Sussex to Paxos

After working extremely hard in their A-level year, I wasn’t going to deny my 18-year-old twins their preferred choice of Greece for our (last?) family summer holiday. 

But having taken the Flight Free Challenge for a second year, would I be able to get to the small island of Paxos in the Ionian Sea without flying?

Of course, the answer is ‘yes’. Ultimately everywhere can be reached without flying – it’s all a question of time!

I couldn’t persuade my children to join us, but my wife and I, plus the parents of another family joining us in Greece, decided to go on an adventure by train and ferry.

The first step was buying five-day Interrail passes in the December sale. We reinvested some of the money we saved by upgrading to First Class, figuring that if we were to be on trains for that amount of time, then the extra comfort would be worth it. 

Day one of our ‘holiday on either side of our holiday’ started early on the 05:30 from Brighton to St Pancras, then connecting via Paris to Zurich. My wife’s sister lives in nearby Zug, so we took our first Interrail bonus by hopping off there for an hour – enough time to share a beer with her and her partner in a sunny lakeside bar – before continuing on to Milan where we were spending our first night.

After a delicious Italian pizza that evening, we had the following morning to discover Milan. The city’s Lime bikes were the perfect way to take in the world-famous opera house, La Scala, the swish shops of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and the magnificent Duomo di Milano cathedral, one of the oldest in the world.

Just before lunchtime, we hopped onto one of Trenitalia’s luxurious Frecciarossa trains towards Bari. At around seven hours, it was a long journey, but I can’t emphasise enough how comfortable these carriages are. In first class, you are served a choice of drinks and tasty snacks at your spacious, padded seat. The wi-fi was fast enough to stream movies, although once we hit the coast at Rimini, I spent most of my time gazing at the deep blue waters of the Adriatic.

There was enough time in Bari for a beer before taking a short local train to Brindisi, from where we would take an overnight ferry to Corfu. After the stylish calm of Milan, Brindisi was significantly more frenetic, starting with our taxi from the station. With seatbelts seemingly optional, our driver set off at top speed to the port, slowing only as we joined an unmoving queue of traffic. ‘Nessun problema’ – he simply wound his way through a few gaps between lorries, made a couple of strategic reverses and eventually found a clear route to the passenger terminal.

Boarding the ferry, we joined an army of Italian teens off on a group holiday to mainland Greece. After our tranquil first-class experiences to date, we felt like proper Interrailers at last as we joined the throng of youthful backpackers.

Unlike the teens, who planted themselves on chairs and floors around the ferry, we had booked cabins, and fell asleep almost instantaneously after two long days of travel, before our all-too-soon morning alarm call. 

After a short walk across the port and breakfast of crispy spanakopita, we boarded the connecting ferry to Paxos and soon arrived on this idyllic Greek island, less than 24 hours after the others in our group who had flown. 

I’d never been to Greece before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I’m not into ‘beach holidays’ and I was slightly concerned about how hot it would be. However, I liked Paxos. Get away from the main town of Gaios and it’s a huge network of shady olive groves and quiet beaches. And as long as we started early for any hikes or runs, the heat was rarely an issue.

Getting all the way to Greece had used up just two days on our interrail passes (the ferries aren’t included, though you can get a small discount with the pass) so after a very enjoyable 10 days on Paxos, we had three days remaining on our passes to enjoy the return journey. 

This time we took the daytime ferry back across the Ionian sea to Italy, and, after spending the night in Brindisi, we took another superb Frecciarossa service to Bologna, the gastronomic capital of Italy. Dropping our bags at our hotel close to the station, we had almost 24 hours to explore the city – and to try as many cafes, restaurants and gelateria as possible. 

Our final stop in Italy was Turin, a relatively short four-hour journey away. I can highly recommend a visit to the Piedmont capital. You don’t need to worry about over-tourism here – simply stroll along the long Via Garibaldi pedestrian area to the river and enjoy an Aperol Spritz by the river. 

The fifth and final day of our Interrail journey was the leg home from Turin via Paris to London and Brighton.

Every holiday ends with a little sadness that it’s all over, but what an adventure it was – I wouldn’t do it any differently and hopefully this story can help others understand that ‘long’ trips are still entirely possible without flying.

Iain’s Interrail Route

• Day 1: Brighton - London - Paris - Zurich - Zug - Milan
• Day 2: Milan - Bari - Brindisi - Corfu (overnight ferry)
• Days 3-12: Paxos
• Day 13: Corfu - Brindisi
• Day 14: Brindisi - Bologna
• Day 15: Bologna - Turin
• Day 16: Turin - Paris - London - Brighton

Cost 

• Five-day Interrail Pass (1st Class) = €303 pp (25% sale discount)
• Seat Reservations = €203 pp
• Brindisi to Corfu ferry = €165 pp return (including cabin)

Total = €671 (£586) as opposed to £303 for the flight, plus around £20 for transfers.

Carbon Savings

There are many ways to calculate the carbon cost of journeys, but the carbon saving was in the region of 673 kg/CO2 pp

• Return flight (Gatwick to Corfu) - 794 kg/CO2 (myclimate.org)
• Train travel (London to Brindisi) - 112 kg/CO2 (Ecopassenger.org)
• Ferry travel (Brindisi to Corfu) - 9 kg/CO2 (Foot passenger only, UK Government GHG data)