The Man in Seat 61, by Wil Guilfoyle

There is an English gentleman who has always loved train travel, and for several years has run a free repository for train routes that take people all over the world. The man’s name is Mark Smith.

He’s also known as The Man in Seat 61, which is the name of his website, which you can visit here: seat61.com.

The first thing you notice when you visit Mark’s site is the sidebar to the left, which lists in-depth, invaluable information for varying routes that include:

∙ London to China & Japan by Trans-Siberian Railway
∙ London to Central Asia & China via The Silk Route
∙ London to India overland by train

And there are countless more.

I started and named this website initially with a nod to my fear of flying. I’ve made it a point to travel over many years only by land and sea, taking a boat ride to Hawaii from Canada in 2015 when I moved there, driving across the country to Florida from the West Coast and back, as well as to New York from the West Coast and back. I took trains from London to Italy, a ferry over to Greece, and trains up into Istanbul, where I lived for a year teaching English.

Going over land and sea takes a lot longer than flying. But it becomes its own intermediary adventure, between the adventure you just left and the adventure you’re headed to. Some of these journeys took months. I once took trains and buses from the state of Maine to Costa Rica and back. That was a long one. That was a truly unforgettable adventure!

Now I share with you the king of global train travel, Mark Smith, and his wonderful repository of information that will get you to where you need to be, slowly, without leaving the Earth’s surface.
Bookmark his site, because it’s an adventurer’s treasure trove.

You can learn more about Mark here.

And, again, here is his glorious website: https://www.seat61.com/aboutme.htm