Honeyguide holidays without flights – some ideas

How to have a Honeyguide wildlife holiday without flying comes up fairly frequently, so this pulls together several discussion strands and ideas on this potentially wide-ranging subject. This blog cannot be a complete solution – but it’s a start.

Reasons for avoiding flying are various. Carbon footprint is the obvious one, especially if the alternative is using public transport, such as railways. Avoiding the hassles of the ‘airport experience’ another. There is also a perspective that ‘real’, overland travel is a better way to travel, to comprehend the distances of travel and to make the journey part of the experience, rather than just a means to an end.

Lille railway station, potentially useful for bypassing Paris.

Julie and I have done much of our travelling (UK and overseas) by public transport. Sometimes this is combined with a locally hired car, or hired bikes, or day excursions with a local operator. It takes a bit of organising, and can work well for a couple or family. Things can and do go wrong, though: finding solutions on the hoof is OK for yourselves, but far from ideal if travelling with a large group. So far, after trips to Avignon in the south of France, La Brenne (also France). Mallorca and Denmark, I’ve concluded that none of these have been obvious candidates to increase by the scale that you’d need for a Honeyguide group.

Lots to explore in La Brenne, and the flat landscape lends itself to bikes.

Some Honeyguiders have joined groups locally, having made their own way there. Usually this means a rendezvous with a group at an airport, though meeting where we stay is the other obvious option. Quite often these are Honeyguiders living in Europe, though not always. For example, twice UK Honeyguiders have driven to Honeyguide holidays in France, combining a group holiday in the Cévennes or Dordogne with a longer stay elsewhere.

Here are some other examples. Several Honeyguiders have made their own way to Santander airport to meet a Picos de Europa group. Two were from New Zealand as part of a wider visit to Europe. Another came by public transport from near Biarritz in France. From the UK, Julie Durdin has twice travelled with Brittany Ferries from Plymouth to Santander. On a third occasion, she caught the bus from Santander to Bilbao to meet a Spanish Pyrenees group. Julie also came on the train via Nîmes and Barcelona to Valencia in March 2024.

Train travel is usually smooth, but not on this occasion. This is a Deutsche Bahn train that stopped, with people waiting for the next train.

It's possible to go by train to Copenhagen, our rendezvous for Falsterbo. One option is the Harwich to Hook of Holland ferry, then east from there on trains. I’ve done this: it can work with an overnight stay in Hamburg, though be aware that Deutsche Bahn (train company in Germany) has a poor reputation for reliability. One year a minibus from a Falsterbo group detoured via Malmö in Sweden to pick up two Honeyguiders who’d come by train and ferry from Germany.

If you're in Copenhagen, it's a chance to see the waterfront at Nyhavn.

Getting to a Mediterranean island is more complex. For the Balearics, there are two companies that run ferries from Barcelona to Mallorca and Menorca. Our Menorca base is close to the island’s capital Mahón, so a pick-up shouldn’t be too difficult.

Much to see in Barcelona on route to the Balearics, including the Sagrada Familia.

A general comment is that many train routes go through Paris, with Eurostar arriving at Gare du Nord. Travelling onwards, the next step is usually crossing Paris to one of the other mainline stations, such as Gare d'Austerlitz. This can prove smooth – or can go wrong. Eurostar also goes to Lille, and if your TGV route can go south from there it can avoid the complications of Paris. Lille is a pretty and compact city, and an overnight stay is usually cheaper than Paris.

Not so long ago, many enjoyed a Norfolk break and other UK activities during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 and 2021, naturally with no flights. It feels like these have run their course, though with a few requests we could do it again. 

A reminder that the above are simply examples from the recent past, and any Honeyguider can make their own suggestions for linking up with our current programme of holidays overseas. Travel just needs to be practical and to fit in with the main group.

For anyone who comes up with this kind of plan, holiday prices will be adjusted to take out the flight component. Please remember that without a flight you are not buying a flight-inclusive package, so you will not get an ATOL certificate and customer protection via the ATOL system. More information about this here.

