THE JOY OF THE JOURNEY: WHY TRAIN TRAVEL IS THE ULTIMATE WAY TO GET MORE OUT OF YOUR ADVENTURE 

From bullet trains to bunk beds, rail travel is a truly immersive experience  

By: Yves Marceau, VP of product for G Adventures 

When traveling, it’s all too easy to skip from one destination to the next, without really appreciating what we see along the way. “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey,” is a phrase we’ve all heard. At G Adventures, we believe it’s both. That’s why we recently launched our Rail Collection – 60 joyful train journeys across 20 countries that help travelers to travel flexibly and responsibly, while also offering true cultural immersion in a destination.  

There are so many reasons why train travel is increasingly important for a community tourism-focused operator like ours, allowing you to get more out of your adventure. Here are just some of them.  

It encourages you to slow down 

In a literal sense, opting for a train journey instead of a flight is a slower form of travel. Even G Adventures’ Rail Collection trips in Japan, which include journeys on the famous bullet train, are slow compared to air travel. But importantly, traveling by train also encourages you to slow down, too. What you may feel like you are ‘losing’ in time, you are gaining elsewhere – leaving the pace of the journey to someone is freeing, and the hypnotic trundle on a train can do wonders for helping your mind slow, something that can be increasingly hard to do in a fast-paced world.  

It can be a more immersive experience 

Major airports across the world have a tendency to look, feel, smell and sound the same. Train journeys do not. A train trip fully immerses you in the destination and doesn’t let you bypass local life on the ground. Whether it’s what you’re seeing out the window, from miles of countryside to rarely-seen villages, to what you’re smelling on board, or what you’re eating along the way. And while airports go big on global food chains when it comes to eating options, at train stations, particularly smaller ones out of bigger cities, you’re more likely to find smaller independent cafes and food sellers, giving you the chance to try more local dishes – and put traveler dollars directly into the pocket of locals. 

Big picture benefits

Using public rail transportation not only helps infuse money into communities that wouldn’t usually benefit from tourism income, but also helps keep commuter rail travel funded and more affordable for locals. It’s a simple yet great example of how tourism can be a force for good, and benefit communities on a much more local level in the easiest of ways. 

It encourages new connections 

Chances are you’ve taken a seat on a train and spent the journey sitting opposite someone. It’s impossible – certainly with the longer train journeys G Adventures features in its Rail Collection – to not interact with the people around you. Some of our favorite Rail Collection trips feature day-long journeys across India, where your local travel companions start out as strangers, but soon become acquaintances with stories to tell, giving a unique and powerful insight into life on unhurried journeys. And how could you possibly share a bunk cabin on a sleeper train in Vietnam without a spontaneous conversation – or long game of cards – with your new cabin mates? Authentic interactions like these are the memories we take away from trips abroad – and they’re often the stories that we tell, too. 

It’s a true adventure  

Ever seen a toddler or group of kids gleefully smiling at a train passing by? Trains have been synonymous with adventure since we were kids. And as adults, what’s one person’s commuter train is another person’s adventure. It may look like a train ride through the bucolic Italian countryside, it may be a night rocking to sleep on the top bunk of a train journeying across Japan, or it may be a bullet train whizzing at the speed of light (almost) from Shanghai to Berlin. It’s a meaningful way to see the world – a journey to be celebrated, not endured. 

About G Adventures

G Adventures isn’t just a travel company, we’re a movement. Since 1990, when social entrepreneur Bruce Poon Tip set out to change the way people see the world, we’ve been leading the way in community tourism and small-group adventure travel. With more than 850 life-changing trips in 100 countries across all seven continents, we help travelers connect deeply with local people, cultures, landscapes and wildlife,  all while having a blast. 

But it doesn’t stop there. With us, travel  is about passion, purpose, and making a difference. Our ‘G for Good’ social impact commitments ensure every journey supports local communities, with over 130 community tourism projects powered by our non-profit partner, Planeterra, and our industry-first Ripple Score™,  which tracks how much of our travelers’ money stays local. And through our Trees for Days initiative, we’ve planted over 3 million trees (and counting), one for every traveler, every day they are on trip with us, helping communities and the planet to thrive together. 

At G Adventures, we believe in changing lives through travel, and not just for the traveler. Our unique company culture fuels a global community that transcends borders, connecting people with purpose and spreading joy, curiosity, and humanity in everything we do. We’re not just about seeing the world, we’re about making it better, together. 

Learn more and join the movement at www.gadventures.com. 

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