Slow Travel: Eleven Things to Enjoy

Not having to rush is the best part

If you’ve ever planned a one-week sightseeing trip to an exciting destination, you know it’s not really a vacation. Sightseeing is not relaxing — it may be enjoyable and engaging, but also a lot of work.

You must research, plan and then execute. It may be fun to plan and prolong the feeling of excited anticipation.

But when the time comes, you will still worry about being late, missing flights, travel hiccups, closures, sickness, or bad weather.

Some of those risks will materialize, and some will not. New surprises will pop up. You may end up stressed or disappointed.

In the end, you will be tired, even if have enjoyed your trip immensely. You will need a proverbial “vacation from the vacation”.

We’ve done it many times. Having two busy careers and a large family forced us to plan well in advance. We needed to book bigger cars, find larger vacation rentals, or go through the hoops to book tickets for everyone on the same flight without getting timed out.

We went, we saw, we were amazed, we had great memories, but we were usually exhausted afterwards.

After COVID, planning any trip became even more difficult. The shorter your vacation, the more of it will be eaten up by delays, cancellations, longer wait times and booking in advance requirements.

With pricey flights and extra banked vacation, it was a perfect time for us to finally try slow travel this summer.

So we did it — still planning well in advance, but for 26 days instead of 7. Was it worth it?

I was going to go for ten things that worked well but ended up with eleven.

Here is what paid off:

1. We were able to fully take our minds off work and life problems. Being away for so long (and planning for it) helped us focus on just spending family time together. And the world did not fall apart.
2. Our children got over their anxiety of being away from home for so long. After two years of pandemic lockdowns, they were becoming a bit agoraphobic — craving the perceived safety of home.
3. The pressure of post-COVID travel, entry requirements and worries about airline cancellations were sufficiently spread apart. We had three peaceful weeks before having to worry about our return. A one-week trip in post-COVID times will have a bigger portion eaten up by travel-related stress.
4. The most expensive part of most trips — airfare — was diluted, lowering our daily vacation cost.
5. After having paid for expensive flights, we were able to fully enjoy our destination and see most of the sights we were planning to see. With all our previous one- to two-week trips, we had to choose some and decline others. This time, we have no regrets and will not obsess about never returning, since we’ve checked everything off our list.
6. With more time, we did most of the planning and driving in a rental car which also saved us a significant amount of money. When your time is short, you tend to spend more on packaged day trips and sightseeing excursions. We saved even more on our group of seven people since most packaged tours charge per person.
7. We had time for less known local attractions — some of them turned out to be an amazing value, charming, educational and very affordable. This was one of the best teaching moments for the kids — getting familiar with locals, their way of life, culture, and language.
8. We lived like locals — renting places in several small villages, shopping for groceries, fruits and vegetables, walking the streets, and learning to cook from what was available in shops.
9. We didn’t mind the bad weather. In fact, it was part of the plan and we counted on it to provide a respite from attractions. When it rained, we rested. Our plans were padded in advance to allow for weather.
10. We could afford to be flexible. We had a list of things to do, but nothing was preplanned for a specific day. We decided what to do next based on the weather forecast, how tired we were, and whether we had enough groceries or needed to eat out. We adapted to problems. If anyone got sunburned, we replaced the beach with a museum. When one of us tripped and bruised both knees, we postponed a mountain hike to allow for recovery.
11. The best part of slow travel is, no doubt, that it is slow. There is no need to rush. When you rush, you can’t always appreciate the amazing things you see on your journey. The tour guide will hurry you along, the bus will be honking, or there will be one more museum waiting and only twenty minutes to run through it and check it off. When you rush, you may miss the charms — flowers in the gardens, kids playing games outside, murals in a side street, funky trees, local pastry shops and the amazing smell of local fruits at a fruit stand.

If there is one thing that we need on a vacation, it is to slow down. Our lives are already too hectic.

If you can afford the time, try slow travel — one long trip will cost you less than two smaller ones, and you will be able to appreciate your destination more.

Go to a faraway place and enjoy it to the fullest.