‘My biggest travel peeve led to my new favourite mode of holiday transport’
Updated . First published at
There’s nothing that ruins a holiday faster for me than the dreaded drive. Whether it’s fighting airport traffic, enduring a gruelling road trip, or landing only to wait in a rental car queue just so I can navigate unfamiliar streets for the next few days.
I’m over it. As the only driver in a family of five, the absolute last thing I want to do when I’m trying to relax is to get behind a wheel. For any reason. Not to mention petrol, parking, and toll costs.
We hopped on a train to Newcastle and it was the most relaxing mode of travel for a trip I have ever experienced. Shamus Hart
Which is precisely how my partner, Shamus, and I found ourselves on a train from Sydney to Newcastle in NSW. And let me tell you: I have never felt more relaxed on my way to a holiday.
We didn’t even care where we were going, as long as we got there by rail. The brainwave was Shamus’s. On a recent trip from Sydney to Melbourne, exorbitant return flights forced him to catch the train home instead.
He ended up absolutely loving it. No boarding queues, seamless Wi-Fi to work the whole way, food and beverage service, and even sleeper cabins for overnight trips.
The second he told me about it, a whole new world of travel opened up for us.
But first, we needed a destination. We whittled it down to three options: Wollongong, Newcastle, or the Blue Mountains.
To decide, we wrote each destination on a slip of paper, and since it was Shamus’s birthday, he got the honour of drawing the winner. Newcastle it was.
Staying fiercely true to my new "absolutely-no-driving" rule, our journey started on foot. We walked from our house to the local bus stop, hopped a ride to the Metro, changed at Epping, and boarded the train to Newcastle.
The train had comfy seats and chargers for our devices. Jo Abi
The trip took just under two hours on the express train and cost a grand total of about $10 return.
Settling into the carriage, the relaxation washed over me immediately. The seats were large and comfy, complete with tray tables for our devices and chargers.
But despite diligently setting up my laptop to get some work done, I spent most of the trip just staring out the window, watching the world go by, and napping.
Despite setting up my laptop, I completely zoned out on the way there, gazing out the window and napping. iStock
We rolled through the Hawkesbury River and the Central Coast, so many stunning spots that, if we’d had more than two days up our sleeves, we definitely would have jumped off to explore.
When we arrived at Newcastle, it was exactly as I remembered it.
It has everything you want from a city, without the hustle and bustle of a busier location and ever few steps we found a new and incredible café to try serving some of the best coffee I have ever had and amazing food.
Newcastle has everything you want from a city, without too much hustle and bustle. iStock
We took the light rail to Newcastle Harbour, where we’d be staying at the Rydges because Shamus had been given a Rydges voucher for Christmas. The newly refurbished Rydges is absolutely stunning.
Having travelled to Newcastle on a Monday, not many local restaurants were open for dinner and having skipped lunch, we were ready for dinner at 4pm.
We found The Dockyard, but they weren’t serving dinner until 5pm, so we grabbed a drink and a bag of kettle chips each, and settled in for the night, ordering dinner when the kitchen opened. Shamus had a burger, and I had a beetroot at feta salad.
Dinner was delicious, and we ate as the sun set which was stunning. Shamus Hart
Later that night we hit up a local convenience store for ice cream, a Cadbury choc-dip ice cream for Shamus and a mini tub of Ben & Jerry’s for me.
Then, a blissful night’s sleep.
The next morning I was awake early and woke Shamus up because my favourite meal of the day is and always will be breakfast/brunch, and I wanted to try out one of the cafés we’d walked past the day before.
Shamus and I had our first date at a bookshop-style café in Western Sydney called Mr Watkins Bar so when we saw a café called The Press Book House, we were sold. It was also opposite Newcastle University and Shamus and I are obsessed with university culture (it’s a thing!) so even better.
The Press Book House cafe had amazing pastries. Jo Abi
Now I’ve had some good coffees in my time, but I would go as far as to say this was the best coffee I have ever had in my entire life. It was so strong, yet smooth, and went perfectly with the cinnamon scroll I’d ordered and planned to only eat half of, but ate in its entirety.
Shamus had a Portuguese tart, which he said was “amazing”. Once again I wished our stay was longer so we could try more of the menu.
If only we had been able to stay longer to try more of the incredible food we came across. Shamus Hart
We passed a few other places and stopped to read their menus as well.
One place called New Slang Coffee Brewers sold elaborate toasties including brisket, ham and pickle, Moroccan chicken, and “kimcheese”.
Another called Lynch’s Hub was promoting lunch deals that included a main, a salad, a drink and a dessert.
Queen’s Wharf Hotel listed incredible seafood dishes including a seafood basket and Barramundi Veracruzana which includes jasmine rice, broccolini, tomato salsa, and fried tortilla, all my favourites. And One Penny Black was serving spiced fritters, soft shell crab burgers, and soft shell chilli scramble. So much food, so little time.
There were fritters, and soft shell crabs. Jo Abi
Train will be my only mode of travel for holidays for some time. Shamus Hart
The only way we could bring ourselves to leave Newcastle was by planning our next trip back, on the train of course, for the school holidays in July. Wollongong and the Blue Mountains will have to wait.
In fact, I am wondering just how far we can take our train travel. We could easily travel around Australia by train if we wanted to.
The very thought of this opens up so many possibilities.
It’s pretty cool to think that regardless of where you live in Australia, you are one comfortable, affordable, train trip away from somewhere incredible.
The writer travelled at their own expense.
