the sea
The Belgrade to Bar line, leg by leg: what the journey is really like, where to sit, what to bring and what it cost us in late spring.
Issue 09 — Autumn routesOctober 28, 20269 stories · 7 topics
Fewer flights. Longer stays. Better stories.
We swapped short-haul flights for night trains and one-week trips for one-month stays. This is what we learned, what it cost and what we would never do again.
In brief
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.
From the route desk
SeasonsA 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.
Latest dispatches
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.
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.
A month on the Alentejo coast, and why we went in June
Four weeks in a small Portuguese coastal town: getting there without a car, a week-by-week rhythm, the wind nobody warned us about and what the month cost.
How to book a European night train without losing an evening to it
Seats, couchettes and sleepers explained, when booking windows open, how to read a berth plan and what to do when the train you wanted is sold out.