Booked!

I've just booked the bulk of our travel for our mini European vacation next month. The total cost comes out at somewhere in the region of £400 per person which is slightly inflated by me going for 1st class tickets on the two long train journeys (Berlin to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Brussels). As one of the journeys will be an overnight sleeper train to Berlin we will almost inevitably spend more time travelling by train than we would have by plane. However the purpose of the experiment isn't just to look at the time spent, it's also the quality of the experience.

I've done a rough calculation that the equivalent journey with flights works out at around £250 per person. However it's already apparent that to get those cheap deals you have to be prepared to fly at less pleasant times where as all the train journeys start at nice and easy mid-morning/lunchtime starts (post morning rush hour).

I haven't been able to find a carbon calculator that doesn't require an odious registration or require a flash plugin. All I can be fairly sure of is that train is lower than flying, but I don't know by how much. Which is just as well as next year we fly to Australia!