Train Routes

Yorkshire caters for every holiday desire with major cities such as Leeds and York offering shopping and culture, and the Yorkshire Dales offering long walks in idyllic countryside.

If you’re planning a trip to the county this summer, here’s some inspiration for your caravanning break.

Visit the Yorkshire DalesHome to the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes. Take a tour around the factory and see how the cheese is made. Sample some of the different cheeses for yourself before visiting the gift shop where you can buy some to take home for friends and family.

Middleham Castle is also situated in the Yorkshire Dales and offers a perfect place to stop for a bite to eat with designated picnic areas. Dogs are welcome too! The castle was once the childhood home of Richard III.

Pitch your caravan at Bainbridge Ings Caravan and Campsite, Hawes.

Visit HaworthHaworth village, in West Yorkshire, is home to the Brontë Parsonage, which has been preserved as it was when the Brontë sisters lived there and wrote their famous novels. The Parsonage is open to visitors who can take a tour around the home of the Brontës which still contains many of their original belongings.

Take a walk across Haworth moor to Top Withens which was said to be the inspiration behind Emily Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights. Haworth also has many shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants.

The railway station in Haworth is on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway route from Keighley through Oakworth where the film, The Railway Children was filmed. Steam trains run at various times throughout the year.

Pitch your caravan at Upwood Holiday Park, Blackmoor Road, Haworth.

Visit the Yorkshire CoastThe coastal villages of Yorkshire offer the perfect day out for all the family. Whitby is home to the famous Abbey and the 199 steps leading up to St Mary’s Church. For sandy beaches, visit Bridlington or Scarborough. Further north, Robin Hoods Bay has many shops and cafes down its steep winding road down to the sea.

Pitch your caravan at Cayton Village Caravan Park, Cayton Bay, Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

Yorkshire has many attractions across the county so there’s bound to be something to suit everyone in your party. So hitch up your touring caravan and head to Yorkshire!

You are in a comfortable, climate controlled coach bus meandering down the hills of Tuscany. Surrounded by vineyards and while comfortably in your seat, you bask in the calm atmosphere. A half an hour later you stop outside a small village marketplace. Your tour guide gives you some handy tips on where to go, you grab a snack, maybe some wine and take a little bit of the country’s glow in for yourself. Then it’s back to the comfortable coach bus, and on to another stop.

This pattern repeats itself for a few more stops, and next thing you know, you are in Rome. Your bus stops outside the Coliseum and your tour guide informs you that you will be seeing this one as a group. However, instead of just wandering around, and maybe getting a tour that runs periodically, your guide has set up a special tour just for your group. You spend the afternoon enjoying ancient buildings, and retiring back to the bus just before dusk. Then it is on to a stunning hotel with a room that you could never afford without the group rate that was arranged in advance, and perhaps a visit to a gourmet restaurant or whatever other eating establishment meets your approval. Imagine this stress free bliss for your entire vacation. Imagine having all of Europe just outside the door of your bus, and an experienced guide who knows all of the destinations just waiting to reveal the secrets of the cities you will visit.

On an escorted tour through Europe you can expect to see cities such as Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Paris, Marseille, Madrid, Rome and countless others. You may spend a day or two at each destination, and time will be given for you to enjoy the thrills as either a group or on your own. During that day you will have access to your tour guide. He or she will be able to tell you more than just the basics. It’s pretty well understood that if you are going to London, then you will want to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. But your guide can reveal for you all of the lesser known attractions that the city offers. The location truly does get unlocked by your travel operator, and you are given access to so many things that you otherwise would either not know about, or not be able to afford.

Speaking of that aspect, affordability is the best part about the escorted tour of Europe. Traveling in a group is one benefit that makes an escorted tour of Europe affordable. While in Europe, your tour will visit many different locations. Your operator is able to negotiate group rates for almost anyplace you may eat, sleep or visit.

