Hey everyone!!
I'm curious to learn more about ppl travel habits and preferences, so I'm doing some research to better understand if you have some particular passion when traveling. Would be great if you could take 1 minute of your time to tell me what you love doing when abroad.
Me:
My main goal is to connect with people and have a local experience, so I always open Couchsurfing app to connect with other travelers and locals to meet.
Also, I'm passionate about architecture and history, so I spend a pretty good time walking around and reading about the place I'm visiting.
Food for me it's not that important, so it's the kind of experience I could skip.
And what about you? :)
+ 382 others joined this month
Comments
The slow travel movement is growing every year. We'd love to hear about your slowest travel journey and travel tips you've discovered during your travels.
👉 Share your slow travel journeys and tips.
How long was your slowest journey? How many days did you stay in a destination? What tips do you have for traveling slower? What challenges did you overcome?
I have mobility challenges so all our travel is "slow". We recently drove our camper from New England to Newfoundland (and took the ferry) and found surprisingly accessible trails maintained by local towns right on the rugged shoreline in southwestern Newfoundland. Ocean views, limestone cliffs, pelagic birds wheeling about their nesting colony. All these were accessible for me as long as I used my hiking poles. Not completely handicapped accessible, these locations are what I call Easy Walks (not too many roots or rocks, relatively level with something of interest along the way). We travelled for six weeks, spending around a week each in various providncial parks on the southwestern coast, 3-4 days at Gros Morne National Park, and private campgrounds on the east coast so I could see puffins! Living in a teardrop camper for this extended time prsented fall risks, which we managed with care, paying attention to placement of picnic tables, tie downs for the overhead tarp that shielded us from rain and sun, and taking our time in all we did. Provincial parks in Canada are well-maintained, a bargain in camping fees, but do require booking ahead. We had no trouble booking camp sites, but getting sites that had power and water took prior planning.
I went for a weekend The Strawberry Train in Madrid, Spain. Built in 1851 by order of The queen Isabel II of Spain to unite Madrid capital with the Royal Palace of Aranjuez.
Is a unique cultural and leisure experience that allows us to recreate the way our ancestors traveled to the Royal Site of Aranjuez, declared a World Heritage Cultural Landscape by UNESCO. Tren de la fresa. trendelafresa.es
Hey Susana, the topic is "slow travel".... a weekend trip is NOT "slow travel". Sorry if this doesn't translate to Spanish (maybe you can help!)
Is Slow Travel cause emphasizes connection to local people, cultures, food. A group of actors accompanied us on the trip, recreating the history of the train and the historical events linked to the Royal Site. Once in Aranjuez, you can enjoy this city, with many cultural, natural and gastronomic attractions. On the way back, we tasted the famous strawberry from Aranjuez, which gives our train its name. Yes I know what slow travel means, maybe can´t be apply for a weekend. Thank you
June/july
I just spent 6 weeks in Yerevan, Armenia. Rented an apartment and walked everywhere in the city. To me there is a difference btwn switching cities every couple of days compared to "living" somewhere developing routines, interacting with the locals, and just exploring the area in a relaxed manner.
Love slow travel! ❤️ 🚂 🏔 🚌 🌊 Taking the time to get to know local people and cultures and sink into the place you’re in is so completely different.
Slowest travel I’ve done was probably taking the scenic route to my year abroad in 2009. Manchester to China overland via Russia and Mongolia, year in Shanghai learning Chinese. Original plan was Silk Route back to the UK but got a bit derailed by the Kyrgyz civil war after Kashgar…still on my bucket list to go back and finish it.
So much harder to find the time for that kind of trip now, but a girl can dream!
I think I am one of the original slow travelers but I didn’t know it at the time. It didn’t have a name. I started traveling to the EU in 2006 and from the very beginning my trips were 2 week adventures. Between 2008 and 2012 I traveled to Rome 6times and stayed 2 weeks each time. I never go to the EU for less than a week now.
One experience that stands out in the last few years is deciding to just stay for about a month on one island in Greece (Karpathos), living in just 2 apartments in the 2 small towns on the island in that time. We only hung out with locals for meals, hikes, boat trips. Worked a bit. Just lived life. It was such a rich and rewarding month.
However, if I was to answer the question literally, the answer would be that time I went to Costa Rica and I didn't even have a clear idea where Costa Rica was on a map. I fell in love with the culture and the people, and only interacted with locals. I was scheduled to stay for 5 months. But I truly felt that I had belonged and was probably just born in the wrong country. 37 years later...
