What is Slow Travel?

When we travel in a hurry, we miss the small details that make each place thrilling and unique. We lose the wonder and joy of the journey. We spend more time filming and photographing than actually experiencing a place. And at the end of all that rushing around, when every box on our To Do list has been checked, we return home more exhausted than when we left. That is why the age of Slow Travel is dawning.

Slow Travel is about savouring the journey. Traveling to your destination by train or boat or bicycle, or even on foot, rather than crammed into an airplane. Reveling in how the landscape, light and people change along the way. Whetting the appetite by imagining what you’ll do when you finally arrive at your vacation spot.

Slow Travel is about taking the time to engage with local people and to learn about their culture. Renting an apartment, villa or cottage for a week or two instead of hopping from one hotel to the next. Using your base to explore local shops and markets, sip coffee in a corner café, take your children to the neighbourhood playground. Doing a house-swap is one way to plug straight into the local culture and make friends that last a lifetime.

Of course, Slow Travel is also about finding moments to slow down. Making time to read a big novel or amble through the streets of a new town, to lounge by the pool, to sleep a delicious siesta. A vacation is not a race to squeeze in as many sights, day-trips and tours as possible.

Mae West once said “Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.” She probably had sex on her mind – didn’t she always? - yet the same principle holds for travel, too. Slow Travel is not only better for the environment; it also delivers a richer, more memorable and more convivial journey. Is there more to Slow Travel than that? We invite the citizens of Slow Planet to share their views – preferably after a long, relaxing vacation.