Arriving in Greece by train+ferry from London, under blue skies and even bluer sea.  The journey becomes part of the holiday...

Ideas for holidays without the plane

If you don't like flying or want to cut your carbon emissions, you can easily spend a week in Spain or Italy or a fortnight in Malta, Morocco or Greece, without setting foot on a plane.  I know it's possible, because I've done all of those myself.  The journey is part of the holiday. On this page are ideas for holidays & short breaks from the UK without flying, some you can put together yourself, some are offered by specialist rail travel companies.  Here are some ideas...

• Short breaks by train to Scotland, Paris, Cornwall, Brussels, Bruges, Amsterdam, Dublin & Ireland, or even Prague, Berlin or Salzburg.  More info.

• Cruises & Mini-cruises:  Ferries offer mini-cruises to Spain & Holland, or take a 'full-size' cruise from the UK.  More info

• Holiday packages & tours by train to France, Italy, Prague, Budapest & other European destinations, arranged for you by tour companies who specialise in train travel.  More info.

• Skiing holidays by train to the French Alps by Eurostar ski train.

• Escorted tours by train to Morocco, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, eastern Europe.  Several operators offer escorted tours to these countries by train, including Great Rail Journeys (www.greatrail.com) and sister company www.raildiscoveries.com.  A tour is a great choice if you want everything arranged and enjoy travelling with other people.

• Put together your own holiday by train to Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta, Morocco, eastern Europe or Scandinavia...  You can easily book a resort or hotel, then arrange your own travel by train.  Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Morocco, Eastern Europe or Scandinavia can all be reached easily & affordably by train & ferry.  There are some ideas & help here.

• Find a hotel to go with your train tickets...

• Arrange a hire car  If you can Fly-Drive, why not Rail-Drive?!

Short breaks

To the Highlands by Caledonian Sleeper

• Use the overnight Caledonian Sleeper to spend a weekend or longer in the Scottish Highlands without flying, see the Caledonian Sleeper page.  The best train in Britain is the London to Fort William sleeper, the train they call the Deerstalker.  See the Deerstalker page to see why this train makes for the best short break to the Highlands of Scotland if you live down South.

• Railbookers offer short breaks from London & the Southeast to Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands, see www.railbookers.co.uk or call 0207 864 4600.  Railbookers can arrange departure on almost any date you like, and trips can be customised to your own requirements with additional stops or extra nights.

• Byway (Byway.travel) is a UK-based eco-holiday firm with a 5-star TrustPilot rating who also offer trips to Scotland & the highlands as a package, including travel by sleeper train and hotels when in Scotland, starting from London or any other British railway station.  Byway includes package protection, a 100% Covid refund guarantee, free disruption & re-planning and on-demand WhatsApp support while you're away.  Trips can be adjusted to your own requirements, call 0300 131 7173 (open 09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday, from outside the UK call +44 300 131 7173) or email them or use this contact form.  Please say you heard about them from Seat 61.

To Cornwall by Night Riviera sleeper train

• You can also use the Night Riviera sleeper train to spend a weekend or longer in St Ives or elsewhere in Cornwall, without the 6-hour drive!  See the Sleeper to Cornwall page.

• Byway (Byway.travel) offers short breaks to St Ives & Penzance including travel by sleeper train, starting from London or any other British railway station.  Byway includes package protection, a 100% Covid refund guarantee, free disruption & re-planning and on-demand WhatsApp support while you're away.  See example 5-day trip London-St Ives-Penzance-London.  Trips can be adjusted to your own requirements, call 0300 131 7173 (open 09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday, from outside the UK call +44 300 131 7173) or email them or use this contact form.  Please say you heard about them from Seat 61.

To Paris, Brussels, Bruges or Lille:  www.railbookers.co.uk, www.lastminute.com

• The simplest no-fly holiday to Europe is a short break to the ever-popular French capital, or how about Lille, Brussels or Bruges?  Bruges is arguably the most picturesque of these.  A number of companies offer short breaks or longer holidays to these cities, combining Eurostar travel with hotel accommodation, including www.lastminute.com and train holiday specialists www.railbookers.co.uk.

To Amsterdam:  www.railbookers.co.uk or www.lastminute.com

• www.railbookers.co.uk (call 0207 864 4600) sell short breaks to Amsterdam with travel by Eurostar.  Prices start at £259 per person with 2 nights hotel in Amsterdam.

