What Is Slow Travel?

Adventure is a State of Mind

Slow Travel

Have you ever considered slow travel? Some of you may be confused as to what the phrase means. I know I was. What initially popped into my head was a family story about my paternal grandfather traveling with his family in a covered wagon.

But as slow as a wagon might be, it probably doesn’t actually meet the definition of slow travel. Let me explain to you what slow travel is and then why — even with faster, modern transportation — you might be better able to engage in slow travel than my grandfather and his family.

Depth Over Breadth

Slow travel is more about attitude than about the actual speed at which you travel. Travelers engaging in slow travel are seeking a deeper experience during their travel adventures.

Usually, slow travel means staying longer in a place. The traveler is looking for depth more than breadth in their experiences. This might look like spending 10 days in a single city or area, rather than trying to visit five different cities over the same timeframe. Slow travel emphasizes quality over quantity.

As you might know from reading my previous posts, returning to some of my favorite places has reduced the number of countries I can check off of my bucket list, but it has also given me a chance to learn and experience more about those locations and cultures than is possible in a single visit. Similarly, individuals who engage in slow travel might have shorter lists of the places they’ve visited, but they spend extended time in an area, giving them a chance to experience the area in more depth.

Connection

Slow travel emphasizes human connection – obviously it’s easier to meet locals if you stay longer in a location. Often, jumping on and off a tour bus doesn’t give you many opportunities to engage in a meaningful conversation with anyone other than your fellow tourists.

Spending multiple days, weeks, or even months in one place means you are likely to have repeated conversations with neighbors, with the owner of the local cafe you visit multiple times, and with the barista who fixes your coffee each morning. There’s a possibility you might even make some new friends.

Sustainable Tourism

Finally, slow travel focuses on supporting communities through sustainable tourism practices. This includes reducing the negative impact of mass tourism by spending extended time rather than just the few hours that large buses and cruise groups spend when they descend on popular locations. It also means spending more money in communities because of eating and sleeping there for longer periods of time.

Slow travel, in general, focuses on supporting the local community and off-the-beaten path businesses, rather than just popular tourist sites and souvenir shops.

Why a Covered Wagon Isn’t Actually Slow Travel

My grandfather died long before I was born, but the story I heard from other relatives was that his father was somewhat of a nomad at heart and frequently moved the family. When my grandfather was approximately six years old, his father decided to move the family from Oklahoma to Oregon. Evidently, once they got there, he didn’t like the job prospects, so the family returned to Oklahoma, several months after they had left.

My grandmother used to joke that it was an extended vacation, but I’m guessing it wasn’t very relaxing. To travel that distance in a covered wagon, they had to keep up a pretty good pace every day.

The speed of the wagon might have been slow, but I doubt the overall journey could be called slow travel because they would not have had the luxury of spending very long in any one place. If you think about it, they covered a lot of ground – I’d consider it a lot even if I was driving it in a car! – so it’s unlikely that they spent much time in any one place getting to know it in depth.

Slow Travel Isn’t Slow People

Just like a covered wagon popped into my mind the first time I heard the phrase “slow travel,” many of you may have pictured a tour group of older retirees slowly unloading from a bus or cruise ship. There is a stereotype that many tours attract older travelers and many of those travelers have slowed down in their golden years. But this isn’t slow travel, either.

Slow travel is not determined by the age or physical dexterity of the traveler. It’s true that many tours cater to older travelers. After all, retirees often have the most available time to dedicate to travel. But have you seen the itineraries of some of those tours? A different city every day! And multiple countries in a single week! Some of the individual travelers might be slow, but that sort of travel is definitely not slow travel.

Who Engages in Slow Travel?

Anyone can try slow travel! Slow travel isn’t about your age, your gender, your nationality, or even your tax bracket.

Slow travel is about time. Obviously, individuals who are no longer locked into a nine-to-five work schedule with limited vacation time or those who have a job that can be done remotely are much more likely to engage in slow travel.

