This was published 1 year ago
Flight of Fancy podcast: Slow travel tips - the benefits of not trying to see and do everything on a holiday
Slowing down has its benefits when travelling.Credit: iStock
It must seem counter-intuitive after two years of missed travel opportunities to consider slowing down.
Now, surely, is the opportunity to make up for lost time on your travels, to see as much of the world as possible, to maximise the small chances you have on your holidays and to pack in the most activities, the most destinations, the most enjoyment possible. Why wouldn't you?
But there's another way. A better way.
"Back at the end of 2017 I was overseas for six months, and I was sitting on a beach in Mexico and just thinking, what am I doing?" says Celeste Mitchell, co-founder of travel platform Life Unhurried, and a guest on this week's episode of Flight of Fancy, the Traveller podcast.
"We'd just been in such a hustle mindset, where it's all about getting as much done as possible and working really hard and go-go-go all the time, and then when you have your small amount of annual leave you're jamming in as much as possible in that time as well. And I decided I wanted to change what I was doing."
The answer: slow travel. This is a theory, and a movement. It's a commitment from travellers to pump the brakes, slow things down, to consciously strip back their travel plans and go to fewer places, do fewer things, and allow time to take it all in.
Penny Watson is a writer for Traveller, as well as being the author of the book Slow Travel, and another guest on this week's podcast. She says the practice of slow travel has myriad benefits, both for travellers and the world.
"It's about immersive, curious, authentic, interactive travel," she explains. "It really springs from our longing to seek connections – connections with nature, connections with locals, and with other people on the journey. It's about more intense and meaningful ways of experiencing the world.
"And it's about connecting with yourself, too. Detoxing from the digital world, so that you're actually using that brain space to come up with ideas and think about yourself and your life and where you're going. Holidays are about resetting, and slow travel really helps you do that."
Doing this isn't always easy. Slow travel requires planning, as well as a conscious effort to just do less than you want to, less than you're able. You'll need to make sacrifices, including a few things that you've probably become quite accustomed to.
"The first step is ditching the devices," says Mitchell. "That's actually really difficult for some people. Maybe instead of trying to capture everything on Instagram you can have a notebook and take some observations.
"You can also bring back a bit of ritual into the everyday as well. Can you cook over fire? Even learning how to light a fire, a lot of people might not have done that. Run yourself a bath and enjoy that. Go to a local market and pick up some local produce and enjoy it in the garden. It's just creating those slower moments."
And, Mitchell says, slow travel isn't just about speed, but about simplicity.
"Simple pleasures. That's what it comes down to. Enjoying the small things."
Find out more about slow travel in this week's Flight of Fancy podcast.
To listen or subscribe to the Traveller.com.au podcast Flight of Fancy on iTunes, click here. To listen on Spotify, click here.
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