• But, it's easy to put a trip together yourself.  Book the direct London to Amsterdam Eurostar leaving St Pancras early evening on a Friday night, back on Sunday afternoon. See the London to Amsterdam by Eurostar page then book a hotel near the station, see the hotels I recommend near Amsterdam Centraal.

• Alternatively, travel by train & ferry.  Take the overnight Stena Line rail & sail service from London (or any station in East Anglia) to Amsterdam via Harwich-Hoek, sleeping in a comfortable private cabin with shower, toilet & satellite TV.  Spend a day or two in Amsterdam, then return overnight by train+ferry again.  See the Stena Line rail & sail page to book a combined train+ferry ticket, then see the hotels I recommend near Amsterdam Centraal.

To Amsterdam by ferry from Newcastle or Hull, www.dfds.com or www.poferries.com

• Why not cruise overnight with DFDS Seaways from Newcastle to Amsterdam, spend a few days there and cruise back overnight?  See the Newcastle to Amsterdam page or see www.dfds.com.

• Or go Hull to Rotterdam on a P&O overnight cruise ferry, www.poferries.com, see the Hull to Rotterdam page.

To Cologne, Berlin, Nice, Prague, Salzburg, Zermatt:  www.railbookers.co.uk

• Railbookers, www.railbookers.co.uk (call 0207 864 4600) are a long-established train holiday specialist offering short breaks to a surprising range of European cities with flight-free travel by train.  Check their website for suggested trips, these can be customised to your requirements.

• Tailor-Made Rail, www.tailormaderail.com (call their dedicated seat61 phone line 020 3778 1461 and please quote seat61 when booking).  TMR are another recommended rail travel specialist who can create packages to almost anywhere in Europe to your exact specification.

To Dublin by train & ferry:  railtoursireland.com or www.railbookers.co.uk

• An Irish company called Railtours Ireland (www.railtoursireland.com) offers short breaks from London to Dublin by train & ferry, with the option to add onward day tours for kissing the Blarney Stone, touring the Ring of Kerry or visiting the Giant's Causeway.  No airport hassles, no ugly motorways.  They were originally the only company to offer the rail & sail alternative to flying.

• The tour leaves London every weekday from March to October, aboard the 09:10 Avanti West Coast train direct from Euston station to Holyhead via the scenic North Wales coastline. At Holyhead you board the Irish Ferries cruise ferry & sail across the sea to Dublin Ferryport, arriving around 5.25pm.  It's the scenic & painless way to reach Ireland!

• The cost is around €289 (£229) per person, including 2 nights 3-star hotel accommodation in central Dublin (with the option of extra nights) and return rail & sail travel from London.

• You can mix-and-match the London-Dublin tour with one or more 1-day tours from Dublin, for example to Cork, Blarney Castle & the Queenstown Story, or to Belfast & the Giant's Causeway, or around the Ring of Kerry.  These tours use a fast comfortable intercity train from Dublin, then a motorcoach to reach the sights of western & northern Ireland, then a fast intercity train back to Dublin.

• For details, see www.railtoursireland.com.  To book from the UK, call free on 0800 328 2899.  To book from outside the UK, call +353 1 856 0045

• Train and ferry breaks to Dublin are now also offered by Railbookers, www.railbookers.co.uk call them on 0207 864 4600.

Cruises

Mini-cruises

Several ferry companies offer mini-cruises, around trip from the UK on a comfortable cruise-ferry.  Some operators also offer longer holidays:

• DFDS Seaways sail from Newcastle to Amsterdam.

• P&O Ferries sail Hull to Rotterdam.

• Brittany Ferries sail from Plymouth & Portsmouth to Santander in Spain, see the ferry to Spain page.

• You can book all these ferries using the Direct Ferries website.

Full-size cruises

• Cruises from UK ports:  An increasing number of cruises leave from UK ports such as Dover or Southampton, so don't involve flying.  Browse cruise deals at cruise.co.uk:  Cruises from Dover  Cruises from Southampton - you'll find cruises from the UK to Spain, Portugal, the Canaries, New York and even the Caribbean.

