Everyone wants to save money on vacation, but steep discounts are rare for most — unless you are a high-profile celebrity, influencer, or, it seems, the mayor of New York City.
24.09.2024 - 20:59 / cntraveler.com
Ankara, the Turkish capital, has been wilting under days of intense heat. Our taxi driver lets us out at the station with a gift of a cool apple. The forecourt is a mess of commuters competing for taxis and minivans. Through its automatic doors, though, is a gleaming air-conditioned cathedral to Turkey’s high-speed rail. The relief is short-lived—a uniformed attendant at the information window soon informs us our train, the Doğu Ekspresi (translation: Eastern Express) actually departs from the old station next door.
What we see, when we arrive, is a study in contrasts: Where the new station’s marble floors had been polished to a sharp gleam, here, the marble has been dulled from a century’s scuffing of shoes and slippers. We slump down and immediately begin to sweat.
Built in 2016, the sleek extension to the older Ankara station serves as a hub for high-speed rail.
After the Ottoman Empire’s collapse in 1922, the new Turkish republic set out to modernize into a secular European-style state. The rail network played a large role in this. Where the Ottoman railways had primarily been constructed, owned, and in service of foreign companies, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the republic’s founder, envisioned the new republic unified by a railway network. Completed in 1939, the Eastern portion, from Sivas to Erzurum, was key in realizing this vision: Turkey’s famously remote Anatolian provinces were to be connected to the education and services of Istanbul and Ankara and, if needed, the line could transport military to Turkish territory ceded by Armenia, now part of a new Soviet Union.
A decade ago I had motorcycled through the provinces of Eastern Anatolia, and witnessed up-close the region's hash, mountainous terrain. Being cradled in its jagged valleys was a feeling that stuck with me, and later, when I met a hydrogeologist in Laos, inspired by the country’s similarly jagged karst mountains, I proceeded to try and impress her with my knowledge of its geological features. She saw through it all, of course, but a year later we planned a journey on the Doğu Express. While a special Doğu Express catering to tourists operates in the winter high season, we chose the regular service, which functions as transport and not recreation.
The waiting passengers look glazed in the platform's heavy air. Luckily, the train arrives with a fresh breeze, ten carriages drawn by a diesel engine, the red of the Turkish flag. The instant it stops, sweaty passengers are slinging luggage aboard and climbing up to locate seats and air-conditioning. Over 26 hours and 800 miles, this train will trundle to the eastern city of Kars along the border with Armenia.
A hundred years later, Atatürk’s secular legacy has come under pressure. No alcohol
Everyone wants to save money on vacation, but steep discounts are rare for most — unless you are a high-profile celebrity, influencer, or, it seems, the mayor of New York City.
Since the dawn of time, the romance of railways has seduced poets, spellbound novelists, and dealt directors the perfect hand for capturing fleeting friendships, illicit affairs, and all manner of crimes and capers. A ticket is not just a permit to ride, it’s permission to trespass on the intimacies of other people’s lives. Trains bring us up close and personal—both inside and outside the carriage. On board, passengers chat politics in Finnish dining cars, clamber into couchettes above strangers on the Trans-Siberian, and share samosas on India’s many raucous mail trains. Outside, the world flashes by, a slideshow of rivers growing into oceans, deserts rising into mountains and cities sprawling then receding into darkness as the train thunders on through the night.
Landlocked Armenia occupies a special spot in the South Caucasus, one half of a larger region that’s known for being straddled by the Black and Caspian Seas. Geographically, it belongs to Asia. Geopolitically, it’s considered European. And as European destinations go, it most certainly qualifies as a hidden gem.
The two largest cities in Portugal, Lisbon and Porto, are both located on the Atlantic coast, 190 miles apart. The drive between the two cities is a scenic one, but it does mean you’ll have to rent a vehicle to make the three-hour trip. If you want to travel between Lisbon and Porto in comfort, for cheap, and without putting in too much effort, take the train instead. The Lisbon to Porto train is very frequent, takes just as long as driving, costs less than what you’d pay for a rental and gas, and the landscape out the window is equally gorgeous.
Nowhere in the world embodies humanity’s living history quite like the Bosphorus Straight. Cutting 19 miles through Istanbul and northwest Türkiye, the straight is the only shipping channel connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and, eventually, the Mediterranean. As such, it’s an imperative lifeblood for West Asia and the Caucasus, and throughout human history has carried, celebrated, and cursed some of the most powerful armies the world has ever seen. Indeed, if only these waters could talk.
Istanbul is undeniably the most well-know part of Türkiye, but it’s far from being the only one worth visiting. If you’re keen to explore the country further but want to keep your carbon footprint down, you can opt to travel by train. The rail network in Türkiye is relatively extensive, with high-speed trains linking Istanbul to Ankara, Konya, and Sivas, local trains, long-distance routes, sleeper trains, and even touristic trains covering large swathes of the country. The Mesopotamia Express, a sleeper train that travels 653 miles across Anatolia is Türkiye’s latest touristic, long-distance sleeper rail offering.
As I touched down at Dalaman Airport in Türkiye, a warm breeze and a hint of salty humidity welcomed me, signaling that the Aegean Sea was just around the corner.
If you time it right, there are several dozens of great places to enjoy cherry blossom season in Japan — and not just in Tokyo, but in Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Sendai, Aomori, and more. And the blossoms are not just found in parks, but also around temples, shrines, castles, etc. Few cherry blossom viewing experiences, however, are as cool as the one you get from the Sagano Scenic Railway. West of the city of Kyoto, the Sagano Scenic Railway, nicknamed the Romantic Train, offers a beautiful 25-minute ride amongst cherry blossoms. It might just be the loveliest way to take in the millions of delicate pink flowers that make spring in Japan so special.
There are plenty of amazing leaf-peeping opportunities in the US. A romantic road trip to see the covered bridges of New England is one, taking an air balloon ride to see the foliage from above is another. But the most relaxed and nostalgic way to experience fall in all its glory is by train. There are multiple vintage railroads in the United States that will transport you back in time while you admire the fall colors, but few do it as well as the East Broad Top railroad.
Nobody understands the magic of Amtrak's California Zephyr train quite like Brad Swartzwelter, better known to passengers as Conductor Brad.
If you’re planning a trip to Denmark, Italy, or the United Kingdom, the U.S. State Department urges you to exercise increased caution. In September, these popular European vacation destinations had their warning levels elevated due to the risk of potential terrorist attacks.
This as-told-to essay is based on an in-person interview with Goda Ponomariovaitė, a 22-year-old Lithuanian student living in Vilnius.