Gear down, cozy up, have fun, and actually enjoy your trip
You know that cliched feeling of needing a vacation from your vacation? Hurrying through your vacation is exhausting. You don’t have to rush through your precious travel time in overdrive though. Instead, you can travel slow—but what is slow travel?
“Slow travel means slowing down, enjoying where you are and who you’re with, and connecting with your destination, the people in the area, those you’re traveling with, and yourself.”
The meaning of slow travel
What is slow travel?
At its heart, slow travel means focusing your vacation time on the places, people, and activities that matter to you.
Instead of rushing from place to place or worrying about the day’s over-packed activity schedule, you plan less (and possibly plan nothing at all). You focus on being in the current moment instead of what could go wrong and throw off your schedule for what’s next.
Slow travel means you build your activities around being immersed in what you’re doing for the time it suits you, instead of letting an arbitrary list or schedule dictate your day.
Since you focus your time, energy, and resources on what you want to do and experience, you feel less pressure to overdo your precious vacation days. You also feel like you can build in downtime for resting or more low-key activities.
Slow travel means slowing down, enjoying where you are and who you’re with, and connecting with your destination, the people in the area, those you’re traveling with, and yourself.
Slow is less of a pace and more of a state of mind
Slow travel combines sightseeing and attractions with a comfortable pace, downtime, and an understanding that while you can’t do everything on a trip, you can take in the experiences that matter most to your personal priorities.
Can you “slow travel fast?” Sure. More importantly, you can gain more joy from your trip when you can go slow or go fast, depending on the time and not just on a frantic sense of needing to do and see everything possible thing that a destination offers. Ultimately, “what is slow travel” means a state of mind about making travel and activity choices that matter to you.
Slow travel does rule out transportation choices. We travel slow, and we do everything from take trans-oceanic flights to ride the Shinkansen bullet trains in Japan.
Rules of slow travel? No. But here are the opportunities slow travel opens up
At the same time, there are no hard and fast rules for slow travel. You can build a slow travel mentality into a weekend trip, a week’s family vacation, or a month working remotely and abroad. A day might have a couple of activities. You might pick a day that does take in a bunch of sightseeing, followed by a relaxing day of downtime.
Instead of rushing, you can…
- Slow down: Wander and meander, leaving yourself open to opportunities.
- Enjoy: Savor being present in the senses and surroundings of the moment.
- Connect: You can deepen your connections with the people who live where you’re visiting, the activities and destinations you experience, and the people you’re traveling with. This builds the memories and stories that make a trip worthwhile long after you return home.
“Slow travel has transformed how our family travels. A slower pace has brought more joy, rejuvenation, appreciation, and family connection into every trip.”
Why choose slow travel? Here are 4 reasons
Here are 4 reasons we find slow travel more enjoyable and rejuvenating:
- Avoid exhaustion from the stress of rushing around or constantly changing where we stay
- Free up time and energy to enjoy what we’re doing, where we are, and who we’re with
- Broaden our learning and understanding of the world through the places we visit and people we meet
- Leave our time open for opportunities that come about in the moment, not in advance
How to build slow travel into every trip, no matter where or for how long you’re away
Slow travel can be part of any trip or family vacation, no matter where you’re going or for how many nights you’re traveling. Develop your slow travel style with these simple tweaks you can work into your next trip:
- Leave FOMO at home. You won’t do it all, and that’s okay.
- Develop 3–5 top priorities for your trip, and focus on accomplishing those.
- Accept that it’s okay for all other activity options to go undone.
- Instead of constantly changing location, pick 1–2 destinations.
- Vary meals: Dining out is fun, but so are picnics, light meals, and enjoying food at your accommodation
- Plan, but don’t over-schedule. It’ll be easier to make time for downtime, and to say yes to amazing opportunities that come up only in the moment.
Slow travel cuts down trip fatigue and turns vacation into rejuvenation
A slow travel mentality makes you more intentional about your trip and activity choices. In turn, you can be more in the moment. You’ll find that often your travels become less stressful. When problems do come up, it’s easier and less overwhelming to meet those challenges.
Slow travel has transformed how our family travels. A slower pace has brought more joy, rejuvenation, appreciation, and family connection into every trip. Instead of being exhausted and depleted at the end of a trip, we often feel recharged and excited—not to mention inspired to plan our next trip.
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