Flight-free routes
Routes by train, ferry and bike across Europe
This is a collection of overland travel routes which we've personally tried, tested, and enjoyed.
Some are popular and well-trodden, like the train routes between France and Spain or the sleeper train route between Istanbul and Sofia.
Others are perhaps less well-known, like the train routes in Albania and Macedonia.
In almost every case we made these journeys armed with an Interrail pass and a Brompton folding bike. In our experience this Interrail + Brompton combination is the very best way to explore Europe, because of the flexibility it offers.
But you don't need an Interrail pass to make these journeys of course — they're all equally do-able with regular train tickets.
Likewise with Brompton folding bikes: on most of these routes, the sections we pedalled could have been covered either by train or by bus.
We hope that the journey descriptions we've written might help and inspire you to make your own flight-free journeys.
Finally: we always like to read your comments, questions and feedback — you can contact us by email or on Twitter, and we'll do our best to answer your questions.