About the Project
Connecting Europe Express began life as a story about movement. The original Connecting Europe Express was a continent-spanning rail journey — a public initiative that travelled through dozens of European countries, stopping in over a hundred cities to celebrate cross-border connection, shared infrastructure, and the simple, powerful idea that Europe is best experienced when its borders feel small. That spirit of curiosity, mobility, and discovery is what we have carried forward.
Today, the project has evolved. Connecting Europe Express is now an independent guide to tourism, recreation, and the European entertainment industry for citizens of the United Kingdom and the European Union. We have kept the name because the mission is, at heart, unchanged: to help readers understand and navigate the continent’s leisure landscape with confidence, whether they are planning a weekend in Lisbon, comparing licensed entertainment platforms, or trying to make sense of how European regulators approach the modern recreation economy.
What we cover
Our editorial scope sits at the intersection of three areas that increasingly overlap in the lives of European travellers and consumers:
- Tourism — City guides, transport tips, seasonal travel insights, and practical information for UK readers travelling post-Brexit, as well as for EU citizens crossing internal borders. We focus on the practical questions readers actually have: how documentation works, what to expect from local operators, how to plan responsibly, and where to find authoritative resources.
- Recreation — Festivals, cultural events, sports tourism, wellness travel, gastronomy, and the broader European leisure economy. Recreation is no longer a separate category from travel — it is increasingly the reason people travel — and our coverage reflects that.
- The European entertainment industry — This includes the regulated iGaming sector, which has become one of the largest digital industries in Europe and a significant employer in jurisdictions such as Malta, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, and increasingly across the EU’s member states. We cover licensing frameworks, operator reviews, consumer protections, and the evolving relationship between UK players and EU/international platforms following the UK’s regulatory divergence from the EU.
Why this evolution made sense
When the project’s editorial team began assessing reader interest a few years after the original rail journey, a clear pattern emerged. The audience drawn to “connecting Europe” content was not only interested in trains and infrastructure — they were interested in what European connection actually feels like as a consumer. They wanted to know which festivals were worth flying for, how online entertainment platforms were regulated in different jurisdictions, what their rights were as cross-border consumers, and how to spot the difference between a well-licensed European operator and one that was not.
Rather than narrow our focus, we widened it. We brought in writers and analysts with experience in European law, tourism research, and the regulated entertainment industries, and rebuilt the publication around independence, transparency, and reader utility.
Our authors
Independence and funding
We are an independent editorial publication. We are not owned by, affiliated with, or controlled by any gambling operator, tour operator, travel agency, or government body. Some of our content includes affiliate links — when we recommend a regulated operator and a reader signs up through our link, we may receive a commission. This funding model is disclosed clearly across the site and never influences our ratings, our willingness to publish critical coverage, or the order in which platforms appear in our comparison tables. Our methodology is explained in detail on the Editorial Policy page.
Who we serve
Our primary audiences are adult UK and EU citizens — readers who are 18 or older (or the legal age in their jurisdiction, where higher) and who are looking for clear, well-researched, plainly written guidance on how to enjoy what Europe has to offer. We write for the reader who wants the facts and the trade-offs rather than a sales pitch.
Our commitments
We commit to factual accuracy and to correcting errors promptly when they are pointed out. We commit to transparency about our funding, our methodology, and our limitations. We commit to responsible coverage of the entertainment industry — meaning we always present the risks alongside the benefits, we always signpost help and support resources, and we never publish content that targets minors or vulnerable readers. And we commit to keeping the original spirit of the Connecting Europe Express alive: the idea that good information, like good infrastructure, helps people move through the world with a little more confidence.