Founded on the belief that how we travel matters as much as where we go
Slow Transport Journeys began in 2018 with a simple observation: most travel had become about arrival, not journey. Flights reduced continents to waiting lounges. Package tours turned cities into checklists. Somewhere in the race for efficiency, we'd lost what made travel meaningful.
We started small—organizing railway journeys for friends who wanted an alternative to airport culture. Word spread. What began as weekend trips evolved into week-long routes, then multi-week immersions. We learned what our travelers already knew: slow isn't just about speed. It's about presence, connection, and the space to let experiences unfold naturally.
Today, we design journeys across Europe that prioritize trains over planes, small towns over tourist hubs, and genuine encounter over manufactured experience. Our routes follow scenic railways, connect cultural capitals by night train, and build in time for rest, reflection, and the unexpected conversations that change how you see the world.
We don't optimize for speed. An eight-hour train journey through the Alps reveals more than a two-hour flight over them. We design routes where the journey itself becomes part of the story, not just transit between highlights.
Our routes prioritize places where life continues beyond tourism—small mountain villages, working ports, market towns. We work with local providers who've been serving their communities for generations, not chains built for visitors.
Real travel requires downtime. We build multi-night stays into our itineraries, schedule mornings with nothing planned, and leave space for the detours that often become the most memorable parts of a journey.
Rail travel generates 90% less carbon than flying the same distance. This isn't marketing—it's the foundation of our business. We believe travel should enrich the world, not deplete it. Every journey we design honors that commitment.
We're not selling you sights to photograph. We're creating conditions for genuine encounter—with landscapes, cultures, fellow travelers, and yourself. The best souvenirs are conversations and realizations, not trinkets.
We don't promise luxury or life-changing epiphanies. We promise well-researched routes, reliable logistics, and the time and space to discover what travel means for you. Sometimes that's transformative. Sometimes it's just deeply pleasant. Both are valuable.
Slow Transport Journeys was founded by Eva Hartmann and Thomas Müller, two former airline industry professionals who'd grown disillusioned with the environmental and experiential costs of modern travel.
Eva, a route planner for a major European airline, spent years optimizing flight schedules for efficiency. Thomas worked in airline sustainability, calculating carbon offsets for journeys he knew shouldn't be flown in the first place. In 2017, they both took sabbaticals and spent three months crossing Europe by train, deliberately choosing the slow alternative.
Those three months changed everything. They discovered that night trains still run between cities everyone flies between. That scenic mountain railways offer perspectives no highway provides. That arriving in a city center by train is immeasurably more humane than landing in a suburban airport. That time on rails allows for reading, thinking, and conversations impossible during flights.
They returned to Zürich convinced that railway travel wasn't nostalgic—it was necessary. They quit their jobs, spent a year researching routes and building relationships with local providers, and launched Slow Transport Journeys in early 2018.
The business grew steadily through word of mouth. Our travelers became our best advocates, sharing stories of journeys that felt different from typical tourism. We expanded our team carefully, hiring people who shared our philosophy: former rail workers, sustainability advocates, writers who understood why the journey matters.
Today we're still small—intentionally so. We design each route ourselves, personally test every itinerary, and maintain direct relationships with travelers. We've resisted venture capital and scale-up pressure because growth isn't our goal. Creating meaningful travel experiences is.
Whether you're planning your first slow journey or you're a veteran rail traveler, we'd love to help you discover Europe at the right pace.
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