It's not either / or...

Either—or both?

Some choices seem binary: you choose one, or you choose the other. Plane or train, daytime or overnight, dairy milk or oat milk.

But it doesn’t need to be that way. Sometimes a mix is possible—and even preferable. 

This happens with rail travel to ski resorts, but (naturally) let’s start with milk. 

I love a cappuccino made with full-fat milk. But if there’s a 50-50 mix of full-fat milk and oat milk, I barely notice the difference. So, sometimes in coffee shops I ask for a ‘moaty’—the name I’ve made up for this wild combination.  

The response from café baristas is consistent. First, there’s incredulity: Is this guy mad? Dairy and oat combined? Insanity!

Next, there’s curiosity: What’s the benefit? Is it for reasons of taste? Or to reduce the amount of dairy milk in the coffee? (The answer is, in fact, the latter).

Finally, there’s enthusiasm for the idea. Indeed, one barista even wrote it onto the café’s chalkboard menu as a new option. She said it would keep the hipsters happy.

Throughout that process, all it took was a little patience and a willingness to try something new. The result: a creamy coffee with half the dairy. A choice that our friend's dog, Scrappy, gave his approval to, too. He's a messy drinker though. 

Scrappy at the cafePhoto: Phil Watson

So, to travel, where similar binary thinking pervades.

A few days ago, I was helping a skier, Chris, with ideas for resorts, catered chalets and rail options. Chris had been on the direct Eurostar Ski Train (which ran until COVID), but he’d not been on the post-COVID Eurostar Snow service, nor the new Travelski Night Express. 

In our phone call, I described my journey on Eurostar Snow to La Plagne and my trip on the Travelski Night Express to Tignes. As we talked, we both came to the conclusion that what would be ideal for his group would be to travel out to the Alps on the Eurostar Snow service (relaxing, daytime journey) and then travel back from his resort, after an extra day’s skiing, on the Travelski Night Express. 

Photo: Daniel Elkan

Part of the rationale for this, I've written up in a new blog about the difference between travelling out overnight and travelling back overnight. So for Chris, the combination daytime out, overnight back (rather than one or the other), might make the most sense. 

Chris also told me that one year, everyone had gone by Eurostar Ski Train for the first time, and everyone loved it. The following year, some new people to the group preferred to fly, and so the whole group ended up flying (even though some wanted to go by train). It's understandable that one thinks: 'shall we all fly or take the train?'

In big groups like Chris’s, why not let the ‘flyers’ fly, and the ‘trainers’ train? It doesn’t have to be either / or—everyone will end up at the same destination anyway. 
Even for yourself, sometimes travelling to your ski resort one way by train and one way by plane might be preferable, rather than both ways by train. That’s better than flying both ways. 

It’s so easy to fall into binary ways of thinking. Maybe it’s the way our minds naturally like to reduce cognitive load. But I hope these thoughts might help lead to better travel ideas and choices—or perhaps even a different kind of frothy coffee.