How did people travel long distances during the 17th century?
Would an aristocrat travel on a ship? Would a trades man travel by sea? The people I’m speaking of are of the upper class and have aristocratic background.
By long distances I mean from country to country. For instance from Bordeaux, France to Rome, Italy. How would they travel? How long would it take?
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Really depends on where their point of origin is in relation to their destination. Whichever form of travel was quicker/safer, was the preferred form of travel, obviously. If their trip was land-based, they wouldn’t take a boat, obviously.
The most common form of upper class travel was most likely that of personal hired horse and carriage. These carriages were of better quality. Some had steel plating for higher priority passengers. Etc.
Try a simple google search on ‘17th century forms of travel’. Such a search turned up a few sites. See source.
If you were an aristocrat you would travel one day at a time by horse drawn carriage and stay in the best houses of other relatives, you would catch the boat from Barcelona in Spain or from Marseilles across the Mediterranean to Roma. It would take six or seven days.
The well off traveled in private, and in well-sprung upholstered carriages. Their favoured vehicle is the post chaise, introduced in France in the early 18th century. Its name accurately suggests a pleasant seat, and an expectation of lively new horses at each post stage during the journey.
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They would travel by ship acrosss the sea, and overland in carriages or on horseback. If they were travelling from Bordeaux they might go the whole way overland by coach or horse, or perhaps they might go to the south of France and take a ship, probably from Marseilles, and travel around the Mediterranean to Ostia, which is the port of Rome.
To Europe could take 3 months to make the voyage. The Sea Captains would not usually make more than one voyage a year.
Colonial representatives from Georgia and South Carolina would travel by ship to Washington D.C., it was faster than horseback.
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By closed horse drawn carriages. I think maybe a week. Depending of course on frequency of stopping or urgency of travel.