In 2009 I did the good old “Banana Pancake Trail” in Thailand and Laos. I started in Bangkok and travelled to Vientianne, Luarang Parabang, Valley of the Jars, and then up the Mekong on a longtail boat to a small border town (forget the name), before heading to Chiangmai and then a train back to Bangkok. The journey took at least a few weeks, and I worked on my first travel startup (a community forum, funny enough) from Internet cafes and my laptop along the way. I actually didn’t have a plan for the route but made it up along the way, based on new friend I met and tagging on their journeys.
I took a sabbatical in the winter of 2018/2019 and sent myself to London and settled there for 3 months. I stayed in a couple of AirBnBs, and chose a village or town outside of London for a day trip each week, while also doing a few-day long trip to Iceland and Edinburgh in between. In many ways, I wonder if it was considered a "travel" since I stayed in one city most of the time, spending it by looking around different corners, finding different cafes to write in, and watching plays and events... But I did make many friends, and eventually felt like I had a deep connection with London, making it one of my most memorable trips.
For a real slow travel, I took another trip winter of 2020/2021, and found myself in France, Andorra, Belgium and Netherlands. This time, I spent up to 2 weeks in different cities, traveling by train and bus and even cars (I love BlaBlaCar). Most of the time I stayed with friends, the other times with couchsurfers and AirBnBs. With everything closed because of the pandemic, I spent more time just walking in the cities and outlying towns, taking in emptied streets and attractions, really living like a local. Sure, it might feel like I'm losing out on sit-down meals in popular restaurants or ticketed tours, but by staying outside and taking in the atmosphere through walks, I really felt like I was connecting with the place. I recommend taking walks where you can - it can be unplanned, but if you don't like the idea of getting lost like I am, I always mark some locations on my map and choose a path that lets me cross most if not all of them, sometimes changing directions if I happen across something interesting. This is the best way to get to know a city in my opinion.
I would love to do a slow trip as I think it allows you to immerse yourself in a country or culture more than just visiting for a few days. I guess slow can also be subjective as most of my trips are fast-paced the slowest experiences I have had tend to be for 1 month in a country or place. I spent around 1 month in Belize and a month in Guatemala. I found it a great experience as I really got to understand the local ways of life and you grow familiar with the community and traditions. I would really love to embark on more slow travel-inspired trips!
Hiking the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail in South Australia, 75km across 4 days, great views, great people, slow and steady hiking.
I love travelling slowly! Flying from country to country constantly is not my idea of a good time.
When I was a young whippersnapper back in 2012 I spent a year travelling through South America. Top to bottom and I only caught a plane if I had to. I got to spend roughly 1 to 2 months in each country and every so often if I felt like I'd been moving too fast, I just stay in one spot for a few weeks. Amazing experience!
The biggest challenge for me was the language. So in the first 6 months if I stopped somewhere for a while I'd get Spanish lessons while I was there.
My tip to help people travel slower is don't book everything in advance! I know it's a little daunting not having accommodation booked but once you realise how easy it is to find something last minute, it won't stress you out anymore. Having the flexibility to stay somewhere longer if you love it or find out about something amazing you need to see the night before you leave beats that security for me every time.
I only started travelling this way because it was cheaper in South America to just rock up somewhere and ask for a room then to book one online. And you could always get a cheaper rate the longer you stayed. Then I started to enjoy the freedom and opportunities it gave me and there was no going back!
I like the fact there aren't really any hard rules about slow travel. As long as the goal is to slow down and be more present, you are on your way. I could talk about this all day! 😀
We house sit as part of travelling, which inherently lands us in some nice slow ways of being. We tend to look for month-long stays to help limit the moving. This summer we spent 6 beautiful weeks outside a small town in Southwestern France. Such a treat to just enjoy the surroundings (and cherry tree).
Overall, our biggest tip is to remember that any place can be a must-see destination if you make it one. It's easy to look at a place and think you can see it all in a week and move on. But there's so much value and beauty in not just seeing it all, but experiencing it. By staying for 6 weeks in that sit, we were able to find out about local events, go back to favourite businesses, and just really take it in and experience it all, rather than just admiring it.
But our slowest travel - literally - was just slightly later this summer. We spent 22 days paddleboarding down the Loire RIver at a whopping average of about 6km/h. 😂
Nice question! Probably 8 weeks in Barcelona. I enrolled in a Spanish school and enjoyed the city almost like a local (it's so incredibly touristy that there is no full escape from it sadly).
There is so much more value in dedicating extended periods of time to a place instead checking boxes...
In May/June last year I did the Camino de Santiago. I'm not sure it gets much slower than walking across an entire country! lol. It was an incredible opportunity though to meet locals and see parts of a country that you may not see otherwise. I also spent two months in Cusco, Peru which is the longest I've stayed at one place. I walked to most places and then took the bus if I was going to other towns. I also met many people there who I still keep in close contact with. When I was younger I would always try to cram in as many places as possible on vacation, but I can't do that anymore.