Another feature to expect on a European tour is the number of transportation options. The ample supply of railroad tracks and water routes allows tour guides to be more creative in their methods of transportation. River cruises and train trips are common. Indeed, they can be some of the most popular escorted tours offered. Imagine floating through Europe’s major rivers, and in the process enjoying all of the cities that you pass by along the way. River cruises can truly be vacation bliss. When visiting Italy, your tour guide will provide you with a ride on a gondola. The gondola is an important aspect of Italian culture which was widely used in the 18th century. A gondola ride is very relaxing and allows you to experience the rivers of Venice, Italy.

All in all there is one thing you can expect to see of more than anything else on an escorted tour of Europe. That sight is the continent itself. You will not spend your days wasting away over maps. You won’t be constantly staring at the road in front as you try and navigate through areas that you don’t know. Instead, you will be free to experience Europe to its fullest under the watch and care of an experienced, well informed guide. On an escorted tour of Europe you will actually get to relax and enjoy your destinations. That, in and of itself, makes the prospect of an escorted European tour an attractive one.

As soon as you enter Hampton Roads, the city begins to reveal itself. It’s sprawling, muscular and—from the water, at least—somewhat forbidding: a commercial fishing basin, a giant shipyard, an open-air coal pier, a fleet of reserve ships aging on the waterfront. Somewhere—ahh, there—between gray behemoths, are a few downtown office buildings, a narrow park and the barely visible top of a victory arch.

But don’t be put off. Newport News does have accessible marinas, a few lovely spots for dropping anchor, inviting beaches, a vibrant fishing industry, a gorgeous performing arts center and one of the world’s finest maritime museums. And it’s all reachable by water, with a little extra effort—okay, maybe a lot.

There’s history here, as deep as the water just off the shoreline, and it begins with a name. It may well be, as some contend, that Newport News Point—the point of land that marks the end of Hampton Roads and the beginning of the James River—got its name from the good news that Captain Christopher Newport, leader of the Jamestown expedition, had returned with supplies. But I prefer a more likely theory, that one William Newce, a knighted Irishman, arrived shortly after the 1607 settlement and established a seaport that came to be known as New Port Newce.

It was just off this point of land, two-and-a-half centuries later, that two ungainly ironclad warships, the U.S.S. Monitor and C.S.S. Virginia (nee U.S.S. Merrimack) battled to a draw on a fog-shrouded morning in March 1862, marking the beginning of the end of wooden fighting ships. Every time I pass this way I think of that battle, and how so many naval ships, “ironclads” all, are now built just over there, on that near shore, practically within hailing distance; Also not far from here, perhaps the distance of a cannonball’s flight, are the hoary remains of the Monitor itself, resting in a world-class museum.

I’m traveling by sailboat—my Tartan 30, Ode to Joy—from my mooring on the Lafayette River in Norfolk, hoping to take a closer look at what makes Newport News compelling, especially by water. Newport News, a linear city that’s at least 20 miles long but only two to four miles wide for most of that length, parades slowly by as I pick up a gentle northerly breeze, put Middle Ground Light astern, slip past the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel and enter the James. To my dismay, there’s no ideal place for a cruising sailor to tie up—not in the Small Boat Harbor that is home to a commercial fishing fleet (more on that later), not downtown, not along the beach, and certainly not along the industrial waterfront. I feel like I’ll have to keep going to Williamsburg or Jamestown. But I won’t give up yet; there is a way to see this town. I keep moving.

At the coal pier, the ship Energy Enterprise out of New Orleans, and a barge from Baltimore are poised under a gantry taking on black coal that is piled in tall mounds on land (regularly sprayed with water to keep down the soot). Not too inviting here. The city’s dominant feature, stretching for miles along the waterfront, is the giant Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard. It was founded by railroad baron Collis Huntington more than a hundred years ago to service the ships that unloaded at his docks.

The Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding Co., as it was known then, began turning out military ships by the scores during the war years, becoming the largest individually owned yard in America, until Northrop Grumman bought it not long ago. At one of the piers, towering 20 stories above the water and looking about as big as a reclining Empire State Building, broods the newly commissioned aircraft carrier George H. W. Bush, undergoing post-shakedown maintenance and repair.

Security is tight as a tick here. You don’t even want to think about docking or losing headway. Nice doggy. Don’t worry. I’m just passing. At 3:30 p.m., a siren wails. A shift change, I hope. Miles farther and there’s still no place to stop, but that’s about to change. Just before the James River Bridge I come to the city-owned Leeward Municipal Marina. I’m fond of Leeward. It was where I found my first boat, a sweet little swing-keel Spirit 23, which I bought there and sailed home. Tucked in next to the bridge, the marina is surrounded by a white cement breakwater. I had stopped here by car a few days earlier to see if I could go anywhere on foot. And to my delight, I could. Just up from the marina a stoplight allowed me to safely walk across the approach to the James River Bridge. And right there on the western side of the bridge was a sandy oasis, Huntington Park. On that day it was teeming with beachgoers: families with blankets, umbrellas and coolers, lifeguards and swimmers. Just beyond a refreshment stand I found a ramp, where half a dozen boats were being coaxed off trailers into the water. One could easily anchor out and dinghy in or tie up at the small pier that accommodates ramp users, even go for a swim at the beach.

There’s a fishing pier at Huntington Park that rests on remains of an older James River Bridge, with the Crab Shack Seafood Restaurant—it’s good, I hear—perched over the water. Beyond the beach is an elaborate children’s park called Fort Fun, and then, a not-so-fun place, I imagine, the Virginia War Museum. But what I was looking for and found was a footbridge crossing a small creek. Aha again! If I wanted to get to the Mariners’ Museum by bicycle from the waterfront entrance to Newport News, following the inviting River Road beside the James, I could. This city is opening up a little at a time.

Back in the present, I’m under the James River Bridge and passing by this lovely beach, then several miles of waterfront mansions, as well as the park that surrounds the Mariners’ Museum. An hour later, after spotting the entrance markers to Deep Creek, I drop my sails and motor in. On the port side is Menchville, where several deadrise workboats are moored. Ahead is Deep Creek Landing Marina and the Warwick Yacht Club, both bristling with yachts. To starboard is James River Marina, my destination today, and a place I’m looking forward to revisiting.

Owner Marty Moliken, whom I met eight years ago when writing about the James, is there to help with my lines. For the past 60 years, workboats had tied up at an ancient city pier next to the marina. Finally, this year, the old pier was removed as the city improved the bulkheads and dockage across the creek. Now Moliken has gotten the ball rolling for 40 new slips and a raw bar at the end of the old pier. If the building-permit gods smile on him, he says, it could all be up and running by next summer.

At this point, Barb arrives in the land yacht and begins to unload our bikes. We’d thought of bringing them across by boat. It’s possible to stow them on deck, but they’re not the fold-up types and, frankly, we didn’t want the hassle of loading and unloading them. What I was trying to test out was my theory that we could fairly ?easily get to the Mariners’ Museum from James River Marina—because you just can’t visit Newport News without going to that gem of a museum. We’ll test my theory about biking there in the morning. Now we test the food.

James River Marina owns what has long been a popular local restaurant. Originally named Herman’s Harbor House, it’s now called Slightly Up the Creek. We get a table on the front porch overlooking the creek, and while a fan whirs and the sun sets, we indulge in some very good shrimp and crabcakes. And—we couldn’t resist—some astonishing caramel bread pudding. The western sky is dominated by sail-shaped clouds, with sunset in their bellies.

With bread pudding in our bellies, Barb and I bed down aboard Ode to Joy, falling asleep to the murmurs of conversation and the occasional peal of laughter from the night owls in nearby slips. We awake at dawn, dawdle over cereal and fruit, then pedal off toward the museum.

