Are you looking for reasons to travel slowly for your next vacation?
Try going slowly from one destination to the next without care.
Why should you travel slowly?
By slowing down your journey, you interact more closely with locals and experience the ambiance of the places you travel through.
When you move leisurely with a slow mindset, you become receptive to unexpected events and will be open to the next adventure.
Slow down as you go from one location to the next.
Do you want to travel slowly?
Or are you just curious about what slow travel is?
Fast travel is demanding, stressful, and exhausting.
Whereas Slow travel has the power to renew, transform and heal.
Find out the reasons to travel slowly and why you should try and get tips on how to do it.
Contents
Reasons to Travel Slowly Guide.
When we travel for work, we travel fast.
I remember traveling fast for work-related events when I had to be in a new city every weekend.
While I enjoyed being in different cities every week, after a point, I started to hate the pace.
Some mornings I’ll wake up not knowing where I am until I look at my room key.
For leisure, sometimes we travel slowly to find reasons to slow down the pace.
“Fast travel is stressful, exhausting, and soul-destroying.”
I never liked to travel fast – especially going on tours.
All I remember of my trips to multi countries are the few photos taken at iconic landmarks.
These are not the best memories, just snippets.
When you travel fast, you don’t get to smell the roses. It is impossible to stop and appreciate the little things in your rush and haste.
On our schedule, we slow down as much as possible.
Ideally, we would book a place and stay for a week or more.
We like to move from place to place slowly.
Take the longer route; we would tell the taxi drivers.
There is no rush if you are not chasing time.
Our days of unhurried travel remind us why we started traveling in the first place.
We cherish these moments for the rest of our lives.
If you want travel to be genuinely transformational, try traveling slowly.
If you want to become a slow traveler, read on.
When we meet many people on our travel, naturally, the conversation turns to where they’ve been and where they’re going next on tour!
What is Slow Travel?
Slow travel is an approach that emphasizes connection: to local people, cultures, food, and music.
It relies on the notion that a journey should be sustainable for the local communities and the environment while serving as a vehicle for education to have an emotional impact both now and in the future.
There’s no single definition of slow travel.
You also don’t need a reason like a long vacation to try it out.
You can travel slowly for a weekend, a week, or even take years — it’s entirely up to you.
More than anything, slow travel is a way of thinking about travel that prioritizes immersion, experience oversights, and tourist attractions.
Instead of simply following a travel map, it’s more of getting to know the locals and learning about their culture.
Slow travel allows you to learn about the culture you’re visiting and yourself.
“Slow tourism is characterized by reducing mobility and taking time to explore local history and culture while supporting the environment. The traveler’s main goals are relaxation, self-reflection, escape, novelty seeking, engagement and discovery.” – Journal of Travel Research
15 Brutal Truths And Reasons to Travel Slowly
Why do people want to travel faster?
The benefits of fast travel are evident as you can see and do more things.
When you’re moving quickly, you’re able to cover more ground.
If you want to visit the top 10 sights in a city, visit every museum, or see three countries in a week, fast travel is the way to do it.
It’s no mystery as to why people do this to themselves.
Many feel that this trip to Europe, Asia, or America is a once-in-a-lifetime, and they only will if they see it ALL now.
The pressure of social media proof and validation means snapping a selfie and then moving on to the following background to pose can be exhausting when traveling.
One of your first reasons to travel slowly is you want to travel because you want to see more of the world and how other people live.
How people live is not limited to the 7s of each Reel in our Instagram world, where people only stay for as long as it takes to get the perfect shot.
Then move on to the next sight without ever stopping to appreciate or understand what they’ve just seen.
There is also no need to show your followers where you are, what you’re eating, and what you’re up to daily.
Or upload stories hour on the hour of your day.
What I eat in a Day becomes a joke if I make that a priority in my life versus just being there to enjoy my meal.
Second, if it is your only chance to travel, would you want to spend the entire trip rushing from point A to B without seeing anything meaningful?