• Mediterranean cruises from Barcelona, Venice or Rome:  Many cruises leave from Barcelona, Venice or Civitavecchia near Rome in Italy, and you don't have to fly there.  You can usually make a cruise-only booking, then travel from the UK to Barcelona or Italy by train, it's easy.  To browse and book cruises:  Cruises from Barcelona, Cruises from Venice, Cruises from Rome.  For the train connections, see the London to Spain page or London to Italy page.

• River cruises in Europe, with travel from the UK by train:  www.rivieratravel.co.uk do deluxe river cruises on the Rhine, Moselle and Rhone with travel to and from the UK by train.

Holiday packages & tours by train

If you want a holiday by train arranged for you, departing any date you like with trains, transfers & hotels all sorted as a package, a handful of specialist companies can do this.  The one that stands out is Railbookers.  A key advantage over arranging everything independently is that if you book the whole trip as a package with a tour company, they'll look after you if something affects part of the trip, for example in the event of a national strike.

Railbookers

• An experienced firm specialising in holidays & tours by train.  They get good feedback and a lot of repeat business.  Railbookers custom-make your holiday to your own specification with hotels and train travel in first or second class to France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Russia and even Istanbul.  You can use London-based www.railbookers.co.uk to arrange a European train tour whatever your country of residence, in fact they now have an office in the USA and another in Australia:

    UK call 0207 864 4600, www.railbookers.co.uk. 

    US call free 1-888-829-4775, www.railbookers.com.

    Canada call free 1-855-882-2910, www.railbookers.com.

    Australia call toll-free 1300 971 526, www.railbookers.com.au. 

    New Zealand call toll-free 0800 000 554 or see website.

Escorted tours by train

If you want a holiday in Europe with travel by train, but with a small group of fellow travellers and a tour manager looking after you, several companies offer escorted tours from the UK to Italy, Switzerland, Spain, France, eastern Europe and even Morocco by train, with regular departures from London by Eurostar, no airport hassles and no whole days spent in cramped coach seats on motorways.

Great Rail Journeys, www.greatrail.com, 01904 527120

Great Rail Journeys are the original train-tour specialists and the best-known name in this business.  They offer 5-star inclusive escorted tours from the UK to many European countries with 1st class train travel and 5-star hotels.  Check the tour details online, then call 01904 527120 to book or use their online form..

The Great Rail Journeys meeting point at London St Pancras, upper level.

Rail Discoveries, www.raildiscoveries.com, 01904 730 727

Rail Discoveries is Great Rail Journeys' sister company, offering more affordable tours with standard class train travel and 3-star hotels.  They run regular escorted tours to many European countries using overland travel from the UK by Eurostar and onward high-speed train.

Put together your own holiday

Why not go independently?  Just decide where to go, book a hotel and buy a train ticket or two, independently!  It might seem daunting if you've always booked a package, but it's really easy to book train travel from London to anywhere in Europe and choose your accommodation separately.  None of the big package tour companies offer an overland option instead of a flight for their packages to Morocco, Greece, Malta and so on, so booking independently is the way to go.  Here are some ideas.

Step 1.  Decide where you want to go.  I really, really recommend buying a Lonely Planet or Rough Guides guidebook, even in this age of free information on the internet.  You will get so much more out of your trip.

Step 2.  Book your accommodation at www.booking.com with free cancellation.  Any hotel with a review score over 8.0 won't disappoint.  Free cancellation means you can change your plans if you need to, and you can book accommodation risk-free in advance, before train booking opens.

Step 3.  Buy travel insurance - never skimp on this, it's a must.

Step 4.  Book your trains when booking opens, as shown on this website.

Holiday in Italy by train

• Choose whether to stay in one place (for example, the coastal villages of Cinque Terre, the wonderful Naples/Pompeii/Sorrento/Capri/Amalfi area, or maybe Sicily) or to travel around seeing the great cities including Rome, Florence, Venice and Verona.

• Find a hotel using www.booking.com.  Book with free cancellation, risk-free, usually until 24 hours before your stay.

• Book your train travel from the UK to Italy following the steps shown on the London to Italy page.

• If you need transport between cities once in Italy, see the Train travel in Italy page.  You can book online, or simply buy your ticket at the station when you get to Italy.  It's not difficult!

• Why not stop off in Paris on the way, it makes no difference to the cost?

