Slower Travel Bus Trip Blog

This is Slower Travel, a blog about getting from A to Z via B, C, D and the rest of the alphabet, on local buses.

I’m more than happy getting to places in a fast and efficient manner if time is short or when treading a familiar path. That said, I generally prefer to see the back lanes, the winding estates and the obscure landmarks which you just can’t see from a train or a coach.

Fantastic towns and villages that non-drivers can’t reach by any other means: Leek, Dartmouth, Kirkby Lonsdale, Aldeburgh, Banff, Bawtry, Beer, Tideswell, Tenby, Tadcaster, Ullapool, Porthcurno, they’re all accessible by bus alone, even if there aren’t too many of them.

I’ll fully concede that hopping on a few buses isn’t going to be for everyone, but it’s not about the bus itself. It’s about the out-of-the-way, the overheard snippets of conversation, the weird and unfamiliar place names, the people you’re with, the unexpected.

This website will tell you about ace bus routes, give you ideas for days out to explore new places, and maybe even nudge you into planning some slow travel adventures of your own.

Click on the About section to learn more about how I got into all this shenanigans, and if you’d like to drop me a line, then head over to the Contact page.

Our Latest Blog Posts

All Aboard!

341: Hyde to Glossop

“Here you go,” Pat says, pointing to a clump of dots on his camera's viewfinder, “I’m pretty sure that’s the top of Muhammad Ali's head there. I waited hours for that and he’s pixelated to buggery.”

Looking over the River Sett in a cloudy Hayfield, Derbyshire, on March 1st 2019

358: Stockport to Hayfield

We pass a cafe called The Scotch Egg, which must have the most magnificent sign in the entire SK postcode. The ‘o’ in ‘Scotch’ is a cartoon of a scotch egg dressed in a kilt and Supergran hat, while the wayward nature of its eggy limbs suggests it is mid-Highland Fling.

Brighton Pier

12X: Brighton to Eastbourne

Me and El have been planning to come down to Brighton for years. We stayed at a B&B here during the Big Daft Bus Trip back in 2002, and after having a great time on our brief stopover, we vowed to make a speedy return. A mere 16 years later, we're back.

Bakewell Road In Matlock, 18/12/18

172: Bakewell to Matlock

Not that there was anything wrong at all with Birchover or the campsite, but it was my first time sleeping under canvas, and I just wasn't prepared for inadequate pillow facilities or to wake up covered in mid-sized spiders.

1987 Manta GTE

X17: Sheffield to Matlock

Putting the letter 'e' and a dash in front of a word doesn't make the object in any way more modern or desirable. Just like adding '2000' as a suffix to provincial club names in the 90s didn't make fights less likely to break out at their funky house nights.