Slow Travel: Can You Experience It In A Week?
Slow Travel, what is it?
Maybe you’ve heard of this term being used here and there, and maybe you’ve never heard of such a thing. The main meaning of slow travel is as the term says, to travel slow. It’s the joy of taking your time experiencing a city on a deeper level.
A level between tourist and local. One where you feel yourself become part of the city.
The time in my life when I have been able to experience such a feeling was when I taught abroad in Madrid, Spain.
My world completely changed, and even though I was living in Europe where I had the luxury of traveling to different countries on the weekends, sometimes staying in Madrid was more than enough for me.
And this was my thought process even when it was month 6 out of 9 of my stay (past the honeymoon stage).
Can you imagine…
The pure feeling of waking up in a city that is still foreign to you, but that you’ve spent more than 2 weeks at a time in; the way you walk even changes.
Suddenly, you don’t need Google to tell you which streets and metros to take, you already know, and it shows.
It’s enough time to identify the shop with the best products and the shortcuts to get to your favorite coffee shop.
The feeling of knowing that you are at one with the city. You’re no longer a tourist, but you’re not a local exactly.
You’re slow traveling, you’re respecting “your” city.
You make plans to learn more about it at a slower pace and engage in different community activities, and yet you still marvel at the beauty of the place you get to call home for a short yet longer stay.
This is slow travel. It’s authentic, immersive, and deep.
But where did this originate? And why is it being brought up by many travelers, especially with the rise of digital nomads?
What is Slow Travel?
Sources online say that this movement started back in Piedmont, Italy. The reason was a protest against the first Mcdonald’s opening in Rome, Italy in the 80s.
Through this action, the term slow food was coined, and it has now extended to slow travel.
Today, the term of slow- has expanded into other areas of our lives as a behavior and lifestyle choice to counteract fast-paced productions that prioritize quantity over quality.
Take fast fashion for instance, and now the increasing rise of thrifting and second-hand shops like Poshmark and ThredUp.
The way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear the slow movement reaching more and more people’s consciousness, which in my opinion is very needed.
Aside from the lessening of environmental impact from traveling on planes less often when slow traveling, consuming more, and helping boost local economies, slow travel allows people many other benefits that are necessary to absorb when traveling.
Reasons why people are going the slow travel route:
- Feeling revived after a trip because slow travel allows for more “downtime” while still on vacation.
- Your brain actually catches up with what’s going on because you’re not constantly traveling around – you learn to be mindful of the food, places, and people you meet because you’re not in a rush.
- Slow travel allows for a more authentic experience for the traveler, while supporting the local economy. The more you stay and learn, the more you eat local, engage in local events, support more locals businesses, people that want to improve their city, and then some.
- The slower you travel, the less carbon footprint you leave if you flew and traveled constantly. The temptation to keep traveling will always be there, but it’s lessened when you have so much to already see where you’re currently at, and you give yourself that opportunity.
- Can you beat waking up at your leisure in a beautiful space, making yourself some coffee and sipping it while slowly looking around and reflecting on what you feel that very moment, vs. waking up early to get a laundry list full of spots to stop at because your time is limited? I’ll let you choose.
And though I know that slow travel in the way it’s presented and talked about isn’t always possible, especially for people that have to stay in one location because of their job.
There is a rise of people trying to defy that and get others thinking outside of the box.
Related: How To Travel More in 2021 While Working Full-Time
Enter: Digital nomads
A group of people that in a nutshell, have the time flexibility, and ability to work from anywhere as long as they have a good wi-fi connection.
Nowadays, with the increasing rise of technology and digitalization of everything, jobs are becoming easier to be completed online and therefore allow the employee to be fully remote.
There’s a whole group of people out there saying “yes, you too can travel the world and make money to sustain yourself” as they go about and do it themselves.
I won’t go too much into detail on this here, but I will say that this is an increasing working trend that whether you choose to be remote and travel, or stay at home, location-independent jobs will continue to grow, along with the number of people taking the plunge and going freelance with their own services, or going, full-on entrepreneur.
This will help enable a lot of people to travel for extended amounts of time, rather than feeling restricted by a 2-week max vacation slot.
Slow travel has been a concept that has lived before we even heard of the term digital nomad, but I think it’s a term that will continue to grow as more people take on remote job opportunities, or use their skills to create their own location-independent businesses.
A journey, not a destination
Slow travel essentially is about taking a break, while you’re on break. You’re not rushing from place to place, trying to get the photos, the souvenirs, trotting the same couple of streets trying to find a monument or museum. It’s slowly exploring, savoring, and enjoying the city – at your own leisure ’cause you got time.
Now you may be thinking: Can anyone slow travel even on limited time?
Here’s the thing, I think you can in a modified version, slow travel during a week-long trip somewhere, let me explain. Will it be the same experience slow traveling for 1 month vs. 1 week? No, not really. But is it possible on a certain level, yes. You just have to adapt certain slow travel qualities to the time you have available to you, and of course, set the intention to actually want to do it ?
Related: Setting The Travel Intention
If you’re interested in learning how to adapt certain slow travel qualities and be able to practice them in a week-long (for instance) trip you have coming up – make sure to download my Slow Travel in a Week Cheat Sheet.
Here I lay down step-by-step tips and real-world examples of what to do to be able to go from feeling the fatigue on the vacation from doing all the touristic spots, to feeling a refreshing sense of discovering the city and yourself through slower, and reflective activities.
Click HERE for your FREE copy or just leave me your email and name down below!
This is more of a modified version of slow travel, for sure, but as you can see, you can still try to adopt some of the “slow travel qualities” into a week of travel. It doesn’t have to be super hard, I think that starting off with a couple of immersive, local, authentic experiences and lessening the pressure on yourself to see everything is already a GREAT start.
Even if just for a week. It’s a taste of what could be down the line if you pursue slow travel more.
Slow travel is about your connection to the city, and giving yourself that time to connect your mind to where you are, and truly feel that you’re there exploring. Not just visiting as a tourist.
Concluding thoughts on Slow Travel: Can You Experience It In A Week?
I hope this post gave you a bit of insight on how you too, yes you with a full-time job or inability to leave as often as you can, can begin to explore this flow and slow travel movement.
Let me know in the comments below what you think about slow travel!
Reach out if you have any questions on this concept, or would like to learn more.
Also, don’t forget to pick up your Slow Travel Cheat Sheet Guide where I highlight the different ways and intentions you can set to create your own version of slow travel, anywhere you go.
Leave me your email down below and await the link in your inbox!
Have you heard of it? What’s your take on it? Have you experienced it? I’d love to know your insight on this topic and style of travel, it’s something I’m so interested in pursuing more of in the incoming years, so I will be sure to share more information on this the more I go.
To more travel moments like these,
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