What is Slow Travel and Why Should You Try It?

Imagine this: you’re sitting at a quaint café in a sleepy Provençal village, sipping on a perfectly brewed café au lait. The warm sun kisses your skin as locals greet each other with cheerful “bonjour!” You’re not rushing to tick off another landmark. Instead, you’re simply soaking in the moment. This is the essence of slow travel.

In a world obsessed with speed, slow travel is a refreshing antidote. It’s not about packing your itinerary with as many activities as possible or racing to see every major tourist attraction, ticking things off a list.

Instead, it’s about savouring the journey, immersing yourself in local culture, and truly experiencing the places you visit.

Here are our thoughts about slow travel, and why you should try it. We just want to note that this is how we like to travel, but its not at all meant to criticise how you or other people may like to travel.

Why slow travel?

Authentic Experiences

When you slow down, you experience a destination as it really is. You’re no longer just a tourist; you become a temporary local.

Maybe you’ll strike up a conversation with a market vendor in Aix-en-Provence, join a cooking class in Tuscany, or learn the art of making paella from a family in Valencia. These authentic, unscripted moments are the ones that stay with you long after you return home.

One of our most fun experiences in Sri Lanka was having a cookery class in the class teacher’s outdoor kitchen. Her daughter and husband were helping out (we were lucky and it was just us in the class) and we all sat down afterwards to eat what we’d just cooked. We laughed about how we had to give her a positive review because she was trying to beat her friend’s cookery class on TripAdvisor (she was number two, and she couldn’t dislodge her friend no matter how hard she tried).

All things we couldn’t do if we’d rushed our travel, or stuck to the tourist places.

Meaningful Connections

Slow travel encourages you to form genuine connections—not just with the place but with its people.

Staying in a family-run guesthouse or a small B&B instead of a chain hotel means you’ll likely have the chance to chat with your hosts, hear their stories, and maybe even get insider tips on the best local spots.

Now we’re not the kind of people who easily strike up a conversation with a stranger in a bar. At a house party, you’d normally find us in the kitchen talking to the people that we already know (well, back when we were young and went to house parties, you would). But, slow travel creates those opportunities to connect with locals.

Less Stress, More Joy

Let’s face it: cramming too much into a short trip can feel more like work than a holiday. Slow travel lets you savour the joy of simply being present.

You’ll feel less rushed, less stressed, and more open to spontaneous adventures—like stumbling across a hidden beach or joining a local festival you didn’t even know was happening.

A few years ago we had a couple of hours in Barcelona before we had to get our flight out. We went for a wander round a part of the city we hadn’t been to before and stumbled across an amazing wine festival. We spent our last few hours sipping generous ‘tastes’ of regional Spanish wine – it was brilliant, not that we remember much of the flight home.

Sustainability

Travelling slower is often more eco-friendly. By staying longer in one place, you’re reducing the carbon footprint associated with constant flights or long drives.

Plus, spending your money locally supports small businesses, helping the community thrive.

How to embrace slow travel

Choose Quality Over Quantity

Instead of trying to visit five cities in a week, pick one or two and explore them thoroughly.

For instance, spend a week in the South of France, wandering through lavender fields, visiting tiny villages like Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, and sampling local wines.

Stay Longer

Opt for longer stays in fewer destinations. Renting a holiday cottage or a local apartment gives you a base to truly settle in and feel like part of the community.

Try staying in one place and going on day trips to others (we stayed in Porto for 10 days, going on day trips to places like Aveiro).

And if you have a job where you can work from home, try working from home abroad. That’s what we did in Porto, having two long weekends while working in the middle. Yes, we were working, but we had the whole evening to wander round and explore. Of course, whether you can do this really depends on your job and individual circumstances.

Support local businesses

Choose accommodations like small guesthouses, boutique hotels, or homestays over large chains. The hosts often have a wealth of knowledge about their area. Vrbo is great for this and is a similar platform to Airbnb.

Consider taking a guided tour run by a local. This is a fantastic way to learn the history and hidden gems of a place from someone who knows it inside out. We recommend Klook, which is a platform to connect you with locals offering tours. Airbnb Experiences has a similar programme.

Visit neighbourhood markets and dine in family-owned restaurants. My favourite restaurant in Vietnam (where I lived) was a small Bun Cha restaurant – it was delicious, and I loved watching the owner-Mum and her three daughters laughing while doing the washing up after the lunch shift.

Travel Off-Season

Avoid the crowds and enjoy a more relaxed atmosphere by travelling during the shoulder or off-seasons. We’ve explored silent castles in Northern Cyprus and sunbathed on empty beaches in Thailand.

It also means that you can support local businesses in their quieter months.

Embrace Local Transport

Swap taxis and car hires for trains, buses, or even bicycles. Not only is this more sustainable, but it also allows you to see the countryside at a slower, more enjoyable pace.

For our holiday in Italy, we flew into Rome, got the train to Florence, then to Venice, and flew home. The trains were only about 1.5 hours each, and we saw a lot of countryside we wouldn’t have been able to had we flown.

How about getting the train across France, rather than flying?

And, public transport is far better for the environment.

Find out more about where you’re going

Google local events or festivals happening during your stay. These often provide unique insights into a destination’s culture. Normally you’ll find something brilliant, though making dates match can be a challenge.

Be curious and engage with locals. Learn a few words of the local language (don’t worry about butchering it – the fact that you’ve tried will bring a smile). Even a simple “Bonjour” or “Ciao” can open doors to conversations.

See what museums there are, and if any give you the history of the place you’re visiting. It will give you so much context about the place and the culture of where you are.

Be Spontaneous

Leave room in your itinerary for unplanned moments. Maybe you’ll find a ramshackle antiques shop in Nice or an unassuming patisserie in Lyon that serves the best mille-feuille you’ve ever tasted.

Of course, this is easier said than done if you need to be somewhere by a particular time. We often go away thinking we want to do X, Y and Z, but without an idea on what day or even where we’ll do it. It means we can stay spontaneous without being too rigid or missing things we want to do.

Do nothing

Don’t be afraid to spend a whole day doing “nothing.” Sometimes, you can feel bad if you’re not ticking another tourist site off a list.

Sitting in a park, people-watching, or reading at a café can be surprisingly rejuvenating.

Similarly, a great breakfast (or lunch) idea is to grab a coffee to go and a croissant, and find a bench somewhere pretty. Watching the world go buy over a morning coffee can be very special. If you’ve watched Game of Thrones you might remember the scene where Cersei waves off Marcella who’s sailing to Dorne. It was filmed in Dubrovnik, and each morning we had our breakfast there with our feet in the sea surrounded by limestone cliffs – beautiful.

Why you should try slow travel

Slow travel encourages you to savour the little things, to be more present, and to travel with purpose. It’s perfect if you’re seeking depth over breadth and craving a genuine understanding of the places you visit.

By slowing down, you’ll find yourself noticing details you might otherwise miss: the way the light hits a cobblestone street at sunset, the sound of waves lapping against the shore, or the aroma of freshly baked bread wafting through the air. These moments of mindfulness make travel more enriching and rewarding.

So, the next time you’re planning a getaway, ask yourself: do I want to rush through my holiday, or do I want to truly experience it? If the latter speaks to you, then slow travel might just be the change you’re looking for.