What is Slow Travel? Benefits and How to Do It
Slow travel, also called “slow tourism” is an alternative to mass tourism. It’s a mindset that emphasizes a relaxed, immersive, and authentic approach to traveling.
You visit another place, spend lots of money seeing everything you can, cramming it into your two weeks off per year. It doesn’t change you. You come back from your trip and exclaim “it was so cool! I had fun!” But you aren’t different. You don’t look at your existence with a deep perspective. You don’t question your old way of life and come to new realizations. Your life trajectory remains on the same tracks as it was when you left. The only difference is that now you have something to talk about around the office for the next week.
Rather than rushing through multiple places within a short period, it encourages travelers to spend more time in a single location. The slower pace allows them to connect with the local culture, traditions, and people on a more profound level. It poses the question, would you rather deeply experience a few places, or have shallow experiences of several places?
Table of Contents
Key Principles of Slow Travel
- Immersive Experience: Slow travel encourages travelers to engage with the local community, learn about their customs, traditions, and ways of life. This often involves staying longer in a destination, sometimes weeks or even months or years.
- Mindful Exploration: Rather than ticking off popular tourist attractions quickly, slow travel focuses on experiencing destinations authentically. It involves exploring lesser-known places, savoring local cuisine, and participating in cultural activities.
- Reduced Environmental Impact: By staying longer in one place, slow travel can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint associated with constant travel between destinations. It often involves using more sustainable modes of transportation and accommodations.
Benefits of Slow Travel
- Deeper Cultural Understanding: Spending more time in a place allows travelers to understand the local culture, language, customs, and traditions more profoundly. It fosters meaningful interactions and connections with locals.
- Reduced Stress: Slow travel promotes a more relaxed and unhurried pace, reducing the stress associated with tight itineraries and constant movement between locations.
- Sustainable Tourism: By minimizing travel between destinations and staying longer in one place, slow travel can have a lower environmental impact compared to frequent short-term trips.
- Cost Savings: Spending more time in a single location often allows for better deals on accommodations and transportation. Additionally, cooking meals rather than eating out constantly can save a lot of money, and is usually healthier (especially if you plan on traveling for several months). It is easier to be flexible when slow traveling and flexibility makes it easier to save money.
- Personal Growth: Immersing yourself in a culture different from your own can lead to personal growth, increased empathy, and a broader perspective on life.
- Memorable Experiences: Slow travel enables travelers to create lasting memories by engaging deeply with a destination, its people, and its unique experiences.
Slow travel changes you, especially if you travel alone. When you travel slowly, the numerous benefits of solo travel are magnified. You develop small, incremental shifts in your perspective. You might not realize they are happening until you engage with someone from back home and realize how you’re different. It changes how you the structure of society. It changes how you view yourself.
After spending a month traveling through Japan and heading to a new destination every 3-5 days, I was exhausted. Between the research, planning, and booking both the transportation and accommodation, I felt like I needed a break. Not to mention, I spent each day optimizing my time to make sure I “got the most out of it”. But i wasn’t really getting the most out of it.Truthfully, it took a lot of the fun out of it.
Once I made it to Thailand, the relaxed, leisurely island pace felt like exhaling years of stress. Without time constraints, and nowhere I had to be, it was a simple kind of free. Able to go back to the same places over again, I started to have a “spot.” The restaurant owners would remember how I liked my breakfast. I could appreciate the beautiful view more than once. I knew where to buy fruit and didn’t need to use maps all the time. It’s nice to feel a bit settled in.
I met people who turned into friends, and I actually got to get to know them. This wouldn’t have happened if I was constantly on the go. And then I realized how much cheaper it was to book accommodation by the month. Slow travel became the default from there on out. I personally prefer a minimum of three months in each country (or city).
How To Slow Travel
- Rent accommodation by the month. It is cheaper and allows you to get comfortable.
- Use local transport. Buses, trains, colectivos, tuk tuks, motorbike taxis, etc. It is cheaper and you can meet some interesting people.
- Buy produce and food at local markets and cook for yourself rather than eating at restaurants all of the time. Local markets are always a great way to immerse yourself in a culture. Take a cooking class or meet a friend and learn how to cook!
- Become a regular. Since you will be in the same place for a while, you will start to frequent the same establishments. The locals will get to know you, and will start to remember your order. It’s actually a really wholesome feeling knowing that someone remembers you.
- Witness seasonal changes. If you stay a few months or a couple years, you will see what the place is like year round, giving you a better idea of the local way of life. I loved experiencing the rainy season in Thailand, strawberry and cherry season in Albania, and the autumn wonderland in Argentina.
- Make friends. The longer you stay, the more times you can hang out with local people you meet. The more time you spend together, the closer you can get. You will learn about local customs and grievances, giving you a perspective you won’t get from a tour guide.
- Explore on your own or with new friends. Paid tours are fine, but you will often have more memorable and meaningful experiences by not doing “tourist activities”.
While slow travel may not be feasible for every traveler due to time constraints or other reasons, incorporating elements of it into one’s travels can enhance the overall experience and provide a more meaningful connection with the places visited.
