Route Research — SLW Travel team
These are the questions we get most often. Direct answers below.
Can bysloth find me a route from anywhere to anywhere without flying?
No. It can find surface routes for a significant proportion of long-haul journeys, particularly across Eurasia, Southeast Asia, and within continental landmasses. But there are routes where no surface option exists — islands, transoceanic crossings, and corridors where the land connection is politically or logistically closed. For those, the planner will tell you rather than invent a route.
How does it decide what modes of transport to include?
The planner focuses on scheduled and semi-scheduled surface transport: trains, long-distance coaches, ferries, and shared taxis where these are the primary local mode. It does not include private car hire or cycling routes. For each leg, it draws on documented sources — rail operator timetables, Seat61 route notes, Caravanistan border information, FCDO advisories — and assigns a confidence rating based on how well-documented the leg is.
What does a low-confidence leg mean?
It means the information for that leg is sparse, based on sources that may be out of date, or reflects conditions that change frequently. The leg might be perfectly operational — the low-confidence rating is a signal to verify, not a recommendation to avoid. For those legs, we’d suggest checking Seat61, searching recent posts in relevant subreddits, or contacting the relevant operator or border post directly.
Can I customise the route?
Yes. You can specify intermediate stops, preferred modes, and travel pace. The planner will build around those constraints. It won’t always have good options for every combination — particularly in regions with limited surface transport — but it will tell you when it’s working with thin information.
What’s the carbon saving compared to flying?
Rough estimates only: a return flight from London to Bangkok produces approximately 2.5 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per passenger, including radiative forcing (myclimate.org). The overland equivalent — train through Europe, bus through Central Asia, connecting through Southeast Asia — produces somewhere between 0.1 and 0.3 tonnes depending on exact route and national grid mixes (BEIS carbon conversion factors, 2023).
The honest caveat: the overland route takes weeks, not hours. The carbon case is real, but it’s not a simple swap.
Does bysloth book tickets?
No. It plans routes and links to relevant booking resources. Booking is done directly with operators, through Seat61’s recommended agents, or through aggregators like Omio for European legs.
Why doesn’t it just show everything, confidence or not?
Because an AI tool that presents uncertain information as confident is more dangerous than one that acknowledges what it doesn’t know. The confidence ratings are the point, not a disclaimer.
Sources: myclimate.org, BEIS UK Government carbon conversion factors, seat61.com, caravanistan.com