Choosing Planes, Ships, Trains, Buses or Automobiles

Our six-week European Swing was designed around my daughter’s wedding in Scotland’s Guthrie Castle. It was indeed memorable. But it was also highly educational. It gave us a great view of the differences among the different modes of transportation.

The first two weeks were in Scandinavia and Russia through a combination of airplanes and a ferry (from Finland to Russia) to transfer from one country to another. We used public transportation in Oslo, Helsinki, and Stockholm. In St. Petersburg, we were on a bus excursion from the ferry. We found that car rentals and fuel were sky-high.

The next two weeks were spent on an MV Explorer cruise through Denmark, Scotland, Iceland, Ireland, and England. We embarked in Stockholm, Sweden, did city walking tours in Copenhagen, Denmark, Lerwich, Scotland, Isofjordur, Iceland, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, and took bus excursions for Rekjavik and Akureyri, Iceland.

The last two weeks were in the UK. We disembarked in Southampton, England. It was a Sunday and car rental companies were closed during the season because their entire fleet would have been rented out for the weekend to be returned only on the following Monday.  So besides car rentals, we used trains (and other modes) for road trips across the UK.

First, when it was just my husband and I, we walked the towns and used trains from Southampton to Brighton, Brighton to Canterbury, and Canterbury to Gatwick. That’s the airport where we picked up my daughter and her two daughters.

The five of us then rented a Renault Captur, big enough to carry us and five bags. In two days, we covered Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath from our hotel  in Warminster. Then we toured the Cotswolds and southwestern Wales from an Airbnb in Cheltenham for the next two days. On the last day, we visited Windsor Castle from Heathrow Lodge.

Third, after my daughter’s wedding, we joined our BFFs and partners using trains, buses, a private car, cabs, and the tube, whatever was appropriate and available, touring London, Liverpool, and Edinburgh. 

Here is what we learned. Cruise ships can be the least expensive mode, especially if you get a highly discounted one like we did through Groupon. Organized excursions, however, can dramatically raise the cost. Use them when necessary and explore by yourselves, whenever possible. The biggest drawback, however, is you get the least sense of a place and people with just 8 hours at port. But if you are a foodie, you can get the best variety and quantity of food on a cruise ship. There is also a ready like-minded community to travel with. Finally, there is no need to pack or unpack!

Planes, trains, cabs, and buses are less convenient, having to haul luggage through different means of transfers, especially on windy, damp, and cold days. But these road trips can give you the best sense of place and people because you can stay as long as you want. The longer you stay, the cheaper the lodging becomes.

Even if you must drive, a road trip by car may be even more cost-effective (car rentals become cheaper the longer the period), as long as parking fees and the cost of fuel aren’t exorbitant. But maybe not in the UK since driving is on the wrong side of the road, the back roads are very narrow, and the speed limits are higher than those in the US. It can sometimes be quite scary!

We concluded that a road trip gives you the best sense of place and people. We always prefer to travel by car but if fuel and parking costs are not reasonable or driving conditions are unfamiliar, then trains, buses, and planes are the next best. We will reserve cruise ships only as an exception. One such exception is short ferries from one country to another. But when in town, walk around and use public transportation!