It’s a nice ride, about three and a half miles through a cozy suburban neighborhood. We choose the long way this time because it leads down to the waterfront and to Museum Drive, which takes you through the heavily forested Mariners’ Museum Park. Archer Huntington, stepson of shipyard founder Collis Huntington, turned his collection of maritime paintings and ship models into the museum, surrounding it with miles of parkland and nature trails, so it’s fun to arrive this way.

We’re lucky to be visiting the museum while it’s showcasing a major exhibit, “Building Better Ships,” that explores (until November 15) the museum’s intimate ties to the shipbuilding company. It was Archer Huntington’s fascination with maritime art that led to the museum’s creation in the early 1930s. At the same time, he hired well known artist Thomas C. Skinner and furnished him with a studio at the shipyard. Skinner turned out dozens of near-life-size canvases of shipwrights plying their trade—laying out patterns in cavernous lofts, punching holes for rivets, pouring molds with red-hot steel, lining up at pay windows at weeks’ end.

The shipyard also filmed those tradesmen, as an aid for training new workers, and those black and white films, recently restored, are now shown side-by-side with the paintings. A painting of workers laying out patterns, for instance, is echoed by similar filmed images. Scenes of workers pouring molten lead into a mold, bending white-hot steel strips into the shape of a prow, or turning a glowing propeller shaft are similarly juxtaposed. This may be, as museum curator Anna Holloway later told me, “the ultimate way of interpreting historic works of art, viewing the paintings and then seeing film footage of these things actually occurring.”

Collis Huntington virtually created the modern city of Newport News by running his railroad there, then creating the shipyard. A small village sprang up nearby and was incorporated in 1896, the same year the shipyard opened. “It was my original intention to start a ?shipyard plant in the best location in the world,” reads a quote from Huntington on one wall of the exhibit, “and I suc-ceeded in my purpose. It is right at the gateway to the sea.” That gateway became a huge embarkation point during the world wars as hundreds of thousands of troops shipped off to Europe. They were welcomed home to the city’s waterfront by a victory arch, built in the style of Paris’s Arc de Triomphe.

The museum’s most compelling feature for me (hardly surprising, since I’ve written a book on the subject) is the?Monitor Center, dedicated to that historic clash of experimental ironclads, the Monitor and Virginia. This sprawling $30 million permanent exhibit presides over not only a full-scale exterior model of the Monitor, but also actual parts of it, plucked from the bottom of the Atlantic beginning in 1987 and now being preserved and displayed here. Indeed, one of the best parts of the Monitor Center—besides watching reenactments of the battles of Hampton Roads and the sinking later that year of the Monitor off Cape Hatteras—is being able to climb up to windows that look down into the Monitor conservation area. There are more than a thousand artifacts here, but the star of the show is undoubtedly the part of the Monitor that even a casual Civil War buff can identify—the massive iron gun turret, which now stews in a bath as 140 years of salt incursion is slowly leeched out of the metal. On days when the water is clear, or when it’s merely being sprayed with a fine mist, you can see the dents caused by enemy cannon shot.

You can imagine what the Monitorgunners, working feverishly inside the turret, unable to see the enemy, must have experienced. One seaman “dropped over like a dead man” when a ball struck a few inches from his head. Another was flung over both guns from the blow.

The latest find is such a simple thing, an oil can that years of sedimentation and the marriage of metals have caused to be cemented to the engine’s condenser. But it reminds you that there were men down in that engine room on New Year’s Eve 1862, struggling to keep the steam engines running as water rose toward the fire grates. The Monitor went down in 240 feet of water off Cape Hatteras, with the loss of 16 crew. Even more poignant are the remnants of an officer’s coat that were found draped over one of the two gun carriages. “This is probably what one of the crew took off to keep from being dragged down as he went into the water,” Marcie Renner, the museum’s chief conservator, told me during another visit. Pretty exciting stuff, slowly materializing after 147 years of submerged history.

