I agree with everything you’re saying. I just want to point out some caveats to trains (although I absolutely love them and prefer them to cars or planes as well). The obvious one is that few people have enough vacation days to spend multiple days traveling by train. Even if we aren’t talking about paid vacation, not every job/position lets you take unpaid time off. Some jobs don’t let you take more than one or two weeks in a row.
For families this can be additionally challenging since a lot of vacation days need to be taken when school or daycare is out, or the kid is sick, or the kid needs to go to some dentist appointment, leaving you with a total of a week of vacation.
Yeah, and kids in general. It is difficult to keep little children, who want to move and be loud, on a train for days. It’s not impossible, but most likely everyone will be a nerve wreck by the time of arrival. The other people on the train will hate you because you cannot “tame” your kid, or they will judge you because after one and a half days you decide to allow your kid to watch a movie on a tablet to have a break. The relaxing aspect of a train ride tends to vanish.
And last but not least, health conditions. Some people cannot sit for long periods of time and have to wear compression socks or even get heparin shots to prevent thrombosis. This is already the case for a 6 hour flight, but 6 days of minimal movement is difficult and not recommended. You can do it - there are ways to do it - but it is something that you need to keep in mind when travelling.
But nevertheless, I agree that long train rides and a break from the fast paced, information immersed world is great. Maybe this: as long as you can do so, do it! There might be a time in your life when this will be more difficult and you will have to pause and find a better suited alternative. But that doesn’t mean you can’t unpause when the time is right. Enjoy!
You’re right. It’s easy for me to hold this position, given that I’m without kids, without specific health problems, and live in the Netherlands where I have more than enough vacation days to spend.
Got one thing to add, that’s not contradictorary to what you’re saying but I just would like to share: I think we overvalue long distance holidays. People fly to the other side of the planet, but never visit beautiful places at 100km distance from home. We mistake the possibility of going very far away, for that being more desireable than going places relatively close by, which is not necesarilly the case. In saying this I don’t want to begrudge anyone and I don’t mean to say it’s not a legitimate thing for someone to want to see certain parts of the world some day.
I agree so much with that! I love long distance travelling, but due to financial and, more importantly, environmental costs I hardly ever do it. During my early 20s I found a fondness for holidays close by. I am not a big fan of nature (I mean, I am, but I don’t need to be immersed in it if you know what I mean), but there are so many cities and towns to explore nearby. To be fair, we are kind of privileged in Europe, me in Germany even more so. Due to the history and Germany basically being a plethora of kingdoms sewn together in the mid 1800s, you really have so many different cultures within a single country and don’t need to cross borders to experience a different world. (However, growing up in Munich, it was faster to drive to Italy’s coast than to Germany’s.)
I agree with everything you’re saying. I just want to point out some caveats to trains (although I absolutely love them and prefer them to cars or planes as well). The obvious one is that few people have enough vacation days to spend multiple days traveling by train. Even if we aren’t talking about paid vacation, not every job/position lets you take unpaid time off. Some jobs don’t let you take more than one or two weeks in a row.
For families this can be additionally challenging since a lot of vacation days need to be taken when school or daycare is out, or the kid is sick, or the kid needs to go to some dentist appointment, leaving you with a total of a week of vacation.
Yeah, and kids in general. It is difficult to keep little children, who want to move and be loud, on a train for days. It’s not impossible, but most likely everyone will be a nerve wreck by the time of arrival. The other people on the train will hate you because you cannot “tame” your kid, or they will judge you because after one and a half days you decide to allow your kid to watch a movie on a tablet to have a break. The relaxing aspect of a train ride tends to vanish.
And last but not least, health conditions. Some people cannot sit for long periods of time and have to wear compression socks or even get heparin shots to prevent thrombosis. This is already the case for a 6 hour flight, but 6 days of minimal movement is difficult and not recommended. You can do it - there are ways to do it - but it is something that you need to keep in mind when travelling.
But nevertheless, I agree that long train rides and a break from the fast paced, information immersed world is great. Maybe this: as long as you can do so, do it! There might be a time in your life when this will be more difficult and you will have to pause and find a better suited alternative. But that doesn’t mean you can’t unpause when the time is right. Enjoy!
You’re right. It’s easy for me to hold this position, given that I’m without kids, without specific health problems, and live in the Netherlands where I have more than enough vacation days to spend.
Got one thing to add, that’s not contradictorary to what you’re saying but I just would like to share: I think we overvalue long distance holidays. People fly to the other side of the planet, but never visit beautiful places at 100km distance from home. We mistake the possibility of going very far away, for that being more desireable than going places relatively close by, which is not necesarilly the case. In saying this I don’t want to begrudge anyone and I don’t mean to say it’s not a legitimate thing for someone to want to see certain parts of the world some day.
I agree so much with that! I love long distance travelling, but due to financial and, more importantly, environmental costs I hardly ever do it. During my early 20s I found a fondness for holidays close by. I am not a big fan of nature (I mean, I am, but I don’t need to be immersed in it if you know what I mean), but there are so many cities and towns to explore nearby. To be fair, we are kind of privileged in Europe, me in Germany even more so. Due to the history and Germany basically being a plethora of kingdoms sewn together in the mid 1800s, you really have so many different cultures within a single country and don’t need to cross borders to experience a different world. (However, growing up in Munich, it was faster to drive to Italy’s coast than to Germany’s.)