BoingBoing: “I’ve not found a more accurate or thorough guide to international train travel than the website The Man in Seat 61. It’s the long-running passion project of one die hard train enthusiast, Mark Smith, who writes, updates, and aims to sample all the locomotion this good earth has to offer. While bus and train aggregates will feed you typical routes and prices, they don’t offer any human insight. And with today’s busted search algorithms, it can be really difficult to find first hand accounts from people who’ve taken those journeys. The Man in Seat 61’s posts, written entirely by a pair of human hands with the occasional added insight from fellow train travel enthusiasts, will tell you whether or not the train you’ll be taking is comfortable, has a layover, is part of a historic route, etc. A search query requesting information on the feasability of getting from Tashkent to Samarkand will offer convoluted, repetitive “click me!!1!” offers, that will either get you on the right bus, albeit for a heavy commission, and/or stuck at a rural county line crossing trying to decipher what the station clerk’s stoic head shaking means. The same query on Seat 61 offers robust information, timetables, the various kinds of cars and sleeping accomodation, whether the transfer is pleasant and/or quick, general prices and conversion rates, visa requirements, traveller’s reports, and if needed, potential hazards and border closures…”