When we booked a seat on the night train from Rome, we checked prices on both bahn.de and öbb.de and found that there were big differences in the prices. We ended up booking on bahn.de as the tickets were cheapest there. We had booked seats for the five of us, but it was a six-person compartment, so we were curious if one more person would …
Relaxing Rails: Exploring Southern Italy and Napoli by Train
Italy really cannot be praised enough as a train country. We are so happy to ride trains here. See my previous posts about the subject. The journey from Syracuse in Sicily to Naples was yet another good rail experience. I have described the first part of the trip from Siracusa- Vila S. Giovanni here. This description therefore concentrates on the second part of the journey …
Riding the Waves on Rails: A Fascinating Voyage Across the Sicily-Mainland Italy Ferry by Train
This is one of the greatest train experiences we have ever had! And that’s saying a lot, since we’ve traveled quite a bit by train across Europe. Last Train Ferry in Europe There have been many train ferries around Europe, but most have now been replaced by bridges. As there is still no bridge between the Italian mainland and Sicily, there are still train ferries …
Sicily by Rail: Scenic Routes With Vulcanic Activity
The trains in Sicily are fantastic (as in the rest of Italy). We traveled both with regional trains and intercity trains in Sicily and we highly recommend them. The Train Lines We Travelled The train lines that we traveled on were: Messina-Milazzo Milazzo-Palermo Palermo-Messina Messina- Catania Catania-Siracusa Siracusa-Messina The Train Line Messina-Milazzo Regional trains run on the Messina-Milazzo route. For the first part of the …
Our Train and Ferry Ride from Italy to Sicily
The joy was great when we boarded the train in Brindisi, Italy bound for Corigliano. It was the first time since we drove the North-Macedonian Bitola-Skopje section in September (2 months ago) that we were riding a train. It was certainly not with our good will that the train pause had lasted so long. But since the train lines in North-Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania are …
Travel from Vlore in Albania to Brindisi in Italy
There are almost daily ferries from Vlore (Vlorë) in Albania to Brindisi in Italy. We took the trip in November 2023 and here comes our description of the trip. Getting the Ferry Tickets A few weeks before the sailing, we ordered the ferry tickets at https://starlines.it. We have learned that it is cheapest to buy ferry tickets directly on the ferry company’s website rather than …
What to see and do in Vlore, Albania
We came to Vlore (Vlorë) from Saranda and compared to the latter, Vlore is a big city! It is the second largest port city in Albania and the city is beautifully located at the shores of the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic Sea. Vlore is, however, a distinct seaside town and a bit like Saranda, the town does not have much to offer apart from …
Inspirational Routes: Our Adventurous 2023 Train Journey
If you are looking for inspiration for an exciting train journey in Europe, you have landet on the right blogpost. Here you can read about our adventurous train journey 2023. A little about the journey in general We traveled for 6 months – from July to December 2023. The traveling party consisted of my husband and I and our 3 children aged 6, 9 and …
How to get from Saranda to Vlorë in Albania
Minibuses, minibuses and more minibuses. This is the way to travel in Albania. A very tiring mode of travel if you ask me, as I of course prefer trains. I therefore also counted down to the last journey by minibus in Albania: the journey between Saranda and Vlorë. Read about it here. How to border the minibus In Saranda (read our post about our stay …
Strange Stuff you need on your Packing List
There are things that are common to pack when you are on a 6-month long trip. And then there are strange things that you don’t immediately think of, could be rare to have with you. There are plenty of blog posts on the former, but few on the latter. That’s why one comes here. We learned several of these things on our last half-yearly trip. …