To be annoyed that Green travel is so VERY expensive?

[toconclude]

Trying to avoid flying to Spain but the price of a car ferry is FOUR times the cost of return flights for two - plus the cost of petrol each way. It's just not economic if you want to visit more than one place. Grr.

have you looked at the Seat61 for trains?

and yes, it is horribly slow & expensive to travel without flying. I travel a lot for work and it is v complicated to avoid flights but i try to.

Or just eat a couple of Linda McCartney sausages.

Travelling abroad on holidays isn’t really compatible with being green.

No-one needs to go abroad, bar seeing family.

You can have a holiday in the U.K.

You might not get warm weather, but that’s the deal in the U.K..

You just need to balance cost/weather/green credentials/availability of activities. Maybe you can’t have it all?

@parietal

Yup, that's a great site, although Covid also further complicates things as one must go in and out of France too. And it's still very pricey.

At the age of 76, I'd like to think it was a bit late to try and offset my carbon footprint. Live, be merry, go where you can whilst you can.

I've been stuck in the UK for two years. I repeat, I want to go abroad and yes I know I don't need to. I don't 'need' more than three changes of clothes either, but there we are

@eekbumbler

At the age of 76, I'd like to think it was a bit late to try and offset my carbon footprint. Live, be merry, go where you can whilst you can.

Actually DH has spent the majority of his life (up to the age of 42) going on walking holidays by train.

Travelling is one of the biggest pleasures in my life. No way am I giving that up. I didn't have kids - that's my contribution to the environment.

My DD lives in the North East and i live in west London. I find it appalling that its far cheaper to fly up there to see her than it is to catch a train.

Take the eurostar and then cycle?

Meh, just fly.
As long as campaigners are flying about in private jets and helicopters I'll be going on my holidays abroad ta.

@JustWonderingIfYou

Yeah, no. Neither of us could cycle hundreds of miles.

So apparently the consensus is, don't go anywhere you actually want to go.

No, the consensus is you can’t have abroad + green + cheap. You can probably have two of those, not all three.
But I agree with you that trains are ridiculously expensive compared to flying.

Going up to Scotland in the summer for a wedding.

Train is exorbitant. Car hire is too. Flying is a fraction of the price, but then hiring a car up there is pricey. It’s so frustrating. I don’t mind spending a bit extra, but 2 or 3 times the price?! Uh uh!

@SickAndTiredAgain

Well, except that several people told me to go somewhere entirely different or not at all. But you probably have it about right. Not to mention the issue of time, though that's less of an issue for us.

Not always, but in a lot of cases the "green" way to travel is green because you are actually paying for the real costs of what you are doing. Air travel is often undertaxed and subsidized in a way things like ferries and trains aren't, and travelers don't pay the costs related to their emissions, those are just passed on.

If we paid real costs a lot of people would not be able to afford the number of overseas holidays we take.

But I agree with you that trains are ridiculously expensive compared to flying.

It's actually the case that flights are ridiculously cheap compared to trains. The price of trains is far more proportionate to the distance you're going than stupid cheap flights.

OP as another poster said you can't have cheap+ (relatively) green + abroad. Pick 2. Principles aren't free

Which is kind of suggestive of an answer - take the ferry but next year stick close to home.

Surely a flight is greener than driving a car all that way and a diesel powered channel ferry?

Ferries are filthy environment wise - burn a lot of very crude fuel that pumps out masses of black smoke.

On average a flight produces the same amount of CO2 as a f each person was to drive alone.
Combine this with the ferry fuel (if gettting the long ferry all the way to Spain) and there probably isn't much difference for the two of you to fly. Vs drive and boat.
Train is less, but as you say v expensive.
Just fly and plant a few trees! Enjoy your holiday.
And yes, the system is a mess, perverse incentives etc but until the political will exists to force business to do things differently there won't be the systemic change necessary to save the planet. And it suits the current system to put the onus on individuals to make the steps and feel guilty about things like going on holiday.
So you could also write emails to your mp and sign campaigning petitions - make your voice heard ( and fly to Spain and enjoy your holiday )

Where in the uk are you? There used to be a coach from London Victoria to Madrid. That was cheap.

Go on a plane, but go further afield. Majority of weight on transatlantic flights is cargo, not passengers. It’s going anyway. You’re essentially hitching a life on a load of frozen salmon.

Just Fly.
I just Looked up new coal fired power stations. A report from November 2021 says at that moment 195 plants were being built worldwide.

@JustWonderingIfYou

Take the eurostar and then cycle?

@Jacaranda75

Go vegan! Then you can justify overseas travel. Works for me 😁 !

Going vegan might just about offset the emissions of a trip to Spain but be under no illusions for long-haul.