Most people jump in the car without thinking twice when they want to explore Wales. Alice Hughes decided to do things differently, spending an entire year travelling the country without once getting behind the wheel, and she has written a book about the whole adventure.
The result is Every Other Hour, a travel memoir that follows Hughes as she hops between Welsh towns and cities by rail, hunting down great food, interesting people, and the best forward-facing window seat she can find. It is part travel guide, part personal story, and a genuine argument that you do not need a car to see what Wales has to offer.
The book covers a year of mini-breaks, each one taken entirely on public transport. Hughes treats the train journey itself as part of the experience rather than just a way to get from A to B, which gives the whole thing a rhythm that feels different from your typical travel writing. There is something almost old-fashioned about it, in the best possible way.
Wales has a complicated relationship with its rail network. Some routes are genuinely stunning, cutting through mountain passes and along coastlines that you would struggle to appreciate properly from a motorway. Others are patchy, infrequent, or just plain awkward if you are trying to reach somewhere slightly off the beaten track. Hughes does not shy away from any of that, which is what makes the book feel honest rather than like a tourism brochure.
Food plays a big role throughout. Hughes is clearly someone who plans a trip around where she is going to eat, and the book doubles up as a loose guide to some of the better places to stop off across Wales. Whether that is a particular cafe in a small market town or a restaurant that happens to sit near a useful train station, the eating and the travelling are woven together throughout.
The people she meets along the way are just as important as the places. There is a warmth to the writing when Hughes describes conversations with locals, fellow passengers, and the kind of characters you only seem to bump into when you slow down and let the journey happen around you. Getting out of the car and onto a train forces a different kind of travel, one where you are sharing space with people rather than sealed off from them.
It is also, quietly, a book about Wales itself. Hughes is clearly fond of the country and curious about it, and spending a year moving through it by train gives her a perspective that a road trip simply would not. You see different things, stop in different places, and end up in conversations you would never have had at a motorway service station.
For anyone who has ever wondered whether it is actually possible to explore Wales properly without a car, Every Other Hour makes a pretty convincing case that yes, it is. It might take a bit more planning, and you will need to make peace with the occasional long wait on a cold platform, but Hughes argues it is worth it.
The book is out now and is the kind of read that will probably have you pulling up train times before you have even finished the last chapter.