Chris Durdin

South of Salamanca

Honeyguide’s South of Salamanca holiday is in a part of Spain which is nearly unknown as a nature holiday destination, despite its amazing landscapes, diversity and rich natural heritage. It’s adjacent to the better-known Extremadura, which – rightly – attracts interest and bookings fairly easily. A continuing challenge is to highlight the attractions of South of Salamanca, just to Extremadura’s north, and a similar distance west from Madrid.

Spanish sparrow in the snow (VB).

I started, writes Chris, by asking our guide in the area, Vega Bermejo, who grew up in England, how she came to be living in the area and why she loves it. 

“Having lived several years in a large Spanish city I was desperate to move to the countryside.  I had driven through the area the summer before, and about 15km from our present house, had said to Alfonso “I wouldn’t mind living around here!”

“Just a few months later, unexpectedly, I was contacted by a cousin who knew of a house for sale, relatively close to where I had spent my summer holidays as a child with my father's family, who were from Salamanca. Alfonso and I went to see the house and the land … and we moved in within months."

“Surrounded by rolling hills close to the Sierra de Bejar and Gredos, the sound of cranes as they come in to roost on the shores of the reservoir a stone’s throw away, bee-eaters perching on the wires in our village and black vultures circling overhead, fields full of orchids and tiny daffodils in the spring, lizards and turtles, butterflies of all colours and sizes throughout the year, huge old holm oaks providing homes to a myriad of lifeforms: these are all part of the reason I love this area and why I decided to share it with those who can appreciate it.“

"The climate in our holiday area is slightly cooler than Extremadura as it’s partly on the Castilian plateau. It’s a curious mix of Atlantic and Mediterranean habitats, which have generated regional endemics of flora such as Linaria nivea and Antirrhinum meonanthum and have both northern and southern species of birds such as Spanish sparrow and bluethroat, and butterflies such as two-tailed pasha and lesser spotted fritillary."

Linaria nivea, left, and Antirrhinum meonanthum, right (VB).

Vega is involved with protecting crop-nesting Montagu’s and hen harriers. The Junta (regional council) is involved, which is good though Vega works with a team from the local group of SEO (BirdLife Spain). Years vary, and happily 2024 was a good one, mainly because of the abundant winter and early spring rainfall which meant that the crops grew well and there was plenty of food in the form of voles.

SEO Salamanca’s harrier campaign, in 2024, located 23 raptor nests from which 76 birds fledged. Of these, 16 nests were Montagu’s harriers, fledging 47 young: the rest were hen harriers. Montagu’s harriers are declining in most areas and have stopped breeding in the UK, but here it’s a thriving population, thanks to SEO’s hard work (supported financially by this holiday) and the cooperation of farmers.

Another project for Vega is that in this past year, supported by a grant from the European Union, she has been working on an inventory of flora and fauna for the Biosphere Reserve of Sierras de Bejar y Francia, in particular wildlife of touristic interest. So she is in a unique position to know and share wildlife of her local area.

Helen Crowder was with Honeyguide’s group in 2023. Helen says, ”You'd be hard pressed to find more diversity of wildlife than in Spain's under-visited Wild West, expertly led by Vega Bermejo, who also knows exactly where to go for delightful lunches and coffees!”

Blue rock thrush, photographed on the holiday in 2023 (Cheryl Hunt).

Tim Hunt was there in 2023 too, and he adds these notes in praise of South of Salamanca.

“The area has a wide variety of birds, butterflies and plants to offer in a comparatively unexplored area of Spain. The way of life has altered over recent years with population moving away and changes in farming methods. Your guide, Vega who lives locally, can take you to many and varied habitats giving you time to walk and explore with many super photo opportunities. Vega has excellent English having been brought up in Leeds!

“Accommodation at the Hotel Rural Salvatierra overlooks the reservoir in a quiet village central to the area to be explored. You can look at the holiday report from 2023 to get the feel for Salamanca – just look at those ocellated lizards! A real Honeyguide experience with many and varied coffee stops and superb picnics and lunch stops.”

Ocellated lizard (Cheryl Hunt).

Chris Durdin and Vega Bermejo, November 2024