Holiday in Spain by train

• Choose your holiday location:  For beaches, there's the Costa del Sol around Malaga or the Costa Brava near Barcelona, or even Ibiza or Majorca.  For culture, try Madrid, Cordoba, Seville, Ronda, Valencia or Granada.  You can reach Ibiza or Majorca by ferry from Barcelona.  You can even reach Tenerife and the Canary Islands by sea, though this is a voyage taking three nights from Cadiz.

• Find your accommodation using the Spain page on www.booking.com.  Book with free cancellation, risk-free, usually until 24 hours before your stay.

• Plan and book your train travel from the UK to Spain following the steps shown on the London to Spain page.

• If you need train travel between cities within Spain, just use www.raileurope.com (much easier to use than Renfe.com!) to check train times & fares, and book online.  You find advice on the Train travel in Spain page.

• Stop off in Paris on the way if you like, it makes no difference to the cost - either book London-Paris and Paris-Spain separately, or use www.raileurope.com's More options feature to add a stopover.

Holiday in Morocco by train

Morocco is fantastic, and getting there by train is easy.  Leave London in the morning, spend the night in Barcelona, and step ashore in Morocco the following evening.  The journey is an experience in itself, and you can stop off on the way to see Spain, too.  Much more to write home about than a cramped flight!

• The London to Morocco page explains how to plan and book train travel from London to Tangier & Marrakech.  It takes little over 36 hours, with a night in a hotel in Barcelona.  You can travel down over the weekend!

• Once in Tangier, the Continental Hotel is my recommended place to stay - historic, atmospheric, pretty comfortable and cheap, contact details are shown on the London to Morocco page.

• Train tickets from Tangier to Casablanca & Marrakech can easily be bought when you get to Tangier, see Moroccan train information here.

• After spending a few days in Marrakech, I suggest hiring a car for a few days (www.holidayautos.com) and driving over the spectacular Tizi n Tichka Pass in the High Atlas mountains to the amazing mud-built village of Aït ben Haddou, Ouarzazate, Todra Gorge and the Gorge du Dadès.  That pass is an amazing drive!  Parts of the film Gladiator were filmed at Aït ben Haddou.

Holiday in Greece by train + ferry

Greece is a wonderful, relaxing destination, especially with no airports and planes to stress you out on the way.  You can travel by train and ferry, stepping ashore in Corfu or mainland Greece just 48 hours after leaving London.  The journey is an experience, and you can stop off on the way to see something of Italy if you like.

• The London to Greece page explains how to plan and book train+ferry travel from London to Corfu, Athens, Crete or Rhodes.  The fastest and cheapest way is by train to Bari or Venice in Italy then ferry to Greece, a wonderful journey.

• Use www.booking.com for accommodation in Greece.

• Use www.ferries.gr to find and book ferries to and from the Greek Islands.

Tour central & eastern Europe by train

• See the London to Prague page, London to Austria page, London to Hungary or London to Poland page for train travel from the UK to Krakow, Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest or Prague.

• Then start on How to buy European train tickets page and select the starting city of each journey to find train travel options with cheap tickets between these cities.  Vienna-Prague from €15, Berlin-Prague from €18.90, Prague-Budapest from €21, for example.

• See www.booking.com for accommodation in each city.

• Railpasses are available (see the Interrail page) but you will usually find normal tickets the cheapest and simplest option, especially if you can pre-book the cheapest fares.

Holiday in the Norwegian Fjords

• Take a train to Norway, see the London to Norway page.  Then for an unforgettable voyage along the Norwegian coastline, book a trip on the coastal steamers of Hurtigruten Line.

Skiing in the French Alps, Switzerland, Austria or Andorra

• Many holiday companies offer skiing holidays that use Eurostar Ski Train between London & the French Alps, or can offer holidays without flights, allowing you to arrange your own travel to the skiing resort by train.

  For the French Alps, see the Eurostar Ski train page or the general UK to the French Alps section.

  For Switzerland, see the UK to Switzerland by train page.

  For Austria, see the UK to Austria by train page.

  For Andorra, see the UK to Andorra by train page.

Hotels & accommodation

Car hire

If you can Fly-Drive, why not Rail-Drive?  I travelled to Marrakech by train and ferry, then hired a car for 3 days and drove south over the High Atlas mountains, perhaps the most amazing 3 days car hire I've ever paid for!