this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
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Solarpunk Travel

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Can a flight be ok to do for "holidays"? (self.solarpunktravel)
submitted 6 months ago by AchtungDrempels to c/solarpunktravel
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I like travelling by bike, but i am not the biggest fan of doing roundtrips, i much prefer moving further and further away. So on longer trips i will end up way far from home, and since travelling by train across Europe, can be a real ordeal (especially with a bike), i sometimes take a plane back home. I guess busses would be an option too from some locations, i personally absolutely hate travelling by bus though. Weak excuse i know.

I am able to rationalize to myself that it is ok to take that flight, i spent now weeks doing low impact travel and can end it with a boom and still probably had less impact then with my regular life at home (i have not really done the calculation tbh). Of course, if it is reasonably easy to get home by train i will definitely prefer that, and i absolutely don't always end up taking a plane.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you ever take a flight?

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[–] activistPnk 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Are you really cycling far enough to warrant a flight? Is it about the journey or the destination? I would think you don’t do that kind of distance without loving the journey to the point of trivializing the destination. So for a given trip, you could just as well cut the outbound trip in half. It need not be a back and forth trip as the redundancy is what you want to avoid. So make it a triangular route.

Whatever your distaste is for buses, perhaps that can be remedied with small mid-trip stretches. Find a city pair where the journey is overall uphill, then book a bus just for a short segment of your trip. You get a more interesting window view for an hour or two than you would in a plane, and a moment to rest between cycling segments. You can do the same with ferries.

It’s also surprising to hear that you find it easier to take a bicycle on a plane than a train or bus. The fee for that must be small on buses and trains than on a plane. And hard to trust airline baggage handlers with your bicycle.

Might be worth looking into taking a blabla car, though it might be hard to find a ride who can spare the space for a bike.

[–] AchtungDrempels 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Well i guess to me it seemed like it warranted a flight. I also don't always take a flight back home. What is far enough to warrant a flight? It is very much about the journey, a destination is nice to have though, as in having some kind of goal, and a place from where i am able to make it home.

Right now i am thinking about two options, but both involve a flight again:

  • take a plane to southern Spain or Portugal and end up home, either by bike or somewhere close enough to go by train
  • take a train to Austria or Italy then cycle to Greece or Turkey then back home by plane

Of course both options could be seen as unnecessary decadence.

Taking a bike on a plane is quite easy, i think. And it is also cheaper than a train, like half of it (of course all depends on the travel). Buses... yeah. That is an option i kind of want to ignore.

edit: I took 6 flights since 2019, 4 were one way, one was a return flight.