Where to go next year without flying

[calyxx]

Best suggestions? Seeing some of the effects of climate change play out this year has made me determined (again) not to fly if we can possibly avoid it. I've done eurostar to Avignon and then gite with hire car, that was great.

Ireland

What about the Netherlands? https://www.touropia.com/best-cities-to-visit-in-the-netherlands/

We’ve driven down to the Sud Tirol (Alto Adige) in Northern Italy. Takes 12-13 hours to drive, but it’s beautiful. Mediterranean climate in the valleys, cooler up in the mountains. Vineyards everywhere,beautiful cities/towns (Bolzano and Merano), great mix of Austrian and Italian culture.

It depends how far you are willing to go by train. We’ve got the train to Saas-Fee in Switzerland a few times. That’s my limit time-wise.
Any resort in the south of France. Change at Marseille for eg Saint-Cyr-Sur-Mere.
Or Germany is all doable. I’m planning to trip to Munich and Friedrichshafen.

Look up sleeper trains? Quite a few in Europe.

So many places! Depends how much time you have as the train can get you a very long way but it takes time. Have you been the the site The Man in Seat 61? Best train advice site ever.
We’re off to northern Spain in August, training from London to Girona.

Watching with interest!

Have done Lausanne in Switzerland by train, that was pretty easy. Also there are a bunch of new sleeper train in Europe now so if you get to a starting point you could then do a longer overnight leg?

I’m just doing UK this year and loving it! So many fab places

We did the sleeper train to the Alps in winter. Brilliant fun and our son loved it. Train can be more expensive than flying (the Eurostar stretch from London to Paris is always what costs) but not always. Inter-railing is still a ‘thing’ especially for older people!

Got to be Netherlands via the ferry. Best holidays ever.

We’re planning train to Paris then on to Spain next summer

We love a car ferry!

Netherlands
Ireland
Northern Ireland
Orkney

Also considering Santander for next year, by ferry from Plymouth. Or maybe Portsmouth.

We've had lovely holidays in the Gower peninsula

Scilly Isles also amazing. Hard to get accommodation in but fabulous.

We are driving to lake Annecy this year with a few stops in nice looking Places en route.

You can take ferries to France, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Ireland, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Scilly Isles.

The overnight ferry to Netherlands was great, got to Amsterdam by mid-morning. Also I really recommend Germany if you like camping, the facilities were just brilliant.

@MiniMaxi hope you don't mind me asking but where did you stay in Lausanne? Have looked at visiting there but accommodation for 4 was £££

If climate change is your main driver do look at the true footprint of each travel form, really the answer is to stay close to home (alas)

We went to Shropshire this year. Bloody rained nearly every day!

If climate change is your main driver then totally reducing the amount you and your family consume in goods is going to have far more impact. Stop the plastic toys and other shit. Stop the token birthday and Xmas gifts. Stop using disposable anything. All made by those big Chinese factories that pump out most of the shite into the environment. And don't have any more children. Use resources such as electricity and water sparingly. Don't buy anything that's not a necessity.

Not flying to Greece once a year does nothing when you have families endlessly consuming more and more.

Agree of course - but travel outside of the UK also helps build empathy and understanding of different cultures. Also there are lots of other ways to reduce your footprint while travelling - we use HomeExchange which helps us reduce our contribution to the housing crisis in popular areas by not using AirBnB.

We do love UK holidays too tho!

Tbh you shouldn’t be driving unnecessarily - are the extra emissions really worth it for you to “holiday”? Most people in the world don’t even have the concept of holidays - this is a first world, western invention.

Can’t you look up cycling routes near where you live? We pack up the tent and bike to beautiful spots with the kids every summer. Costs nothing and keeps our carbon footprint in check.

/sarcasm