Retro travel around the world

TESTATA: IOL Travel
DATA: 08/09/2008
AUTORE: Belinda Archer

Can I travel back in time?

Maybe not in a Dr Who kind of way, but a vast array of retro retreats are on offer, from old-fashioned British seaside holidays to kitsch Fifties-themed hotels in Mykonos to hiring a Harley-Davidson and heading off down Route 66 in the US.

Finnair (www.finnair.com) has just introduced a retro plane known as Silver Bird to celebrate its 85th anniversary. The airline has kitted out a modern Airbus A319 to look like the national carrier's old Convair from the 1950s, the age of first-class-only air travel. Everything has been themed, from the air hostesses' – sorry, flight attendants' – uniforms, to the 1950s on-board duty-free. Flights are out of Finland, but they go to a range of major European destinations such as Paris and Amsterdam as well as other Finnish destinations.

Ooh la la Vintage (www.oohlalavintage.com) is a new company that specialises in vintage weekends to Paris, taking in tours of vintage fashion shops, a night of classic cabaret glamour at the Moulin Rouge, visits to old brasseries and cafés and staying in a choice of three retro hotels offering genuine old-style attention to detail. Oh, and you get to drive round in a vintage Citroë 2CV too. Priced from £300 (about R4 100) per person based on two sharing including return train fares, one night at the Asiatique Hotel, "vintage master class".

You might like to recreate the days of the British Raj by staying in an elegant colonial bungalow on a 19th-century tea plantation in the scenic hills of Sri Lanka. The bungalows, once managers' homes on working plantations, have been restored to their former glory and each comes with its own chef, butler and houseboys. Premier Prestige (www.premier-prestige.co.uk) has a five-night break with all meals/drinks starting at £1 299 (about R18 000) per person (twin share) with return flights from Heathrow or Gatwick and private transfers.

The website www.retrotogo.com is a source of "all things hip and retro". As well as vintage fashion tips and advice on where to get retro gadgetry, it has a useful travel section detailing a wide selection of vintage vacations.

Travel in style?

Travelling by a vintage mode of transport is a popular way of capturing a bygone age. How about hiring a Morris Traveller for the weekend – top speed 96km/h – or something a little more racy, like a Jaguar E Type roadster or Jensen? Great Escape Cars (www.greatescapecars.co.uk) has numerous vintage vehicles and classic cars.

Or you could book a 1970s VW camper van and tour round the Isle of Wight through Isle of Wight Campers (www.isleofwightcampers.co.uk). The company supplies a full list of recommended campsites and places of interest, as well as full breakdown-cover and insurance.

Perhaps the best Harley adventure is in California, the heartland of the American Dream. California Motorcycle Adventures (www.californiamotorcycleadventures.com) has Harleys of all description, including Road Kings, from as little as $99 (about R800) per day. It will put together a customised self-guided tour for you, including trip routing with maps and recommended hotels en route, as well as offer fully guided tour packages.

But maybe the sea is more your thing: join the crew of a tall ship for a voyage round the Mediterranean, the Caribbean or even across the Atlantic. Tall Ships (www.tallships.org) runs trips for adults on its fabulous 60-metre square-rigged u o brig, the Stavros S Niarchos, built in 2000, with a traditional 18th-century rig. Perhaps surprisingly, no sailing experience is required.

A classic train ride?

You are spoilt for choice. There are several classic trains and train journeys to choose between. Online travel-experiences company Isango (www.isango.com) offers a number of retro rail-journeys such as the Georgetown Loop Railroad, a genuine old-style 19th-century steam locomotive which passes for nine hours through the Rockies in Colorado, reliving memories of the Gold Rush, from £52,30 (about R400) per person.

Or you could climb aboard the Danube Express (www.danube-express.com), a stunning recreation of the beautiful carriages of the 1950s. This deluxe hotel on wheels, which was used by Hungarian officials and dignitaries on state visits, tours Eastern and Central Europe from Budapest. A two-night all-inclusive trip, excluding flights, from Budapest to Istanbul costs from £990 (about R14 000) per person.

Perhaps nothing can quite match the antique carriages of the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, however (www.orient-express.com) for a whiff of the golden age of luxury rail travel. Be transported in style to the likes of Venice, Istanbul and Rome, a one-way journey from Rome to Venice costing from £415 (about R5 700) per person. Alternatively, take off to any number of UK destinations on its British sister trains, the British Pullman and Northern Belle. A one-day return trip to Bath from London including gourmet brunch, dinner and guided tour costs from £310 (about R4 300) per person.

I'm a fan of the 1950s

How about "doing" Route 66, the road of legends that crosses the continent, from Chicago to Los Angeles? Fifties-style diners, motels and museums dot the historic journey, and you can even stop for frozen custard and a drive-in movie. Do the whole route or just a part – packages through Bon Voyage (www.bon-voyage.co.uk) start from £899 (about R12 500) per person for 14 nights including return flights to Chicago and home from Los Angeles (or vice versa), all-inclusive compact car hire and 14 nights' three-star accommodation.

