Our Map of the Month is the European Rail Map. The definitive rail map for today’s independent traveller, this map is a regular feature on our bestsellers list. This is the third revision of the 3rd edition map which includes the latest high-speed routes and updates.
From the same people who print the European Rail Timetable, this map seeks to show all passenger rail routes in Europe (other than those of the suburban networks of major cities).
You don’t have to be a backpacker on a gap year setting out to ‘find yourself’ to enjoy an Interrailing adventure in Europe. You’re still allowed a bit of self-discovery along the tracks later in life. Nothing wrong with that. Just hop on board and follow the classic route of the inaugural Orient Express in 1883 from Paris to Istanbul along the tracks taken by the great and the good during train travel’s golden age
THIS book began on a park bench in London’s Soho, not far from Stanfords’ excellent Covent Garden shop – in the company of an old university pal.
We were drinking Red Stripe lagers and discussing this and that: the state of the world (not so great), Britain (ditto), modern life in general and how we were faring with it (at the beck and call of emails and various other little electronic messages).
We had both just passed 50. We both felt the urge to ‘break free’ for a while. Circumstances (and tolerant people around us) would allow us to do this. We both enjoyed trains. We both loved Europe. And there they were: Europe’s train tracks, lying across the Channel waiting to be explored; cheaply, thanks to an Interrail promotion.
From London via Paris, Naples, Nuremberg, the Swiss Alps, Budapest, Athens and into the furthest corners of Eastern Europe across Romania and Bulgaria, join Tom Chesshyre on his fascinating journey to Istanbul and back.
Ever dreamt of dropping everything and adventuring cross-country to the edge of Asia? That’s just what Tom Chesshyre did, hitting the tracks for a 4,570-mile adventure on 55 rides, shadowing the old Orient Express route.
Interrailing was once the realm of young backpackers setting off to “find themselves” – and for many, it still is. But it’s also a joyful and eco-friendly twenty-first century adventure that’s open to us all, no matter our age or agenda. Dodging striking train drivers in Germany, getting stuck by the Bulgarian-Greek border, and negotiating tricky passport officials in Turkey is all part of the fun in this illuminating and meandering journey around Europe.
Europe by rail awaits. The freedom of the lines awaits. Why not hop on board?
Author Biography
Tom Chesshyre is the author of eleven travel books, the latest telling the story of a 379-mile hike around the Lake District. He has travelled 40,000 miles around the world for his train books; most recently for Slow Trains Around Spain: A 3,000-Mile Adventure on 52 Rides. His book writing has also taken him across North Africa after the Arab Spring, round the “dark side” of the Maldives on cargo ships, along the length of the River Thames and on a journey through “unsung Britain” (in To Hull and Back). He worked on the travel desk of The Times for 21 years and is now freelance, contributing to The Critic and New European magazines. He lives in London.
Our Map of the Month for January 2024 is the brand new edition of The Great Indian Railway Atlaswith design and cartography by Samit Roychoudhury, published by Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society.
As more and more travellers are reverting back to rail travel in an attempt to leave less of a carbon footprint, this form of transport is becoming a favoured form. Add to that the fact that India’s railway network is very impressive and there is something so romantic about travelling across a country by train, and it’s no surprise that train traveller numbers are booming.
When Monisha Rajesh announced plans to circumnavigate the globe in eighty train journeys, she was met with wide-eyed disbelief. But it wasn’t long before she was carefully plotting a route that would cover 45,000 miles, almost twice the circumference of the earth, coasting along the world’s most remarkable railways from the cloud-skimming heights of Tibet’s Qinghai railway to silk sheeted splendour on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Continue reading Around the World in 80 Trains: Stanfords Travel Writing Festival 2019
