Sawday’s responsible travel

Welcome to our responsible travel hub, where you’ll find our exciting Trainline competition alongside everything else we’re doing to encourage people to travel in a slower, more connected, more responsible way.  

Win a rail escape with Trainline & Artist Residence

Win one of four stays at one of Artist Residence’s beautiful boutique hotels along with train travel from Trainline, so you could be heading to one of the UK’s most creative, inspiring places to stay, travelling car-free and carefree all the way. 

The winner will receive a £200 Trainline voucher and two nights at one of either the Brighton, Penzance, Bristol or Oxfordshire Artists Residence hotels. Which one? You’ll find out when you win. Enter below for a couple of days of easy travel and indulgent living. 

Inspired to ride the rails? Take a look at… 

Car-free stays

Places you can reach by public transport with no more than a 20-minute walk from the nearest stop or station. 

 

Two hours from London

Places that are only a couple of hours from big city bustle to calming countryside.

What do we mean by responsible travel? 

For us, responsible travel is about how we can improve travel’s relationship with the environment and its effect on communities impacted by tourism.

To help the latter, we’ve launched a capping policy for popular destinations and direct our marketing towards the off-season and alternative destinations.

For the former, we’re working with our owners to lower their carbon emissions as well as tackling our own as a business, without ignoring the impact of our guests’ journeys. But as important as either of these is the thing we’ve always done – find independent owners who love hosting, find guests who love discovering somewhere new, and bring them together. 

You can read our Impact Report for a full breakdown of everything we’re doing to try and make travel better.  

Sawday’s x Byway

We work with Byway, experts in sustainable travel, to create itineraries that allow guests to ditch the car and explore anywhere from riverside towns in England to the French Riviera and the hills of Tuscany.  

Your Sawday’s x Byway journey to Cornwall 

Leave London behind and whisk yourself off to the south coast, spending five nights in two glorious waterfront spots, where you can linger on the terrace and watch the waves.  

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Your Sawday’s x Byway journey to Italy 

An epic journey made easy, as you hop over to Paris before heading all the way down to Florence and Venice, coming home on a dramatically scenic route through the alps.

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Your Sawday’s x Byway journey to the French Riviera 

All the sun and sea you could want, as you nip down to Nice, spend a couple of days basking in the grandeur of Cannes then indulge in a Parisian stopover on the way home. 

View itinerary >

 

Travel inspiration from our flight-free experts 

Four great rural weekends by train

Here are some of our favourite places you can reach by train while feeling a world away from the urban grind.

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Jo Keeling takes Spain’s slow train

Hopping on and off the narrow gauge FEVE railway, Jo Keeling explores Asturias and Galicia, on Spain’s unspoilt northern coast – an astonishingly green region with untamed mountains, hearty regional dishes and warm, authentic people.

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Europe’s most spectacular train journeys

Travel writer and train expert, Monisha Rajesh, shares four journeys with spectacular scenery at every twist and turn.

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Short French breaks by train

France is so easily reached by train and therefore, as French expert and travel writer Carolyn Boyd, has discovered, it’s simple to discover charming new corners of France and arrive with ease and comfort.

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Four train journeys perfect for solo travellers

Journalist and author, Monisha Rajesh, who has written several books and countless articles on train travel, shares a few of her favourite routes for solo travellers.

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Marche’s Slow Food train trail

Travelling by train through La Marche is a delicious way to discover a region that has the luscious landscapes, sparkling blue seas and impeccable food of neighbours Tuscany and Umbria, but a fraction of the crowds.

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Coastal trails, new rails and overnight trains 

With the landscape of travel changing as more of us look for cost-effective, greener holiday options, we decided to go, slowly and sustainably of course, in search of new ways to explore the UK.

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Salt pans, green wine and riverside trains

We asked our community of owners in Portugal and immediately started planning trips to Porto’s new wine districts, the São Jacinto Dunes, waterfront markets, art galleries and the warm waters of Madeira.

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Our favourite Scottish rail trips 

There’s something decidedly old-fashioned and romantic about boarding a sleeper train and waking up at your destination, and once you’ve made your way to Scotland, there are plenty of rail trips that allow you to carry on into the stunning scenery at a rumbling pace.

Find out more >