Slow travel deepens your experience and satisfaction with life in general and your trip. It can make you feel like you have deeper pockets too! When you travel at a slower pace and prioritize longer stays in one area, slow travel can save you money and lower your trip or vacation costs.
“We base our sightseeing and activity choices on our interests, not anyone else’s list, suggestions, or itinerary.”
Here are 3 ways that slow travel has saved our family money over the years.
How to stretch your travel budget by going slow
Watch our slow travel budget video (short)
Accommodation
Slow travel can be staying longer in one area. And when you stay longer, you can often get discounted rates on your stay.
Transportation
One of your biggest expenses is when you move from one place to another.
Slow travel cuts down how often you move around. Changing places less means spending less on major transportation.
Instead, you can learn to use local trains and buses well, and that’s much cheaper than traveling from city to city or country to country.
Free time
When you slow travel, not every day is for sightseeing and big must-do activities.
Scheduling less makes you more time rich.
Slow travel can save you money. That can pay off not only with more money in your travel budget, but a deeper satisfaction with your trip, your family, and your life.
“The more we travel, the slower our pace.”
Sometimes we go fast the first time so we can slow down next time
Are there times where we travel at a faster pace? Yes. More and more though, our pace slows down.
For example, during our first trip to Vietnam in 2022, we had never been there before. Our visa was good for about a month. We used that time to travel from Hanoi to Da Nang, or about halfway down the country.
Jade waters, bustling cities, quiet hill towns: We got a taste of Vietnam, but we knew it was only a taste. We stayed in many places, usually for around three or four nights apiece.
Was it faster than our usual pace? You bet. It was also intentional—and temporary.
Fast forward to 2025. We are returning to Vietnam. This time though, we are aiming to stay for 3 months. We’ll spend just about all of that time in and around Da Nang.
Since slow travel saves us money, we can travel more
Since our family travels at a slower pace, we feel less pressure to pack things into our days. That also means we don’t feel like we have to throw our money around at restaurants and attractions, doing as much as possible so we don’t miss out on anything.
We know good and well that we’ll miss out on things.
That’s okay with us.
We base our sightseeing and activity choices on our interests, not anyone else’s list, suggestions, or itinerary.
Since our time and money go to what we consider priorities, we save not only time, but money. In return, our family stretches our travel budget. More money means we can travel more, in the modest style we prefer.
Slow travel can save money while being a rich experience
The more we travel, the slower our pace.
Longer stays have helped us treasure an area more, and get to know people and place more deeply.
Since we don’t have to spend as much on transportation, that’s money we can use elsewhere in our travels and overall lives.
Above all, we don’t feel stress to over-do or pressure to over-schedule. There is no FOMO in our lives and travels. That alone doesn’t just help our budget.
Traveling with less stress, no need to jam-pack a schedule, and being free of a need to rush around is its own kind of wealth. It’s the wealth that enables us to be more present with each other, cherishing the time we have together as a family during our slow travels.
