The journey not the arrival matters,” said TS Eliot, but for most of us, the journey has become a tiresome inconvenience, to be endured for as short a time as possible. It’s a great shame, because our submission to the inhuman demands of high-speed transport has robbed us of the joy of travel for travel’s sake.

So, if you’re sick of jet lag and yearn to escape the cattle trucks of international travel, to sidestep the little dictators and their metal detectors, to break the bonds of Boeing and see the world slide by like a lazy summer morning, we’ve found five inspiring itineraries to prove Kerouac’s assertion that “life is the road”.

Out of london by narrow boat

Journey time: ages

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You can go almost anywhere by narrow boat, as long as (a) you’re in no hurry, and (b) your destination is on a canal. That means the furthest west you can get is Bristol, via the Kennet and Avon Canal, and the furthest south is almost as far as Basingstoke (a collapsed tunnel thwarts you at Greywell). The eastern terminus is King’s Lynn, but if you head north, you can go as far as Tewitfield, 10 miles north of Lancaster — and if you set out from London at 9am tomorrow, you could be there by 7.30pm on July 9.

If you live in the Midlands, you’re spoilt for choice, with hundreds of miles of inter­connected waterways to explore and dozens of boat-hire bases — the most comprehensive list is at canaljunction.com — but thanks to Victorian engineering genius, even Londoners can make a not-so-high-speed escape from the city.

To do so, first collect your narrow boat from the Lee Valley Boat Centre (01992 462085, leevalleyboats.co.uk), in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire — rental prices start at £530 a week — then head south and west along the Regent’s Canal to the junction with the Grand Union Canal at Little Venice. You leave the city behind at the Bull’s Bridge junction, and as you swing north into the Colne Valley, the low-adrenaline adventure begins.

The 137-mile Grand Union Canal is England’s aorta, an artery that runs through Albion’s gut, joining, via its connecting veins, the organs of the nation’s industrial past. From here, you can cruise to Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool on a canal network that is now healthier than at any time in history, with thriving boat yards, cleaner water, better-maintained locks and newly opened sections, such as the Liverpool Canal Link, which joins the South Docks to the main network, and the new Three Mills Lock, providing narrow-boat access to the London Olympics site.

To Paris by bike

Journey time: four days

Despite claiming to have invented the modern bicycle, and being home to the most famous cycle race on earth, France has been slow to build off-road bike routes. There’s big talk about creating L’Avenue Verte — a traffic-free cycle path linking London and Paris — but, so far, only short sections exist in East Sussex and Seine-Maritime. Nevertheless, the national cycling organisation, CTC (01483 238337, ctc.org.uk), says it is still perfectly feasible to take two wheels from London to Paris along cycle paths and largely traffic-free rural roads. Here’s how.

From Westminster Bridge, follow signposts for the National Cycle Network (NCN) route 4 to Greenwich, then pick up route 21, via Crawley and East Grinstead, all the way to Polegate. Hang a right onto NCN route 2 into Seaford, where, after a ride of 65 miles, you should call it a day.

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