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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Rail routes
Overland itineraries by train, broken into legs with hedged journey times and the connections that matter.
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.
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.
Rail routes
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.
Rail routes
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.