Even if you have limited time off, however, you can still adopt a slow travel mindset. For example, if you want to travel to Italy but only have a week that you can spend on the trip, consider spending the entire time in one city.

It might seem radical to not see Rome, Florence, Venice, and Milan all in that week, especially when you anticipate friends and coworkers telling you how many places they visited during their trip to Italy. You are much more likely, however, to enjoy your visit and have a more authentic Italian experience if you limit your time to just one location and explore it in more depth.

What Are the Benefits of Slow Travel?

There are many reasons why people choose to focus on slow travel. As discussed above, it provides travelers an opportunity to have a deeper experience, including making connections with others and learning more about an area.

Slow travel also benefits the residents of the areas where you travel. By staying longer, you are likely contributing more to the local economy and taking time to visit off-the beaten path areas rather than just the popular tourist sites.

In addition to slow travel benefiting the local economy, it also tends to be more economical for the traveler. Many travelers, especially Americans, tend to take just a week (or less!) for their vacations, even if they’ve driven many miles or flown across an ocean to their destination. Transportation is often the biggest single expense in traveling. Extending your trip for longer maximizes the per-day value of your transportation costs.

Getting off the beaten path can also mean finding restaurants that are less expensive (more on that later!).

Maybe most importantly, slow travel is usually more relaxing. By staying in an area longer, you have the opportunity to do more of the things you want to do, and you can spread them out over time instead of trying to fit everything into just a day or two. That leaves extra time for relaxing, enjoying leisurely meals, and taking time to savor your experience.

Have I convinced you yet? If your answer is “yes,” the next question is, how can we plan our trips to make the most of slow travel?

Remember, Less Means More

Consider visiting fewer locations or, alternatively, spending more time at each destination if you have the time flexibility to do so. By staying longer, you can get to know an area better. If you want to check off several locations from your bucket list during the same trip, add more days to the adventure instead of trying to fit more into your days.

Staying in one place gives you an opportunity to visit side roads and out-of-the-way locations you wouldn’t have time for if you only plan for a couple of hours before moving on to the next city. You also can go back to places you found especially enjoyable, whether that was a museum or a restaurant.

I’m always amazed and touched by how friendly and welcoming cafe owners have been to me and my traveling companions when we return for a second meal. Not only is it heart-warming to be greeted with a smile (and sometimes a hug or a kiss on the cheek), but we’ve also sometimes been gifted free drinks. Once, when we picked up our second pizza in a week from a local restaurant, they gave Greg and I and our friends a free bottle of wine to enjoy with our meal!

Create a Home Base

Changing lodging frequently can be exhausting. Slow travel can reduce that exhaustion… and make you less likely to need a vacation to recover from your vacation!

To decrease the stress in packing up and moving during your travels, consider building your trip around one or just a very small number (depending on the overall length of your trip) of “home” bases.

You can pick a location that is central to a number of places you want to visit and take different day trips. By returning to the same hotel room, home rental, or hostel for multiple nights in a row, not only do you not have to repack your bags as often, but you get the chance to become familiar with a neighborhood and even return to a favorite restaurant, pub, or cafe.

Unless you’re the type of person who wants close access to the big-city nightlife, you can also make your home base in a small town that may be less touristy and less expensive while still being able to visit more metropolitan and tourist hot spots during your day trips. Just make sure that the location you choose has public transportation during the times you will need it if you don’t have your own car. It definitely won’t reduce your stress to find out that there are no trains to take you “home” until the next morning!

Live Like a Local

When you spend longer in one place, you have the opportunity to spend your days like a local. This might include visiting a farmer’s market to buy local food for meals you cook at home as well as walking or using public transportation to get from place to place.

When you’re not limited to one day in an area and don’t have ten must-see tourist sites on your itinerary to fit in that one day, you have the time to slow down your days. Who cares if walking to the market will take 30 minutes as compared to driving there?! Think of everything you’ll be able to see at that pace.

