The Man in Seat Sixty-One: reviewed

A worldwide guide to travel by train or ferry…  www.seat61.com

One of the classic all time great travel websites for anyone wishing to travel by train anywhere in the world. How does this it  match up compared to the new up and coming sites out there? Let’s find out!

Content

The undisputed king of worldwide train travel. There is nothing that even comes close to the content that is available on The Man in Seat Sixty-One. From England across Europe into Asia, down through to Australia and over to the Americas everything you need to know about how to do it by train is there.

Timetables, routes, ticket info and border crossings are all listed out with meticulous detail.  Also included are ferries, boat crossings and much more than any independent trans-continental traveler could want.

Site Design

Functional is the most appropriate word here. It’s not a beautiful looking site for sure. It takes up the entire screen which is good and the information on it is positively encyclopedic. That said the formatting and layout does look as if something has broken on the site. Or at best it’s a DIY job.

The owner of The Man in Seat Sixty-One, Mark Smith, says the website is now his full-time job. I might suggest he spend just a little time on trying to get the site to look a little bit more uniform. A prime example is the front page where the left column runs on and on. The footer is cramped. Lots of little things that could be fixed and really make the site pop!

Images

Practical and interesting. There’s no super giant glossy photos on display here and I don’t think there should be. It’s a practical information resource website. The photographs perfectly show off the interior or exterior of train carriages where you’ll be eating/sleeping and that’s all I really want to know. A prime example of a travel website putting travel images to good use!

Style of writing

Practical. Everything is listed out for you. There’s no rambling on The Man from Seat Sixty-One. It’s straight to the point. Where do you want to travel to by train? Russia to China? Here’s how you do it.

There are lots of additional tips added and a news site. But in terms of practical guides of how to travel overland by train the Man from Seat Sixty-One nails it.

Helpful

The Man in Seat Sixty-One is one of the most helpful travel websites I’ve ever come across.

Simply put it’s a classic that very few have been able to replicate in any field. I simply couldn’t find a train route that I could think of that was missing. Certainly it’s more for longer distant train trips than your standard intercity links. With internal and external links you can easily book your train & ferry trips across any continent on Earth.

This is a website for people who want to enjoy the journey of travel. Highly recommended on all accounts.