Do you want to be so focused on the next destination, the next highlight, that you must remember to enjoy and experience the moment you’re in?
The antithesis of leisurely travel is a way of life where visitors see everything but learn nothing- and it’s happening so frequently that many end up with blurred memories.
Done right, the reasons to travel slowly have the power to transform your life.
What are Your Reasons for traveling Slowly?
Save Money
Slow travel is better as it’s cheaper!
First, slow travel helps you save on transportation costs.
The big ticket item is your air tickets, often the biggest travel expense.
Accommodation is cheaper as you can avoid booking the big chain hotels close to tourist belts. Instead, you can save more by staying further out to experience more local life at lower prices.
Slow travel can help you save on food.
You’ll have time to explore local restaurants and avoid the tourist traps that charge more for less.
Save Time
You can travel faster when you have a short break and pack as many places as possible in your itinerary.
But the flip side is that you waste a ton of time traveling when you travel quickly.
Transferring to and from the airport, sitting on trains and busses, checking in and out of hotels, and queuing up for attractions and tickets.
All of this time could be spent relaxing and absorbing a new culture.
See more of this and less of airports by traveling slowly.
Save Energy
Have you ever felt like you needed another holiday to rest after your vacation?
Believe us.
We’ve been there; done that!
You’ll be worn out at the end of each day if you fill every minute of your itinerary with a different activity.
When a week or two of hectic days are added together, you’ll need a week off to recover by the time you go home.
Traveling slowly gives you time to sleep in.
You don’t have to see every sunrise every day.
You may take a snooze in the afternoon or sit and enjoy coffee as the world goes by when you travel slowly.
Slow travel allows you to unwind and gives your mind time to relax.
Remember the point of a vacation?
Save the Planet
Airplanes emit around 100 times more CO2 per hour than shared buses or train rides.
They are incredibly destructive to the planet — are my minor favorite aspect of our traveling lifestyle.
Even though it takes longer if you can get to your location by rail or bus, do it.
Additionally, You can reduce your carbon footprint by avoiding short-hop flights during your trip.
You can further lessen your effect by staying in homestays, flats, or small hotels, which is easier if you travel slowly.
These accommodations typically practice more eco-friendly practices and produce less trash than large hotel companies.
Avoid Tourist Traps
One of the main advantages of slowing down your trip is getting away from other visitors!
You get more time to visit off-the-beaten-path locations and locations on a slow trip.
Additionally, you can pick a place, day, and time when fewer tourists are around.
Famous attractions like the Sistine Chapel or the Louvre are packed thick with tourists.
You can spend more time marveling at the Mona Lisa since you won’t have to wait in line!
Avoid huge crowds at peak hours at large monuments.
Make a Bigger Impact
One of our favorite reasons for taking it easy.
Fast travelers tend to book their hotels near most tourist attractions, and these hotels usually belong to international conglomerates.
Slow travel increases your likelihood of staying in privately owned lodging, such as a family-run Airbnb or a remote homestay.
Inadvertently your travel money directly contributes to the local economy and helps locals.
Connect With People
When you choose to stay in a locally owned hotel, you interact with the owners when you arrive.
You can chit-chat and enjoy conversations with your host over a coffee.
You could be the only visitor, but they can suggest independent drivers, restaurants, and other things.
Locals are naturally fascinated by visitors who manage to locate their favorite spots, so don’t be shy about discussing and discovering what life is like there.
Connect With Culture
You don’t have to be shy and can be curious to find out about the culture of the place you visit.
You can look up the local social media pages and learn the similarities and beautiful differences between your culture and the new place you visit.
When visiting a country, please find out how the different ethnicities retain their religions, customs, and way of life.
Food is often used to retain cultural identity, and people from different backgrounds eat other foods.
You can join in the important festivals of each group.
Connect with Yourself
Not every second of your slow travel will be spent partying with the locals.
