Our Top 3 Tips for Slow Traveling
When you plan to focus on slow travel instead of the more common faster form of traveling (5-day vacations, long weekend adventures) it is important to take into account not only how the travel itself is different, but also the various requirements and more extensive planning process needed.
Slow travel means taking your time and staying in one place longer. Therefore, it is very important to not only know what the place you are looking to spend months in is like, but also whether it has all the amenities you might need (strong community, fast internet, plenty of tasty restaurants, etc.).
While slow travel is obviously our favorite style of travel, we will also be the first ones to say that it is not always easy. Just like any form of travel comes with its own set of challenges, slow travel itself presents many that you wouldn’t always expect. Hopefully, these 3 tips will help you enjoy your travels more and help you realize that when it comes to travel, going slow is the way to go.
\\ Know What Type of Place Makes You Happy
One of the first things you should do when planning to slow travel is figure out exactly what type of landscape you need to be happy. For some people, that might mean basing themselves in a big city so there is easy access to restaurants and bars, or it could mean basing yourself in a mountain town in the winter if your main goal is to ski a lot.
If you are planning to base yourself somewhere for a long amount of time you definitely want to make sure you are somewhere you like. We have made the mistake of not doing enough research on the place we were planning to live before actually moving there, and let us tell you it was much (much) harder to actually work and enjoy life when we hated where we were. So definitely take the time to figure out what you need out of a location and then do your research to find a spot that checks all the boxes.
\\ Get Accommodation for At Least One Month
One of the biggest perks of slow traveling is being able to spend a long period of time in one specific spot. While you can move around in a city, we instead recommend finding one apartment, home, etc. that you live in for the entire time (or at least for a month).
We suggest this route because it really does take a while to fully get to know one area. In a couple of days or even a week, you still will not have a good idea of the goings-on of the neighborhood, like where the best café is, the best bakery, who the lady that walks the cute dog is, etc. Slow travel is all about connecting with your surroundings, so make sure to base yourself in one specific spot to make that so much easier. Plus, this is often how you will connect with the locals.
One great way to find a spot for a month (at least) is through Airbnb. Nowadays it is even easier to find an apartment or home for a monthly stay, and usually, it is much cheaper to rent per month than per day.
\\ Find and Follow Your Passions
You could also call this: find your purpose for traveling to a place.
When you are planning to travel and live in a place for a long amount of time (month+) it can sometimes be tough to stay motivated and to keep the “hype” of travel alive. And while the goal of slow travel is to connect deeply with a place and culture, oftentimes you will get to a point where that goal just isn’t enough and you start to feel a bit sad or unmotivated. This feeling can also be amplified when you are struggling with even some of the most basic tasks (like communicating with people when there is a language barrier).
We have felt this before, and honestly, it totally sucks. You feel like you should be enjoying your life in a new and exciting place, but instead you are tired, unmotivated and a bit nostalgic for home. But through those struggles, we found that to beat those negative feelings we just needed a purpose other than just “travel.”
That purpose could be simple: you want to find the best café in whatever place you are living. Or it could be more extreme: you want to learn and get really good at windsurfing. Whatever you decide on, find a purpose that will fulfill you and make you excited for the place you are living in.
Slow travel is not only one of the best ways to experience a place, but it is also one of the more sustainable forms of travel. When you choose to slow down and dive deeper into a destination, you connect with it so much better — with the people, with the culture and with the landscapes. But while we stand behind slow travel 100%, we also know that it can sometimes be a challenge.
Hopefully, these three useful tips (many of which we have learned the hard way on our own slow travel adventures) will not only help you enjoy slow travel more — but also make you want to continue to slow traveling longer.
Find even more slow travel inspiration and information at www.backroadpackers.com — including 3 more tips that have personally helped us love slow traveling around the world.
Learn more here.
