About me

Who is AndyB?

On Board the Orient ExpressI’m British and have always loved travelling and especially by train! I have been lucky enough to have visited some 150 countries and travelled on trains in 74 of those. My aim is to travel to every country in the world and to travel on as many rail lines as possible (the parlance for this is gricing!) I have been lucky and spent my working life in the travel industry and made many friends around the world who share the passion for travel. I founded the award winning company Railbookers.

Why does he travel?

From my early teenage years, I have been travelling and during my student days had the perfect summer job working for British Rail working the on board catering trolleys on trains from Manchester throughout the country. It’s a big wide world and exploring it has given me an insight into how different people live, travel, eat and spend their lives around the world.

How does he travel?

Dinner on a Chinese Train Train is my preferred way of travelling as it allows you to see a country at ground level and meet locals. There is nothing more satisfying than sitting in the dining car of an Austrian train travelling through the Alps with a glass of wine and the dish of the day, or a midnight noodle snack on a Chinese train...
In the past few years I have discovered expedition cruising to the more remote parts of the world and have had the luck to have visit off the beaten track places from Micronesia to Greenland. The most awe inspiring place on earth I have visited is the island of South Georgia deep in the South Atlantic.

What is AndyBTravels?

My passion for exploring the world is something I want to share and this site is my way of helping, inspiring and possibly gloating about travel.

The internet has enabled the planning and booking or trips so much easier but it has also brought information overload and also the continuous consolidation of the Online Travel Agents means there is less and less competition.

My aim with the site is to show how to explore the world and experience all it has to offer mainly by rail with the odd ferry / ship thrown in. I recognise that flying is a convenience and time saving option for many journeys, but not nearly all, but one misses out on so much when at 35,000 feet. I am a big fan of fly / rail where I do a journey one way by train and fly the other.

There are so many travel options and bargains to be had out there but how do you find out about them? A search for a trip online shows the options that are available in response to your search – obviously, but what happens if the train from Paris to Moscow does not operate on the day you search or that if you add a stopover in a search the cost of the journey drops?

I aim to bring my knowledge and some sense to travel planning.