Travelling to your holiday destination

When booking your holiday property or apartment, you will have to consider how you are going to get there. You may wish to consider all the options before you decide to travel by air, consider the alternatives first.

 Going "Green"

We are encouraged to live our lives these days, as "green" as possible - recycling, insulating the house, not driving giant 4x4s, and so on. However, all this effort would be totally wiped out by a couple of holidays by air.

The arguments against flying are a regular feature in the media today. Measured per person kilometre, flying is the means of travel that has the greatest environmental impact. A 600-kilometre flight generates carbon dioxide emissions of almost 100 kilograms per person. Emissions per person for a train journey over the same distance (assuming the train uses electricity from wind power or hydroelectric power) are just 4 grams!

Moreover, with air travel, the pollution is released at an altitude where its effect on climate change is more than double that on the ground. Do not assume by travelling on larger carrier instead of a no frills airline that this will be more environmentally friendly, some low cost airlines have a newer fleet of planes which are more fuel efficient and less damaging to the environment.

By travelling overland by trains, ships and coaches, you see you more of the country you're visiting. Although slower than air travel, you might just find a train journey a more interesting and a rewarding experience. You can sit back and think of the delays you are avoiding at the airline check in, customs, baggage collection, and miss the now too familiar air traffic controller disputes in the summer months!

 Research your options

We are not suggesting that all destinations are appropriate for overland travelling, but we recommend you consider your destinations carefully. Research the alternatives.

For example, a couple with a young baby have booked an apartment in Nice for 10 days; they choose to travel overland by train. From London, a flight would take just over an hour - plus time for check-in and connections to and from the airports - but by train, it would take about eight hours. However, before this puts you off, read on.

To break up the journey, they decide to stop off in Paris, both on the way there and back - two city breaks on either side of their week at the beach. They couldn't have done that by jet without extra hassle and cost.

They discover that going first class by rail only costs them £5 more than flying with British Airways. It turns out that if they had booked a few weeks earlier it would have been about £75 cheaper.

They thought that travelling eight hours by train with a baby would be stressful, but in fact, it was a breeze. Travelling in early September (when Nice is quiet but still warm), they found the trains are practically empty on each leg of the journey. The first leg, on Eurostar they are given wonderful service from the attentive staff. On the second leg, from Paris to Nice, they discover that it appears that no one under 60 ever travels first class on French trains. There are no mobile phones going off and their baby is doted on by Chanel-clad grandmothers!

They find that transferring their baggage from the station to the apartment is simple. Stations, unlike airports, are in city centres. So they don't have to face expensive taxi fares or a cramped coach trip from the distant airport to their apartment by the beach.

 Still not convinced?

Travelling by plane, you are plucked from one place and dumped in another without the chance to acclimatise to your destination. This can have a significant effect on your holiday especially long haul. You have no sense of where you are, which is likely to be why so many holidaymakers shy away from dipping their toes in another culture and simply take Britain away with them.

Then there's jet lag, nothing to do with lack of sleep. It's your brain screaming for you to slow down and adjust to the time/light difference. Proper travel, by boat and by train, is different. Your mind can catch up and relish the new experiences around you. The greatest prize is the enforced idleness it provides. There's no multi-channel entertainment media you get in aeroplanes. You have time to reflect while you stare out at the world drifting peacefully past your window.

Of course, in the end, it all comes down to time. In a modern world we work long hours and have to squeeze everything possible from our two weeks in the sun. No one would gladly swap a couple of days on the beach for 16 hours in a railway carriage. Life is too much of a rush. But being environmentally conscious is starting to tip the balance to more civilised methods of travel.

Please read more about travel planning and useful travel service links.