On the bike ride back to the marina, we take a faster route, heading west toward Deep Creek, but this time past the modern and growing Christopher Newport University and the impressive I.M. Pei designed Ferguson Center for the Arts, one of the most highly regarded performing arts venues in the region. It’s nice to know that you can stop at Deep Creek or Leeward and go, whether by bike or taxi, to a world-class museum or performing space.

One of the lesser known but more intriguing parts of the Newport News waterfront is the city’s Small Boat Harbor. It can be glimpsed for about a nanosecond while driving over the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel, just off to the east. What you can see, mostly, is the top of fishing trawler rigs, so you’d be right in guessing it’s a commercial fishing harbor. And not just for small boats. Pretty big stuff, really. Crabbers, clammers, scallop boats, pilot boats, Coast Guard boats and all the rest. And, all along Newport News Creek, which creates the harbor, are seafood packing plants.

We’ve got to drive to get there; it’s at the other end of this sprawling town, but luckily we have the car. Harbormaster Doreen Kopacz, who grew up in the Willoughby section of Norfolk, greets me. We take a drive up one side of the creek and down the other. “This is one of thefew spots left that lets commercial people come in,” she says. We loop under the bridge and park where Judy’s Spirit, a 40-foot double rig clammer, is coming in. Charles Stanley Mason and his son, Charles Jr., are back from having done engine work on their boat. Mason, who sits on the pier next to his boat, has been clamming out of the Small Boat Harbor for 22 years, “and we’re getting the best we’ve ever got for ‘em.”

What’s so great about clamming? I ask the elder Charles. He shrugs. “I like to do what I like to do. You know what I mean?” It isn’t easy, not in this era of tight regulations, but that observation gets only another shrug. “Nothing’s like it used to be.”

Charles Jr., a thin beard tracing the ridge of his jaw, enthusiastically shows me the clam rigs, each powered by a four-speed V-6 tractor-trailer motor. “It’s the hardest job I ever had,” he says, explaining how fast the clam scoop flies off the bottom. “You got to pay attention or you’ll hurt yourself.” Right now it doesn’t look very promising for him to follow in his father’s footsteps, he explains, what with the state tightly regulating the clam beds. “If they’d leave the grounds out there open,” he says, “I’d keep doing it till I was as old as my dad.”

Harbormaster Kopacz doesn’t mind taking me around some more, so we continue the tour—soon stopping to watch another boat, Miss Leslie from Poquoson, Va., come in with about 30 bushels of blue crabs. Ken Diggs and his son—you guessed it, Ken Diggs Jr.—gripe like all fishermen do about regulations, but they wouldn’t do anything else for a living. “It’s all I ever did, it’s crazy,” says the younger Diggs. “It’s like I’m the last cowboy.”

There are a lot of last cowboys here, in the so-called Small Boat Harbor, one of the largest concentrations of seafood businesses of its kind on the Bay. Dozens of boats come in and unload while we watch. One of the fish packing plants has a retail outlet, and a nice lady—”What can I get for you, darlin’?”—sells me some very nice shrimp. Perfect for our dinner on board.

Barb and I spend another night aboard, this time anchored at a peaceful spot in Deep Creek, and leave shortly after first light. A fall-like northerly breeze catches our sails as we parade—and then, as the wind picks up, race past—the miles-long city and a shoreline fringed with history. It’s been nice getting to know Newport News, New Port Newse, that mighty and mighty nice city along the James.

At one time, traveling by railroad was the best way for a first-class experience. Today, fewer people ride the rails, as it is often easier and more luxurious to fly. Did you know, though, that you can still find complete sightseeing vacation packages that have you travel via private railcar? These experiences can be quiet rewarding, allowing you to actually see the countryside and interesting tourist destinations without having to drive yourself. If you are interested in a private railcar journey, check out the following options for a unique travel experience:

The Orient Express

Contrary to its name, the famous Orient Express was actually a trans-Europe journey to the gateway of Asia: Istanbul, Turkey. You may be familiar with the romanticized tale of this famous journey from novels and movies such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Agatha Christie’s 1934 Murder on the Orient Express. Travellers could start in London, cross the English Channel and board the train in Paris, travelling through Munich, Vienna, and Budapest, Hungary. From Budapest they could choose the route from Belgrade (Serbia) to Athens, or alternately, through Bucarest, Romania, to Constantinople – what is now Istanbul, Turkey. From Turkey or Greece, world leisure travelers could opt to continue their journey by boat or other trains to destinations in the Middle East, India and beyond.

