Recently I came across an article online that talked about something called slow travel. It resonated with me, but what does it mean?
What Is Slow Travel?
In a nutshell, to us, slow travel simply means taking your time as you travel.
Far too often, we pack any vacation with things to do and sights to see, as much as we can. Maybe it’s because we only have a finite amount of time, and because vacations are so expensive, we just want to do everything we can.
The downside of taking vacations like that is that we put so much pressure on ourselves to have fun, we end up more stressed, more tired and enjoy our time less than we should.
So what is the answer? Well, to just slow down. Don’t try to do everything you can in a short period of time, but do less and enjoy what you do more. Really think about what you are doing or seeing. Make more an effort to really learn about where you are, how you are getting there, or the people you meet.
That may sound stupidly simple, but it is actually pretty hard. It is ingrained into us to be on the run, to hurry up and do everything. Making the effort to slow down and just experience things more is hard to do, and takes a lot of thought and energy. But it really is worth it to make that effort.
How We Do It
Traci and I embrace slow travel by just planning big things on a few of the days we are on vacation, and plan in time with no plans on some of the days. Sometimes we plan something for the morning, but plan empty time in the afternoons. We just see what we want to do, and don’t stress about it.
We will then use that down time to look around the area for things to see, maybe just spending an afternoon in a local bar or park. The goalie to explore whatever looks interesting, and not putting pressure on ourselves to be at any specific place at any hard time.
Doing vacations like this really helps us relax more, and enjoy the things we do make a point to see or do more. We learn more about wherever we are, and meet more people. Even more importantly–we are not so tired that when we get back to work we complain we "had to come back to work to rest up from our vacation…"
Future Plans
How can we follow this way of travel moving forward? Well, we are going to Italy next year, and maybe England the year after that. We have already been talking through what are the items we really want to see or do, and what are the ones that are optional. We are intentionally leaving open days, or down days. That is where we will explore or just sit back and rest.
We are also looking for shorter trips we can take–long weekends or such. These trips are fantastic ways to do slow travel. Pick a place, with one thing to see or do in mind, and let the rest of trip form itself once you get there. We might do some research ahead of time, just to be more efficient (and to get more excited!), but we generally will figure it out as we go.
We just seem to enjoy things more this way. Traci does get a little restless if we spend too much time in. The room, but that is usually solved by getting out and looking around. It’s just fun.
But what do you think? How do you travel–busy or slow? Let us know in the comments below!
Marc
