Travel – Stanfords Blog

Book of the Month: Slow Trains to Istanbul

Our Book of the Month is Slow Trains to Istanbul by Tom Chesshyre.

From London via Paris, Naples, Nuremberg, the Swiss Alps, Budapest, Athens and into the furthest corners of Eastern Europe across Romania and Bulgaria, join Tom Chesshyre on his fascinating journey to Istanbul and back.

Ever dreamt of dropping everything and adventuring cross-country to the edge of Asia? That’s just what Tom Chesshyre did, hitting the tracks for a 4,570-mile adventure on 55 rides, shadowing the old Orient Express route.

Interrailing was once the realm of young backpackers setting off to “find themselves” – and for many, it still is. But it’s also a joyful and eco-friendly twenty-first century adventure that’s open to us all, no matter our age or agenda. Dodging striking train drivers in Germany, getting stuck by the Bulgarian-Greek border, and negotiating tricky passport officials in Turkey is all part of the fun in this illuminating and meandering journey around Europe.

Europe by rail awaits. The freedom of the lines awaits. Why not hop on board?

Author Biography

Tom Chesshyre is the author of eleven travel books, the latest telling the story of a 379-mile hike around the Lake District. He has travelled 40,000 miles around the world for his train books; most recently for Slow Trains Around Spain: A 3,000-Mile Adventure on 52 Rides. His book writing has also taken him across North Africa after the Arab Spring, round the “dark side” of the Maldives on cargo ships, along the length of the River Thames and on a journey through “unsung Britain” (in To Hull and Back). He worked on the travel desk of The Times for 21 years and is now freelance, contributing to The Critic and New European magazines. He lives in London.

Slow Trains to Istanbul is available now for £20

Watch Tom Chesshyre introduce his new book:

Can we travel better?

We spend more on travel than on any other leisure activity. But Ash Bhardwaj believes that we can make travel more fulfilling by thinking about our motivations for doing it. He explores this in his book, Why We Travel, through a blend of travelogue, memoir, research, and advice.

Because of my work, people often ask me for travel recommendations. But as I wrote and researched Why We Travel, I realised that destinations are the wrong place to start our travel-plans, because different places suit different motivations at different times.

Book of the Month: Taking the Risk by Hilary Bradt

Our Book of the Month for April 2024 is Taking the Risk: My Adventures in Travel and Publishing by founder of Bradt Guides, former recipient of the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing and friend of Stanfords, Hilary Bradt.

Hilary Bradt signing copies of Taking the Risk

In Taking the Risk Hilary Bradt looks back on 50 years of escapades, surprises, mishaps, disasters… and success. From her first solo trip aged three (on a British beach), she revisits six decades of hitchhiking, feeding the travel habit by working abroad, and starting a successful travel publishing company where knowing nothing proved a surprising asset.

Children’s Book of the Month: Lonely Planet Create Your Own Travel Journal

Our January Children’s Book of the Month is the Lonely Planet Kids Create Your Own Travel Journal.

Make your vacation memories last a lifetime with this awesome fill-in children’s travel journal that’s packed with brilliant activities and prompts to inspire kids to write and draw their adventures. Budding diarists can record precious moments from their trip in this pocket-sized book and create the ultimate holiday souvenir to cherish forever.

Remembering Dervla Murphy

At the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards in March we awarded Hilary Bradt with the Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing Award. The previous year’s recipient of this award, Dervla Murphy, sent this message to Hilary from her home in Ireland for us to read out at the awards;

“When we first met in an Andean hut in 1979 I had one of those instant reactions- a kindred spirit. During the subsequent decades Hilary, as both a traveller and writer, has provided invaluable guidance and encouragement to generations of young travellers uninterested in beaten tracks. Congratulations of your award Hilary.”

Here Hilary Bradt pays tribute to a great travel writer and a special friend for 40 years.

-by Hilary Bradt

On May 5 I received an email from Dervla’s friend and PR, Steph Allen, with this message: “I’ve just spoken to Dervla who is not at all well. She has heart failure and believes that she is (in her own words) on her way out. I asked if there was anyone she’d like me to let know and she asked if I could send you a message to say thank you for everything you have done for her over the years”. This unwarranted thoughtfulness and generosity personifies this extraordinary woman who died on May 22, and who I first met in 1979 in an Ecuadorian hostal (the sort with no hot water, $3 a night, with rooms clustered around a courtyard). She was returning from Peru, which would (eventually) result in Eight Feet in the Andes and George and I were researching our guide to Backpacking in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador – the third in our fledgling backpacking series. I, like so many other young travellers, had been inspired by Dervla’s early books, in my case Full Tilt and In Ethiopia with a Mule, and was awe-struck to meet such a famous writer. The awe was diluted by a shared bottle of local rum, but the admiration grew steadily throughout our 44-year friendship.

Where My Feet Fall: Going For A Walk In Twenty Stories

Edited by Duncan Minshull. William Collins.

To head for a place on foot is to – meander and wander.. ramble and amble.. stroll and saunter.. strut and scuff.. loiter and lurch.. ambulate and.. well, just walk. Furthermore, don’t we set out across all sorts of landscapes and cityscapes, in all sorts of weathers, for all sorts of reasons? Be they physical or psychological reasons, personal or public, sometimes even political?

And, isn’t it about time we had insight into this?

An extract from the prologue of Crossed off the Map: Travels in Bolivia

-by Shafik Meghji

In 1867, so the story goes, Mariano Melgarejo, the 15th president of Bolivia, asked the British ambassador to pay respects to his latest mistress. When the request was haughtily declined, Melgarejo, whose time in office was marked by brutality and political miscalculation, took great offence. The ambassador was swiftly apprehended, stripped naked, tied to an ass – facing the rear, naturally – and paraded around the main square of La Paz, before being kicked out of the country.

The Traveller’s Colouring Book

Colour you way around the world with The Traveller’s Colouring Book featuring over 60 illustrations of people, buildings, wildlife and landscapes from amazing places. Each illustration is accompanied by an informative caption from one of Bradt’s acclaimed travel guides.

How to Stay Safe On Your Gap Year

Whether you’re a young person setting off on your first overseas adventure, a career breaker, or a silver traveller heading out to discover a new destination; we all need to look after our personal safety and security. After all, we want our travel experience to be memorable for all the right reasons. No matter how experienced you are, Lloyd Figgins, travel risk expert and author of The Travel Survival Guide provides practical and cost effective advice on how to stay safe

Stanfords Staff Selects

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” –Dr Seuss

As it’s holiday season, we thought we’d offer a few recommendations that will take you places: Continue reading Stanfords Staff Selects