Choosing the route
This was surprisingly difficult. I knew I was going to fly into Charleroi from Edinburgh and wanted to do a bit of travelling by train. I have flown to Charleroi before – or ‘Brussels Charleroi’ as Ryan Air like to call it – and it is a great starting point for north-west Europe.
Initially, I thought I would do a circular trip, flying home again from Charleroi. I was finding Google Maps difficult to use for the planning stage, so I ordered Rail Map Europe which made this MUCH easier.
I looked at a couple of options, heading south, into France, northern Italy, Hungary, Germany and back. But I had always fancied Malta. Could I get to Malta and back again in a couple of weeks? Of course I could – but would I want to be racing across Europe when this was supposed to be a slow holiday?
The answer was obvious. Fly to Charleroi. Fly home from Malta.
I traced a route on my trusty map south from Belgium, immediately taking in a couple of places I had never been before, Luxembourg and Strasbourg. I was going to have to cross Switzerland, which gave me the chance to travel on the Bernina Express – the train with the panoramic windows which travels through the Alps into northern Italy. From there, I marked a route down the west coast of Italy, including an opportunity to visit either Pompeii or Herculaneum at Naples, and the chance to travel on the train that GETS ON the ferry to Sicily. And finally, the ferry to Malta.
For each part of the route, one of the best resources for advice is The Man in Seat 61 website. The site is up-to-date and essential for information on tickets, routes, and places to stay. He also has an excellent book.
Planning the Route
Now I knew where I was going, and for how long, I could make my plan. I did this on a spreadsheet – Google Sheets to be exact – because that is the sort of guy I am.
It looked a bit like this:
| Day | Date | Day Count | What’s Happening | Details | Times | Cost |
| Monday | 9/9/24 | 1 | Airport Parking | 08:00 | £85 | |
| Monday | 9/9/24 | 1 | Edinburgh to Charleroi | EDI-CRL Ryan Air One-way | 11:00 – 13:45 | £72 |
I had rough start and end dates and I could see that a significant event – the ferry to Malta – was cheapest on a Friday. And I knew there were no direct flights home from Valletta on a Monday, which gave a nice few days rest in Malta at the end of my travels.
Google searches were my friend in this, as was the Trainline app, and Sky Scanner.
I plugged in all the places I was going to visit – and for how long in each place. I got a rough idea of cost and length of time for each journey and put all that into the sheet. I had to add a stop-over in Pisa due to the train I wanted to take. And having done a bit of research on the Bernina Express, I added a change in Zurich and a night in Chur.
Booking the travel
Having a list of locations with arrival dates and lengths of stay made booking SO much easier. I double-checked everything before making any bookings, and started with the flights. Ryan Air out, and it just so happens, Ryan Air back – booked on the Ryan Air app.
Then came the trains, starting with Charleroi to Luxembourg – booked on the Trainline app. Then, an attempt to book Luxembourg to Strasbourg, bit there were no bookable trains (I’ll come back to this).
So, I booked from Strasbourg to Zurich, then on to Chur. This is where the Bernina Express runs from to Tirano, in northern Italy. This is booked on the Rhatische Bahn website rather than the Trainline app.
Back to Trainline for the trip to Milan, then Milan to Pisa, then Pisa to Naples. And then a long trip, from Naples to Palermo in Sicily. This was so cheap, despite the distance, that I chose a 1st class ticket for about £30 – booking the seat I wanted too.
Here was a tricky bit…
The ferry to Malta used to run from Catania – but this has now moved to Pozzallo. And there did not seem to be any way to book a train to Pozzallo from Palermo that would get me there in time for the sailing. SO – I booked to Catania, which in itself was easy to book, but part of the journey is by a bus pretending to be a train – just like we get here in Scotland sometimes.
Luckily, the ferry ticket can be booked from Catania – and this also has a bus, this time pretending to be a ferry. With me so far?
Anyway – then the ferry to Malta was booked through the Direct Ferries website, although the carrier is actually Virtu Ferries, and you can book direct here too.
And that was all the travel booked apart from the mysteriously elusive train journey from Luxembourg to Strasbourg. This mystery was cleared up when I downloaded the SNCF app and tried through that, which gave me a helpful message to say there were works on the train line at that time and no trains could be booked.
So – bus to Metz, booked through the Flixbus app and then train from Metz to Strasbourg.
Booking the accommodation
I had a quick and dirty check on the price of hotels compared to Airbnb and found that renting apartments was still cheaper than staying in hotels – even though I am travelling alone.
Needless to say, hostels and shared spaces are much cheaper and there were certainly budget hotels that were decent value – but not necessarily in the areas I wanted to stay.
My trusty list really helped here with booking in and booking out dates. I decided that, partly for cost, partly for choice, partly for the wide choice of locations, and partly so I could manage my bookings all in one place – I used Airbnb.
I like to stay in or near the historical old town parts of cities while being close enough to the train station – or at least on a metro or bus line which will get me to the station.
I used Google Maps to get an idea of where the train station was compared to the old town in each stop-over city and checked the appropriate listings on Airbnb. Using Street View to see what it was like in the streets around the apartments was incredibly helpful, as was using the Directions function to check walking time between the apartment and the station – or if buses, trams, or metros could be used.
One of the great functions of Airbnb is that you can favourite apartments and keep them together in a file, which is what I did for every place I was visiting. Once I had one or two apartments in mind for each stop, I went back and double-checked to see which ones were the best for me.
The Extra Stuff
The devil is in the detail – as ‘they’ say. So, first of all, I made sure I had decent travel insurance. You can add insurance to Ryan Air bookings, which is fine for a short break, but it didn’t cover the two weeks I will be travelling for. I got mine from Admiral – it is important to have this in place as soon as you know your dates, to make sure you are covered for any eventualities that may occur BEFORE your trip.
When booking my flight, I added Fast-Track security and Priority Boarding with an extra cabin bag for £7. This comes into its own when airports are packed – a little bit of luxury skipping the queue to get to security, and being one of the first to get on the plane is worth the money, especially as I was adding the extra baggage anyway.
I need to get from ‘Brussels Charleroi’ airport to the train station – I’ve done this before. I booked using the TEC – Transport En Cummun app, which runs the bus service between the airport and station.
And finally, I booked the airport parking. My flight going out is at a decent time but I won’t be getting back until after midnight, otherwise I would have used public transport. I did FastPark at Edinburgh Airport, which I have used before. Drive up to the barrier, scan your QR code for the booking, then drive to within 100 metres of the front door of the airport and leave your car in one of the parking lanes. You then drop your keys at one of the electronic terminals in the way to the airport, and get a ticket which has the pick-up locker number and code, and parking zone number for getting your keys back on your return.
And that is it. All booked.
So this is what it looks like on a map…
Betravelled 