Today you can relive a taste of the past through at least one company that operates service along some of the same rail lines in restored vintage rail carriages. The Venice-Simplon Orient Express offers regular trips from London to Venice and less frequent trips between Venice and Istanbul. The same travel company also offers similarly-themed rail vacations in Malaysia/Thailand and across Australia.

The Trans-Siberian Railway

Another Europe to Asia rail journey is the Trans-Siberian Railway. This is the longest continuous rail line in the world, running over six thousand miles. You can start your seven-day journey in Moscow and see the countryside and a number of Russian and Asian cities on your way to Vladivostok, or you can opt for a much longer trip, with stops in locations like Irkutsk and Lake Baikal. Most people tend to think of a vacation as a trip to somewhere warm and sunny, but this railcar journey takes you into a beautiful winter paradise instead.

The Blue Train, Africa

Luxurious fine dining and unique African scenery come together on The Blue Train. Running through South Africa, this train is all about five-star luxury. The private cars are perfect for guests who like the finer things in life, and the dinner service, complete with fine local wines, is second to none. You can, of course, expect to pay more for a journey on The Blue Train, but overall, the experience is well worth the money.

Canada and the Canadian Rockies

VIA Rail of Canada likes to boast of “The Most Spectacular Train Trip in the World,” and they might be right. If you choose the full cross-continent journey across the world’s second largest country, you will experience a wide range of terrains from forests and farmland, rolling prairies and lake sides, to the majestic Canadian Rockies. On some trips you sleep on the train, while others you ride the train by day and stop for land tours and then stay overnight in a luxury hotel. The full-blown Coast to Coast vacation is 16 nights and 17 days – but well worth it if you have the time. Canada offers a rich variety of natural wonders and hospitality as well.

South America and the Andes

PeruRail is one of the highest railroad lines in the entire world, and these routes take travelers to a variety of destinations, including Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, Lake Titicaca, and the historic city of Cuzco. The spectacular views from your railcar alone are worth the trip, and if you love culture, this is a great way to explore the ancient world of the Incas.

Almost all countries in the world, including India, Canada, Spain, Mexico, and, of course, the United States, offer railway tours. While some, like the Tran-Siberian and others listed above, can take up your entire one to two week vacation, others are great for simple day trips, or even just afternoon trips. For example, the scenic Stroudsburg Railroad on the east coast of the United States takes you into Pennsylvania farm country over just a short afternoon ride. Opportunities like this are available around the world. So, even if you do not want to spend your entire time on a train, you can add a railcar journey as part of your vacation.

When booking a trip by rail, keep in mind that not all trains offer private options. If you plan to make this the bulk of your journey, make sure that the railcar you are booking will allow for you to have a bit of privacy with your travel companions. Some trains only offer traditional seating, which can be uncomfortable and cramped on longer trips. Also, make sure you check on the accommodations for sleeping and eating. Although many lines offer eating and sleeping facilities, for some, this is about function not comfort. If you want a luxury vacation, make sure you do your research and choose a true five-star option.

The world is changing. With our fast-paced daily lives, most people are looking for the quickest way to get from point A to point B. Sometimes, though, the actual travel is the best part of the vacation. Do not overlook rail travel when planning your next vacation. If you are not sure which rail journey is right for you, work with a travel agent. Although we typically think of a travel agent as someone who plans cruises and resort vacations, they can also help you book a private railcar journey. These train trips can help you make memories that last a lifetime.