On my visit to Europe this month I decided to use trains whenever possible.
Here's what I learned.
I took the following trains in Germany (Deutsche Bahn) and Poland (PKP): Hamburg to Flensburg. Berlin to Hamburg. Hamburg to Poznan. Poznan to Warsaw. All up, I probably spent about 20 hours on trains over the past few weeks, so I feel I've had enough experience to form some opinions — although I'm certainly not an expert.
Good things about train travel
• Trains are comfy and easy to use your laptop on them
• Train stations are central and easy to get to
• It's fast to get through a train station (no security screening, etc)
• Some stations have lounges (e.g Deutsche Bahn lounge, not really advertised!)
• Nice scenery to look at on the way 🌳 🚊 🏞️
Not so good things about train travel
• In my experience, trains were almost always late, by at least an hour
• Buying tickets (as a tourist, like me) requires queuing at a ticket office
• Central train stations are jammed with food store...
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Hi everyone,
As a biologist with a long standing background in tourism (my parents ran two campsites in Greece over 30 years), I have been working on a scientific tourism concept for the past months.
Although I got positive feedback from International organisations, plus an offer to start my project small in Greece, I am having massive self-doubts whether it is a good idea to start anything in tourism. I cannot seem to understand the basic - how would I gain my salary from my activity - which honestly blocks me :-(
Would any of you have recommendations, feedback, experience in the field of scientific tourism? I would love to hear more about the topic here.
I wish to build a network of individualised tours/ projects in the Mediterranean region, starting by Greece that will work together with some Internationaly important initiatives, as well with smaller established NGO´s and initiatives. All activities will be coordinated with the necessary academic/ institutional support and based on a sound scientific ground, adapted and easily communicated to a broader audience.
Thank you :-)
Hello, working in STR & real estate within the Adriatic sea, your project sounds interesting. At your disposal for a call, nice day!
Hi Dominique - "science" is wide - but as a biologist you might be interested to take a look into wildlife conservation type of tourism. Here in Montenegro, I would recommend to get in touch e.g. with czip.me/?lang=en with their tourism arm monticola.me, as well as the dolphin research & protection folks in Kotor, balkan.green/map/blue-operation-wildlife-conservation-tours/. For biodiversity trail blazers: Jovana and Andrijana at the drustvoekologa.me/en/. In Greece again, ecotourism experts such as Frosso K. Dimitrakopolou of ecoclub.com.
gladly!
thank you Kirsi. Yes, science is very wide, but I have already limited it to two fields that I believe are important for the regions and the people interested. The thing is I have an entire list of potential partners and organisations relevant to my project, it is more how to go about making effective cooperations and building the project so that I can also live from it. Though thank you for the recommendations as it includes regions I had not considered yet :)
Check out MEET (Mediterranean Experience of Eco-Tourism) Network — they operate in 9 Mediterranean countries and over 20 Protected Area destinations to develop the region into a leading ecotourism destination.
I already have MEET on my side :) thanks!