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