Green travel is a hot topic right now – more and more travellers want to do their bit for the environment without sacrificing an awesome holiday. An easy way of doing that is swapping out short-haul flights for train journeys instead. Not only is the train a more energy-efficient mode of travel, releasing less CO2, but it can also provide you with plenty of amazing scenery to enjoy through the window, making the journey almost rival the destination.
To help you on your eco-conscious journey, we’ve pulled together a collection of villas across the UK and France that are easy to reach by train. We’ve also made sure that these destinations only require changing trains a maximum of twice if travelling into London – because we know that families with little ones don’t want to be hopping on and off!
Free baggage: Say goodbye to hair-raising baggage prices and hello to a more cost-effective method of transport!
No hassle: Unlike the airport, you don’t need to be at the train station 2+ hours before departure, stand in a huge check-in queue or wait forever to go through security.
Travel by train is more energy-efficient per passenger: CO2 emissions per km are 80% less than cars and up to 90% less than planes.
While staycations may have surged in popularity in the last couple years, the demand for UK holidays shows no sign of slowing down – great for those who love to travel but are also trying to live more sustainably. But if you’re keen to explore somewhere a little further afield, you can easily visit various European gems on the Eurostar too. The train company publishes their carbon emissions which show a dramatic drop in emissions versus arriving by plane – 96%!
So, where can you travel by train with Oliver’s Travels? See below for a list of places and how long it would take to get there from Newcastle, Manchester or London.
EcoPassenger checks your journey’s CO2 emissions across Europe
LNER has a CO2 calculator for UK train travel
Train journey from London: 58min
Train journey from Manchester: 3hr 45min
Train journey from Newcastle: 4hr 41min
Train journey from London: 1hr 21min
Train journey from Manchester: 3hr 35min
Train journey from Newcastle: 4hr 54min
Train journey from London: 1hr 28min
Train journey from Manchester: 4hr 16min
Train journey from Newcastle: 4hr 31min
Train journey from London: 1hr 30min
Train journey from Manchester: 3hr 32min
Train journey from Newcastle: 4hr 40min
Train journey from London: 1hr 30min
Train journey from Manchester: 4hr
Train journey from Newcastle: 5hr
Train journey from London: 1hr 36min
Train journey from Manchester: 3hr 44min
Train journey from Newcastle: 4hr 31min
Train journey from London: 4hr 15min
Train journey from Manchester: 8hr 23min
Train journey from Newcastle: 6hr 3min
Use RailEurope for all train tickets across the UK and Europe – they’ll even see if split ticketing is cheaper, so keep an eye out for the PriceHack logo.
Buy a UK advance fare ticket about 8-10 weeks before departure – this is when you’ll snag the cheapest tickets.
For Eurostar, book as far in advance as you can – also check lastminute.com as you can sometimes find cheaper prices via their website.
There are so many railcards that you can use across the UK to travel by train, including ones for 16-25 and 26-30 year olds, seniors, family and friends, two together and disabled persons railcards. These can save you up to 1/3 off your regular rail fares!
Check National Rail to see the live departure board and make sure your train is running on time before setting off for the station.
Buy a BritRail pass if you’re an overseas visitor and are going to be making multiple trips across the UK – just double check that it’s the most cost-effective option, as sometimes advance fare tickets are actually cheaper.
Use a cashback site like TopCashback to get money back when booking through a train ticket provider. Sometimes you can earn more than 3% back, and every little helps!
You can take food and drink on the Eurostar and regular UK trains, so snag a meal deal and some snacks for your journey to avoid paying the – frankly scandalous – onboard trolley prices.
Download the Citymapper app when visiting various cities across Europe. It will tell you the quickest and also cheapest routes to help with navigating public transport overseas.
Villa Furet, Nice
Train travel is the most eco-friendly method of transport – excluding cycling and walking! It emits up to 90% less CO2 per passenger than cars and planes do.
According to worldwide stats from Our World in Data, cars and other road vehicles account for 74.5% of transport CO2 emissions, 11.6% for planes and only 1% for rail.
Travelling by train can usually get you a lot closer to your end destination – sometimes even door to door. This means that there’s way less CO2 being produced by your journey either side of your train trip, as you’re not going to have to travel as far by car to reach your villa.
Trains use up to 70% less energy than planes, while also contributing less noise pollution than cars.
The CO2 emissions of travellers on a Eurail pass are about 3 times less than someone going by car, or 4 times less than plane travellers, on average.
