The Daily Telegraph has published an article by journalist Rebecca Jackson, who travelled to Lanzarote and back without setting foot in an airport this January.
Rebecca’s 18-day holiday included twelve days of travelling to London and back by train and boat, with stopovers in France and Spain, and the total travel time was 45 hours – ten times longer than a flight.
Rebecca took the Eurostar from London to Paris, where she hurried over to Gare de Nord and jumped on a train to Nimes in the south of France. The next day she caught a train to Madrid, where she spent two days sightseeing and trying churros, before heading to Cadiz and hopping onto the Naviera Armas ferry.
She describes the 28-hour voyage as “tedious”, and was exhilarated when she saw “the first sight of land: peaks so triangular they could be pyramids, in swirls of candy-pink clouds.”
While Rebecca hated the sea journeys, she loved the trains and the stops along the way, and says that by arriving slowly “I felt that my trip had more value”
Rebecca’s trip was organised by Byway travel, who estimated that her journey produced 77% fewer carbon emissions than a flight. The cost of the holiday, including all travel and hotels, was €2,647
Such journeys aren’t new – several residents have driven to Cadiz and taken the ferry in order to bring their cars to the island – but it’s the first time we’ve heard of anyone doing it for ecological reasons.
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