Press and media
We are happy to work with press and media whenever we can.
About us
Byway is the first of its kind slow travel planner for flight-free trips. Each multi-stop trip is fully personalised for the holidaymaker and optimised for quality of experience instead of speed.
The company was founded in 2020 by Cat Jones, who’s never owned a car and whose annual family holiday is by train and bike, whatever the weather. As a start-up coach and investor with degrees in Sustainable Development and Physics, she jumped at the opportunity to make environmentally friendly travel more accessible as Covid sent travel as we knew it into free-fall.
Trips are currently available across Europe. All bookings include customised transport, hand-picked accommodation and experiences, on-demand expert advice, and a low carbon footprint.
Useful links
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Byway fast facts
2000+ trips taken
as of April 2023
4.9 ⭐️ reviews
Trustpilot - June 2023
Founded in 2020
A travel company started during the pandemic!
Slow travel facts
20X less carbon
The carbon impact of rail travel is 14g of CO2 per passenger mile, compared to 285g for air: you could get the train from London to Edinburgh and back five times and your carbon footprint would still be lower than if you flew there. Giving up meat for a year saves 2.7 tonnes of carbon, but giving up one return flight from London to Bangkok saves 3.3 tonnes.
Combat overtourism
Overtourism happens when the quality of life of the locals and the environment is impacted by visitors in a negative way. Many factors cause this including the rise of low-cost airlines, large cruise liners visiting small ports, and social media attention. Slow travel takes people away from overtouristed destinations and draws them to areas looking for tourism income.
Richer experience
Slow travel is not just about more carbon and location friendly ways to travel, but the wider benefits of slowing down and taking the scenic route. It’s about taking the time to get to know a place - its food, its landscapes, its people, its histories - and enjoying the freedom and unexpectedness of travelling overland that A-B tourism misses out on.
Meet CEO and Founder Cat Jones
Cat’s origin story.
The company was founded in 2020 by Cat Jones, who’s never owned a car and whose annual family holiday is by train and bike, whatever the weather. As a start-up coach and investor with degrees in Sustainable Development and Physics, she jumped at the opportunity to make environmentally friendly travel more accessible as Covid sent travel as we knew it into free-fall.
Byway’s origin story
“Byway really started when I was on my annual holiday with my family. Each year, we go on a multi-stop journey and make it as sustainable as possible, travelling by train, boat and bike. The trips are always wonderful - we slow down to appreciate lesser-known locations, bypass touristy hotspots and feel like we're discovering the world on our terms. But wow, were they a pain to organise and book! Plus when we got back, friends would ask for the route so they could take the same holiday without having to do the research and planning. As we've become more aware of the impact of air travel on the climate, the environmental need for simpler flight-free travel has become urgent, and as the pandemic hit I knew the time had come for slower travel to take centre stage. So I founded Byway to make sustainable, multi-stop trips easy, and to help more people discover the joys of slow travel.”
Contact us
It’s our goal to make slow travel mainstream and a big part of that is getting the word out. Cat is available for comments and appearances, and our small but nimble press team is always happy to chat.