To me, travelling over land is not just about low impact living, but also connecting more meaningfully with the places I visit. What many people don’t realise is that rail travel is often cheaper than flying, when you factor in airport transfers. When I became a climate activist during my uni years, I made the full transition to flight-free travel. But flying never grew on me. While I understand the convenience it offers to some, it feels wrong to be that high up in the air.Īfter moving to the UK, I mostly opted for trains and buses to Europe. Only in my teens did I venture on the occasional short-haul flight, and even squeezed in a weekend holiday to the south of France (I’ll never understand how anyone could find these trips relaxing). Back in the early 2000s, it was the cheaper and more convenient travel option. Growing up in Germany as a working-class immigrant child, most of our holidays abroad were made by car.
