If you want exercise, fresh air and a bit of adventure during your holiday, why not take a cycle/train vacation? Just keep in mind that it’s not always possible to bring your bike on the train. When I travelled from Lyon to Zurich, I had no problems at all but other countries have a far less welcoming approach than France and Switzerland.

I recently read a survey from 2007 that ranked the best and worst trains for passengers who travels with bikes in Europe.

The result are as follows:

 Best

1. GNER, Great Britain

2. SBB, Switzerland

3. Hull Trains, Great Britain

Worst

30. SJ, Sweden

31. Eurostar, Great Britain

32. Renfe, Great Britain

33. Thalys, Belgium

34. OSE, Greece  

Between 23rd December 2007 and 1st January 2008, Liverpool Street station will be closed because of several projects. Travellers coming from Stanstead Airport can use the connecting bus service from Tottenham Hale which is the last Stansted Express stop before Liverpool Street.

Today, the new high speed Eurostar trains from Paris Gare du Nord to London’s St. Pancras Station give travelers a good reason to choose rail travel. The journey only takes two hours and 15 minutes instead of three hours and will also have a new stop at Ebbsfleet in Kent.      

SJs X2000 trains from Stockholm to the popular ski resort Are, in northern Sweden, have shortened their travel time to six hours instead of eight as previous years.

Apart from Stockholm, direct trains to Are and Duved also depart from Malmo, Gothenburg, Helsingborg, Halmstad and Varberg.  SJ:s new time schedule runs from the the 15th December.

All travels are more or less a strain on the environment, but that definitely doesn’t mean we should avoid it. We just need to learn how to travel smarter and more ecofriendly.

Air travel

No other type of transport, apart from some ferries, are more harmful to the environment than flying. Over 4,3 billion flights are made each year and the estimation for 2025 is 9 billion flights. The charter companies flights are in general a better choice than regular flights because about 98% of the seats are occupied on every plane. If you choose a regular flight, rather book a non-stop flight than a route with stop-overs which take an enormous amount of fuel. Also, don’t fly too often. Decide to stay longer when you travel to Asia or other far-away destinations instead of making the same trip several times a year.

Plane at Seoul airport © Karen Winton   

Rail travel

Train is definitely more ecofriendly than flying, but much of the electricity comes from coal, oil and natural gas so bus can sometimes be better for the environment than train.

Voyager - Manchester © Jon Wisbey

Boat travel

Boats are in general the most harmful means of transport, at least if you see to the letting out of sulfur- and nitrogen oxides. A slow ferry is more environment friendly than a fast one, and shorter trips are obviously better than long boat journeys.   

Sail away © Aschwin Prein  

Independent travel

Choose a car driven by renewable sources of energy, and travel together rather than only two persons in a five seat car. 

driving with a beautiful girl - Tim

Living

When you travel to places with shortage of water, avoid resorts with big parks and golf courses because the artificial green take much water from areas that risk turning into desert. Bed and Breakfast or other types of accommodation where the money goes to the local economy instead of big hotel chains is a good alternative.

Rail station © Steve Woods

Rail travel is not always the cheapest or the fastest mode of traveling, but I still love it. You can sit comfortable, have lots of time admiring the beautiful landscape, you arrive in the center of the city, you don’t have to travel a long distance from an airport and you can do stops or change route whenever you want. Thanks to the sleeping-compartments/couchettes you can also depart late at night and wake up in a new city the next day.

The Interrail card is a good choice that lets you travel throughout Europe for up to a month. For separate journeys, see German DB (choose surf&rail International, for nigh train see Nachtzug or Sparnight) the Danish DSB (choose Tog-och flygbillet til udlandet Bestil togrejse) or Swedish SJ when traveling from Sweden.

The Berlin-Night-Express train takes you directly from Sweden to Berlin.

If you book from Malmo in Sweden or Copenhagen in Denmark two months in advance, you can find lots of cheap tickets to the rest of Europe.

From Germany with DB, you can travel from München to Venice (7 h) or Firenze (8 h) from $40 or from Berlin to Amsterdam (6 h) from $40.

Of all the train companies I’ve traveled with, the Swiss SBB is the cleanest and most punctual and convenient option. London to Paris with Eurostar wasn’t bad either.