Over land and sea
Andrew Eames explores ways to navigate Europe without flying or driving your car
Take the bus, Gus
It may not be very charismatic, but the bus is the bargain basement of land travel. Provided you don’t mind longer journey durations, with the likes of Flixbus ( flixbus.co.uk) you can trundle very inexpensively to cities like Paris (eight hours, £22.49), Brussels (eight hours, £21.99) and Amsterdam (12 hours, £29.99).
Inevitably, it’s a transport method popular with students and backpackers, and many departures are overnight.
Coach-based package tours are rather different, with a much older passenger demographic largely thanks to the selling points of price and conviviality, and with the extra convenience of multiple pickup points down the spine of the UK.
Destinations covered by coach tour operators are not necessarily just northern Europe, either, because with overnight breaks, some range far and wide: for example a nine-day adventure to the Croatian coast, with six days in a hotel in Tar on the Istrian Peninsula, costs from £589 all inclusive of food and excursions (shearings.com).
There’s also a scheduled coach service for cyclists who want to put together their own European itineraries with their own wheels.
Bike Express normally tows a bike trailer down to the Mediterranean between May and September, although
bikes. If you are renting a bike in situ, however, rail is a natural fit, particularly if you’re starting in one location and ending in another, as with the group ebike tour from the snow-covered Alps to the lavender fields of Provence with Undiscovered Mountains. This seven-day trip includes guide, B&B accommodation, picnic lunches and luggage transfer, but not e-bike rental, from £810 (undiscovered mountains.com).
Sail away, Ray
A long ocean crossing under sail may be a bit ambitious for most mortals, but you don’t have to cross the Atlantic to follow in the wake of the likes of Greta Thunberg.
Several traditional sailing boats offer opportunities to cross the Channel or to head out to islands such as Guernsey and the Isles of Scilly.
The 100-year-old trading ketch Bessie Ellen (bessie-ellen. com) sleeps 20 and offers a four-day sailing along the coast of Cornwall for £645. Or you could join the pilot cutter Grayhound on one of its three-day cargo delivery voyages between the UK and France, for £375 (venture
sailholidays.com/voyage-finder).
For a wide variety of classic boat voyages, including tall ships, both far overseas and in British waters, check Classic Sailing (classicsailing.co.uk).
Alternatively, try the inland waterways of nearby Europe. Make your way across the Channel with a ferry from Dover, and then rent a cabin cruiser from Le Boat’s base at Nieuwpoort in Belgium. Nieuwpoort is a 25-minute transfer from Dunkirk, and a week’s hire of a boat that sleeps four costs from £949 (leboat.co.uk).
Board a ship, Pip
Aware that older ships are not as eco-friendly as they should be, Brittany Ferries has introduced ships powered by clean, green LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) on crossings to Normandy and Brittany from Portsmouth and Poole.
Meanwhile its mini cruise from Plymouth across the Bay of Biscay to Santander in northern Spain links up nicely with the narrowgauge Feve railway which runs all the way along the northern
Spanish coast, criss-crossing the Camino de Santiago trail en route, and touching sweet towns such as the old fashioned seaside resort of Ribadesella and the cider-drinking Galician capital, Oviedo (brittany-ferries.co.uk). Closer to home, Stena Line has developed a rail & sail product
for its
Harwich to the Hook of Holland service, where customers can buy a foot passenger ticket which includes train travel to any rail station within the Netherlands railway system (stenaline.co.uk/ ferry-to-holland/rail-and-sail).
And of course there are also the deep-sea cruises that start from the UK, such as the P&O sailings out of Southampton, with itineraries such as the sevennight Norwegian Fjords, stopping in the likes of Bergen and Stavanger, priced from £549 (pocruises.com).
Try the isles, Miles
A couple of sets of islands in the English Channel are the most southerly and therefore sunny in the UK, and small enough and well enough supplied with public transport to mitigate the need for a vehicle of your own.
The Channel Islands of
Guernsey and Jersey, plus Sark and Herm, have terrific beaches and good walking and eating in spring and autumn, and are served by Condor ferries (condorferries.co. uk) out of Poole and Portsmouth. Their tax-free status means good shopping, too.
Meanwhile the spangle of Scilly, at the Atlantic end of the Channel and reached by the Scillonian out of Penzance, are laid back and seductive, albeit a bit costlier than most UK destinations (islesofscilly-travel.co.uk).
And now go home, Joan!
Talk of Sandown normally conjures up images of thoroughbred horses hurtling down a track or jumping fences at the Esher-based racecourse, but there was barely any equine activity in sight as we enjoyed a week at the other Sandown on the Isle of Wight.
One of the most popular seaside resorts on the island, which is nestled off the coast of Hampshire across the Solent, it is a typical bucket-and-spade affair, with the obligatory pier thrown in for good measure.
Deckchair hire is in abundance on the long stretch of golden sand, along with surfboards, paddleboards and pedalos.
Once a thriving and upmarket destination for those seeking a bit of sun and leisure time, the crumbling remains of previously luxurious
Art Deco hotels along the promenade paint a sad reminder of times when people would flock here in their thousands.
Such are the ravages of time and the recent effects of the pandemic, tourist numbers are now merely in their hundreds. But that is no bad thing if you don’t want to be packed in like sardines along the beach, with ample room to enjoy a bit of socially-distanced freedom.
If sitting on the sand all day is not for you, there is plenty to do in
Sandown itself and the surrounding areas.
What you need is a good base, and we had that with a fabulous four-bedroom abode, 5 The Mall, one of many good, family-sized houses in Sykes Cottages’ repertoire.
Although we were actually in the large neighbouring village of Lake, we were literally a stone’s throw from Sandown but with the added pleasure of marvellous views of the sea and cliffs overlooking Luccombe Bay in the distance.
From the moment we walked in, we felt at home. The cottage had a bedroom each for my children to call their own for the week, which went down a treat. There were two other large bedrooms, one en-suite, along with ample living quarters downstairs, including a comfy lounge, sun-baked conservatory and a snug – complete with piano on which my son taught himself to play the Looney Tunes theme tune.
There was also a generous-sized kitchen and dining area, plus ample off-street parking.
From the house, we could take a two-minute stroll to the coastal path and either choose to head down into Sandown itself and enjoy the sights and sounds, or venture south towards the charming town of Shanklin, which we did one evening to play crazy golf on the seafront.
Although we got a proper soaking on the way back… the week of our holiday saw a record amount of rain on the island with some paths and roads being washed away, such was the ferocity of the stuff falling from the heavens.
But even the deluge of rain did not dampen our holiday spirit. Luckily, it did stay dry enough for my children to enjoy the Skynets at Sandham Gardens, a recently built attraction at the northern end of Sandown where kids and adults alike can bounce away on huge nets suspended off the ground, throw huge soft balls at each other, and zoom down various slides to their hearts’ content.
Visitors to the gardens can also enjoy go-karting, crazy golf or just play in the kids’ playground, all in view of the coastal waters. And when the sun beats down,
The kids had a bedroom each to call their own, which went down a treat