Heritage Railways: UK vs USA — Same Romance, Very Different Models At first glance, heritage railways in the UK and the USA look similar: historic locomotives, period stations, volunteers in vintage uniforms, and a strong sense of nostalgia. But once you dig deeper, the culture, funding, scale, and accessibility of these railways are strikingly different. […]
Porto has many transport features that visitors notice immediately — the river, the bridges, the hills — but one of its most quietly impressive successes tends to go under-appreciated: the use of long, double-length trams on the Porto Metro network. These vehicles are not just a design flourish. They are a key reason why the […]
Continue reading Porto Metro with Double-Length Trams: Quietly Doing the Heavy Lifting..but Right Now, It Fails Quite Badly At first glance, Porto doesn’t look like an obvious cycling city. The dramatic drop down to the Douro River, the steep gradients, and the limited number of river crossings all seem to argue against it. Add to that narrow historic streets and you might assume cycling was always […]
Continue reading Porto Could Be an Amazing Cycling City..We’ve just updated our profile image, and at one point we were planning on it to be a photograph of the three Forth Bridges in Edinburgh — something we’re still very much hoping to do in January. But in the end, this image of the Dom Luís I Bridge in Porto felt more appropriate in […]
Continue reading The Symbolism of the Dom Luís I Bridge in PortoFor years, Graz and Klagenfurt have felt like they belonged to different corners of Austria. They’re both in the south, yes — but the rail link between them was slow enough that you often planned your trip around it. That changes with the Koralmbahn (Koralm Railway): a new, high-performance line between Graz Hbf and Klagenfurt […]
Continue reading Graz and Klagenfurt just got “closer” 🚄🏔️If you’ve ever opened Google Maps in Japan and zoomed out, you may have noticed something striking: high-speed rail lines and major corridors are shown far more clearly than in most other countries. Shinkansen routes, main JR lines, and dense urban railways appear tightly drawn and highly legible — almost as if Google is testing […]
Continue reading Why Google Maps Shows Japan’s Railways So ClearlyWhy is car rental in Alaska so expensive? 🚗❄️ (And why it’s still usually cheaper than Hawaii) Anyone who’s tried to plan an Alaska trip quickly runs into the same shock: car rental prices that feel wildly out of proportion to the rest of the budget. Flights might be reasonable, accommodation manageable, yet hiring a […]
Continue reading Why is car rental in Alaska so expensive?…or a spectacular train you must plan your life around? 🚆🏔️ There’s something trains do that no other form of transport quite manages. They slow you down just enough to let the landscape unfold properly. Alaska, of all places, understands that instinctively. And yet, if your rail reference point is somewhere like Switzerland — where […]
Continue reading Alaska Railroad: one of the world’s great rail experiences…For a city that regularly ranks among the most liveable in the world, Melbourne has a surprisingly glaring omission: a direct airport rail link. Melbourne Airport (Tullamarine) opened in 1970, and almost from the moment it did, planners talked about connecting it to the city by train. More than half a century later, passengers are […]
Continue reading When Will Melbourne Finally Get Its Airport Rail Link?17-Mile Drive and the Monterey Peninsula 🌊 One of the most famous coastal routes in California is the 17-Mile Drive on the Monterey Peninsula, and it’s an easy addition to a wider San Francisco itinerary. This private scenic road ($11.25 for cars, re-imbursed with $35 spend in Pebble Beach restaurants; free for cycles) winds through […]
Continue reading 17-Mile Drive and the Monterey Peninsula 🌊