Slo-Travel to Munich

Last week I returned from visiting my childhood friend in Munich on a coach - or rather two coaches: The first was from Cheltenham (see above photo of me on my return!) and the second was a Eurolines coach from London Victoria to Munich via Brussels. The two coaches together took 23 hours each way so included two nights on a coach. The two journeys themselves were more like an adventure than a journey and I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable they were.

George Monbiot recommends coach travel as having the lowest carbon footprint and this is the reason I chose to visit my friend by coach. Travelling this way meant I added an extra 200 kilograms of carbon (0.2 tonnes of carbon) to my annual carbon allowance of 1 tonne for personal carbon use, as opposed to the extra 600 kilograms of carbon (0.6 tonnes of carbon) I would have used had I flown - so I used a third of the carbon going by coach that I would have used if I had gone by plane.

I asked some of my fellow passengers their reasons for choosing slo-travel and all of them said it was because this option was cheapest. However, for me this was not the cheapest or most convenient option but the best option for the planet for those times when you really do have to travel to another country.