Don’t be afraid of public transportation! Having or renting a car is sometimes a necessity if you are traveling in more rural areas, but if you are visiting a city (or even smaller towns if you are in a country with an excellent bus or train service), using public transportation is significantly less expensive than renting a car or taking taxis everywhere. You also don’t have to deal with the hassle of finding a place to park. As a bonus, public transportation can also give you an opportunity to see more of how the locals live.

If you don’t have much experience with bus and metro systems, there is a wealth of knowledge on the internet. You usually can look up maps (to print out or download to your phone) and even buy transportation passes ahead of time if you prefer to do so rather than waiting until you arrive.

Leave Space in Your Days

Slow travel doesn’t mean you don’t have any plan for your days, but it does mean avoiding an itinerary that plans every minute of your day. Having a whole day or even half of a day with nothing planned leaves space for spontaneous adventures, both big and small.

If you’re traveling and have every minute planned, you won’t be able to accept invitations to do unplanned things. Years ago when Greg and I visited Greece, we traveled to the small village where his great-grandfather was born and where, unbeknownst to us, some of his distant relatives still lived. Because our schedule left the day open for exploring the area, we were able to accept his distant cousin’s invitation to share a meal, which ended up being one of the highlights of the trip.

Get Lost

Those of you who know me know that this is easier for me to do than it is for most people. I have no natural sense of direction, so if I leave my phone and the map at home, I’m guaranteed to immediately get lost!

All of us, however, can get a little lost by purposefully turning down a road we’ve never been on. Get curious! It’s okay to do the tourist thing and visit the castle or other popular sites, but don’t stop there. Explore some of the side streets and alleys along the way.

For example, when I travel to a new town, I love walking in residential neighborhoods. I might not see anything that I want to post to Instagram, but I love seeing the different types of houses and landscaping.

Avoid the Popular Restaurants

I know sometimes you’ll want to visit a famous or popular restaurant, and of course, that’s totally acceptable if it’s your intended goal. Too often, however, travelers visit restaurants because that’s where their tour guide takes them or it’s across the street from the museum they just visited.

As a general rule, however, avoid eating in areas near popular tourist sites. Although, as with most things in life, this isn’t 100% true all of the time, restaurants in highly touristed areas tend to be more expensive than restaurants just a block or two further away. And often the food is not as good right near the tourist spots because they have a somewhat “captive audience” and don’t have to try as hard.

Don’t be afraid to travel a short distance away from the touristy area to explore the restaurant options. Often, this simply means looking for places a block or two away from the busier street or plaza. In addition to avoiding the crowds, you’ll probably find you get a more authentic, local experience.

It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth – and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up – that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

It’s All About the Attitude

I know that many of you reading this are thinking, “Slow travel sounds great, Sandi, but how am I supposed to do that when I only get two weeks of vacation each year?”

While an abundance of time obviously makes slow travel easier, slow travel is more about attitude than it is about the length of your trip. Regardless of the amount of time you have, find ways to avoid a checklist approach and instead focus on deepening your experience.

As we discussed earlier, if you only have a week to spend, don’t try to see every major city in a country. The pressure many travelers feel is to see and do as much as they can because they might never return to that area. But if you speed through a city, only experiencing it through the windows of your car or bus because your itinerary says you need to move on to the next city tomorrow, are you really having a meaningful experience?

You might actually enjoy your trip more and create more memories by spending the entire week in one place. No, you won’t have as many things marked off of your bucket list, but your memories are more likely to be textured with the sights, sounds, and smells of a meaningful experience.

Lastly, slow travel doesn’t even require you to travel to some exotic location. Have you considered spending more time doing things not far from your home? I think all of us can identify places near our homes that we may frequently drive through on our way to someplace else, but we’ve never spent any real amount of time there. Consider slowing down and visiting some of those places, maybe even spending a night or two. You’re guaranteed to learn more about the area than you ever will if you continue just driving by.

Have you ever considered slow travel? What changes can you make with your next travel adventure so you experience more by doing less?