Your favorite part of slow travel would be the opportunity to reflect on your experiences during your leisure trip.
You won’t have to jam-pack things one after the other; instead, take time to think about, ponder, reflect, and decide what these experiences mean.
These quiet, contemplative times teach you more about yourself as you discover more about the world.
Spend some time taking in the beauty of your new experiences.
See More By Traveling Slowly
It’s tempting to travel quickly and see as much as possible.
But when you slow down, you can travel slowly and see more.
While initially, it may sound counterintuitive, when you travel at a slower pace, you see.
More of your destination and less of the airports, train stations, busses, trains, and taxis.
Traveling fast means long journeys between destinations.
Most of us don’t remember the flash of the scenery outside the window of planes, buses, or trains.
You can go deep into each place with slow travel as you tick less off your bucket list.
You allow time to sit, savor meals, speak to people, and follow a slow journey’s unexpected twists and turns.
Adventures Lives In Slow Travel
Slow down, follow intriguing pathways, or say yes to unexpected offers.
In a cultural experience with people of different faiths – something incredible happens.
Your holiday turns into an adventure!
You can make friends with locals, taste some homemade delicacies, or get invited to a family dinner in strangers’ homes!
You discover hidden places that only locals know about.
You can find the world’s many hidden wonders right under your nose when you take your time.
Slow travel gives you time for unexpected adventures.
Build Lasting Memories
Some itineraries are so jam-packed there’s hardly time to relax and take in all the new experiences.
When we don’t have time to stop to relax, our brains don’t have the opportunity to process and write lasting memories.
The experience of a new city pushes the recollections of the previous location out of your mind.
For this reason, people often take selfies at famous locations to remind them that they have been there before.
After a period of rapid travel, the journey may feel fuzzy, like a dream, with each recollection being vague when you arrive home.
Slowing down allows our brain more time to create full memories to recall the tastes, sights, and sensations for years to come.
Learn to Live with Less
If you take a more extended trip and travel slowly, you might realize an important truth.
You only need some of the gadgets, gizmos, and knickknacks you have at home.
When you’re out in the world with just what you can fit in your suitcase, you realize it is more than enough.
You might suddenly have a sudden urge to declutter, minimize, and downsize when you get home.
Be Happier To Travel Slowly
Modern life tends to prioritize being busy over being happy.
We rush from appointment to appointment and speed to complete deadlines at all costs.
Every moment of the day is scheduled to the last second until we fall into bed, exhausted.
Sometimes when we travel, we do the same too.
Traveling slowly is a great way to prime you for living more slowly when you get home.
The most valuable moments on your trip were the slow, silent moments.
When you do nothing much except sit and stare.
I remember these moments well.
Once, I sat at a windowsill wrapped up against the cold, looking out as the autumn leaves fell.
Another time, I was waiting near the lockers at a ski lodge, watching people hurry by.
Learn to incorporate these peaceful times into your daily life.
When you do that, happiness can have a place to develop.
Traveling more slowly makes for pleasant experiences and may even result in a more comfortable existence after you return home.
Travel Slowly to Change Your Life
Glitzy travel magazines of expensive travel experiences shape your expectations and make you want to put specific destinations on your bucket list.
The magnificent views you share with many other tourists queuing up for photo moments can be overwhelming.
Sometimes during peak travel periods, you may only see flash bulbs going off when you want to view the Mona Lisa.
Travel is terrific when you are cycling around the fringes of a large lake, trekking up a peak, or just wandering along a quiet alleyway to choose a little café for a cup of coffee.
These times it’s just you and your sense of adventure.
You feel the tug at your heart, feed your soul, and nudge you to transform into the person you’ve always wanted to be.
What Are Your Reasons for Travel Slowly?
You may have felt rushed, set expectations about specific landmarks too high, or missed out on anything that felt authentic.
You could have felt hurried, had unrealistic expectations of specific landmarks, or missed out on anything that struck you as genuine.