I sei treni più belli del mondo

TESTATA: La Stampa
DATA: 04/08/2008
AUTORE: Carlo Rossella

Il primo requisito di un buon treno è la pulizia. Il secondo è il candore delle lenzuola nelle cabine, che deve essere perfetto. Il terzo è la comodità del letto, che deve essere rigido per evitare di arrivare con un terribile mal di schiena. Quarto, il servizio alla partenza, a bordo e all’arrivo. Quinto, il cibo del ristorante. Sesto il panorama.
Nella mia esperienza, i grandi treni che presentano tutte queste qualità oggi non sono molti. In testa collocherei il grande espresso che va da Singapore a Bangkok: elegante, raffinato, costoso, frequentato da viaggiatori che usano pochi trolley e molte valigie di gran lusso - soprattutto Vuitton Vintage, molto usate anche dai loro avi. A bordo si può trovare cibo internazionale, ma anche raffinata cucina thai, con aglio soltanto a richiesta. Per i fumatori incalliti c’è una stanza riservata molto ben aerata, rivestita di radica, dalle comode poltrone rosse, dove camerieri in turbante servono un porto assai invecchiato. Per chi lo desidera, il butler, il servitore, è in grado di rimboccare perfettamente le coperte, come la mamma di Proust nella Recherche.
Secondo nella mia classifica è l’Orient Express, nel tratto che conosco da Londra a Venezia.
La compagnia Cunard, proprietaria del treno e di alberghi di lusso come il veneziano Cipriani, ha rimesso in auge le carrozze d’antan - velluti, broccato, damaschi, divani, puff, uno stile che sarebbe piaciuto a Agatha Christie e a Sherlock Holmes. Tutto è perfetto su questo treno: soprattutto il cibo, una raffinatissima cucina francese e internazionale, con vini sceltissimi e una raccolta di champagne che nemmeno a Parigi. Unico inconveniente, il troppo bere di alcuni viaggiatori che si addormentano a tavola col tran tran della ferrovia e devono essere svegliati per potergli permettere di raggiungere i loro scompartimenti senza russare ancora nel restaurant.
Al terzo posto metto una vecchia ferrovia della British India, lassù nel Darjeeling, con camerieri in guanti bianchi vestiti come ai tempi del raji, tè verde dal sapore unico e una cucina al curry davvero encomiabile. Il profumo del curry pervade il treno e si mescola con quello del vapore lasciando il delizioso ricordo di un voyage irripetibile.
Quarto, inevitabilmente, troneggia un trenino storico nella cultura della Mitteleuropa, lo Zermatt-Sankt Moritz, dalla Montagna incantata di Thomas Mann al Corviglia, esclusivo ritrovo del potere, del denaro e dell’aristocrazia. Le Alpi svizzere viste dai convogli rallegrano i turisti: d’estate alcuni vagoni sono scoperti come una grande spider e i viaggiatori, per vincere i pur minimi rigori, bevono dalle loro fiaschette acquaviti molto forti che fanno rosseggiare le guance già toccate dal sole delle grandi altitudini.
Il quinto posto va al lento convoglio che da New York porta a Miami e viceversa: fino agli anni Quaranta, prima che l’aereo prendesse del tutto il sopravvento, era il treno delle vacanze di ricchi e famosi, ma anche di pensionati che da New York ragiungevano il «Sunshine State». Chi non ricorda il divertente vagone di questa linea che ha fatto da sfondo a un film indimenticabile come A qualcuno piace caldo di Billy Wilder?
Tutto il resto dei treni selezionati dall’Independent merita un elogio: non li ho frequentati, ma li ho visti su un famoso libro fotografico, grande e costoso, dedicato ai più belli del mondo.
Fra tanti piaceri, resta la nostalgia di un treno ormai infrequentabile, la Transiberiana: quarant’anni fa vi si poteva ancora salire a bordo senza problemi, poi con il tempo, almeno nei convogli gestiti dalle ferrovie russe, la qualità è degradata a gran velocità. Ora mi dicono che anche la parte cinese è scesa molto di livello. Si parla di viaggiatori rapinati fra Omsk e Novo Sibirsk nelle notti di tormenta, quando la Transiberiana sembra percorrere una galleria di ghiaccio. Ma così va il mondo. A Est degli Urali.

Train journeys take longer now than 20 years ago - despite new trains and faster tracks

TESTATA: Daily Mail
DATA: 13/08/2008
AUTORE: Sophie Borland

Train journeys are taking longer than 20 years ago, according to new figures.
Despite faster trains and track improvements, passengers now have to allow five minutes more for a journey than they did in 1987.
It is thought that rail companies are tweaking their timetables to ensure that trains arrive on time and they are not fined for late arrivals.
The longest journeys are in London and the South-East, according to data compiled in the Thomas Cook European Timetables.
Reading to Paddington takes 31 minutes compared with 28 in the late 1980s. Southend to Fenchurch Street is five minutes slower lasting 54 minutes today.
There are also problems elsewhere in Britain - passengers now need to allow 62 minutes to get from Exeter to Bristol, six minutes more than 21 years ago.
Meanwhile the trip between Glasgow and Edinburgh is now two minutes longer than in 1987, lasting 50 minutes. A commuter train is classed as 'on time' if it arrives at its destination within five minutes of schedule. Longer distance services have slightly more leeway at 10 minutes. The current target for the industry is to ensure that 88.7 per cent of trains are running on time and recent figures show that 90.1 per cent of trains are inside this window.
Details of the longer services have emerged as passengers are preparing themselves for steep fare rises.Most routes will see increases of one per cent above inflation which would mean a rise of 5.4 per cent. Revelations of the longer journeys have been criticised by campaigners as "bizarre" given the fact faster trains were now in use.
A spokesman for London TravelWatch said: “Some increase in journey times may be justified by more passengers, thus longer stopping at stations. However, modern trains serving most London routes have better acceleration, which should offset this to some degree.” Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrats’ transport spokesman said: “At a time when we should be doing more to encourage more people onto the railways it is unacceptable that journey times are getting longer, especially when there is so much slack in the timetable,” he said. Network Rail denied altering targets to ensure bonuses were paid.
A spokesman said: “Compared to 20 years ago more trains are being run. When the industry was privatised in 1996, there were 17,000 services being run every day, now it is 22,000."