Our Map of the Month is the Collins Rail Map of Europe.
We’ve notice a huge rise is sales of rail maps and guides in the past year. In fact, there are two books about train train travel in the shortlist for our Travel Book of the Year in the upcoming Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards Presented by Viking.
If you are planning your next train adventure, this rail map of Europe is the perfect travel companion.
All aboard!
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).
Continue reading Map of the Month: European Rail Map-by Tom Chesshyre.
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.
Continue reading Guest post: Tom Chesshyre takes us all aboard for a midlife ride… to Istanbul and backIt certainly says a lot about travel trends that our number one best-selling travel guide for 2003/2004 is all about rail travel.
In fact, quite a few rail books were present in our top 30, but for now let’s looks at the one taking the number one slot:
Continue reading Stanfords Best-Selling Travel Guideby Tom Chesshyre
Tom Chesshyre took to Spain’s clickety-clack railway lines for a 3,000-mile adventure on 52 rides described in his new travel book and our Book of the Month for April, Slow Trains Around Spain. Here is a taster of his journey:
Continue reading Slow trains coming…Between soaring mountains, across arid deserts, parched plains and valleys of fruit orchards and olive groves, down glittering coastlines and along viaducts towering above plunging ravines – there is no better way to see Spain than by train.
In our Book of the Month for April, Slow Trains Around Spain: A 3,000- Mile Adventure on 52 Rides Tom Chesshyre hits the tracks to take in the UK’s most popular travel destination through carriage windows on a series of clattering rides beyond the popular image of ‘holiday Spain’ (although he stops by in Benidorm and Torremolinos too). Heading wherever the trains take him in a big S-shape around the country, Tom slips into the rhythm of the tracks meeting characters aplenty along the way. From hidden spots in Catalonia, through the plains of Aragon and across the north coast to Santiago de Compostela, his journey takes him onward via Madrid, the wilds of Extremadura, dusty mining towns, the cathedrals and palaces of Valencia and Granada, and finally to Seville, Andalusia’s beguiling (and hot) capital.
Continue reading Book of the Month: Slow Trains Around Spain by Tom Chesshyre
