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Latest update: 13 March 2021
You don’t necessarily have to fly to have an amazing holiday, claims the Lonely Planet team. And they are right: in Low Carbon Europe, you’ll find enough itineraries for the rest of your life.
Inspiration to travel more responsibly
Low Carbon Europe is a book to inspire you. You probably know Lonely Planet from the practical travel guides: mainly a lot of text and information, few envious pictures. Super handy when you travel around. I still love to use Lonely Planet guides in addition to travel blogs because I love to flip through travel books and keep them as a keepsake. This book about sustainable travel though, is all about getting ideas and looking at pretty pictures. Of course, it also contains tips about the places on the itinerary – approximately one paragraph per destination.
By the way, the Low Carbon Europe edition got translated into 80 Sustainable trips in Dutch. So when you buy the English edition, the book cover is probably a bit different.
Tip! Want to read more about more sustainable travel? Find some good ones here: Bookdepository.
Traveling without flying?
In the book, you will find beautiful routes by land and sea in Europe. You can ignore the plane. Or, wait… That’s the book’s idea, but if a route starts in Zagreb or Málaga, it gets a bit complicated, as I live in Amsterdam. Of course, I could first take the train to Paris, then on to Barcelona and then to Málaga. Assuming I’d have perfect connections (yeah, right), I would be in Málaga about 16.5 hours later and € 350 poorer. And then my actual trip has yet to begin. Well, some people will go out of their way to make it happen like that, but for me, catching a plane would much easier – and likely to happen.
Sustainable travel routes throughout Europe
Luckily, there are also plenty of travel routes closer to home. Even the sustainable travel routes that are a bit further away still make good tips for making more sustainable choices once you are at your destination. What strikes me is that you can actually see a lot with public transport in a fairly short time. It turns out that there are many surprising travel destinations near famous destinations such as Milan or London, ones that you can easily combine.
Train, bus, ferry, or even bicycle
With each itinerary, you find a short introduction about the type of trip that awaits you (art and culture, wellness and relaxation or nature, for example) and where you can start the route. All places on the route are described in a short, enthusiastic paragraph, including basic information about transport. For example, how many trains run per day or which bus you have to catch to where. You will also find the route and a map with the travel time between the destinations. Very clear. And at the end of each sustainable itinerary, Lonely Planet gives a brief advice on how to travel back as quickly as humanly possible.
Tip! Useful sites to compare public transport options worldwide are Busbud and Omio.
The impact of your trip
There are sustainable itineraries of approximately one week and itineraries of two weeks or longer. Each route indicates the CO2 emissions per person, the total distance, how many overnight stays you should count on, and what you will spend approximately on transport costs. And there are a lot of pictures in the book. Every time I turn the page, I cry: “I want to do this!” From coast to coast through Norway? Yes, please! Mini-break in Minsk? I’m in. And a pilgrimage in Northern Spain? Sí! Or wait, a tour of Liguria! A girl can dream, right?
Sustainable travel options nearby
Living in the Netherlands, there is also plenty to do in the area. For example, the Art Route Amsterdam-Paris, where you also visit Antwerp and Lille. Or the beer pilgrimage from Bruges to Antwerp, and on to Brussels and Paris. Or do a three-country tour via Strasbourg, Colmar, Basel, and Freiburg.
Buy Low Carbon Europe
You get it: this book makes you hungry for travel. Wonderful to get you daydreaming and make plans. Buy it as a gift for yourself, or someone else at Bookdepository.
I received a copy of the book from Kosmos Uitgevers to review.
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