Slow travel is a concept that emphasizes quality rather than quantity, favoring a slower, more immersive and more responsible approach to travel.
Slow your travel
Unlike mass tourism focused on speed and often excessive consumption of food, places, and experiences, slow travel aims to fully appreciate each destination, taking the time to discover and savour the local culture, natural environment, cuisine, traditions, and interactions with locals.
As slow travelers would rather not cross other tourists paths to be in full immersion, it often involves getting away from the roads scoured by group travelers to discover unknown or secluded places, and appreciate the value of a well deserved landscape after a hiking or cycling trek through nature.
Reduce your carbon footprint
Slow travel also encourages a more eco-responsible and sustainable approach to travel, minimising or even compensating for the negative impact of the journey on the environment and indigenous communities. This can include more environmentally friendly transport choices, such as cycling, walking, train or public transport, as well as supporting the local economy and businesses, or the preservation of the culture and the environment.
Review your way of traveling
Nevertheless, it is a way of life that is not accessible to everyone and has strong constraints that require you to entirely rethink the way you travel. A return trip to Australia can no longer be done in a week if you refuse to fly. We can connect South Africa by boat but how long would that take, and at what cost?
The most affordable accommodations are rarely eco-responsible, which has a considerable impact on your budget. Also, a long journey can quickly become unmanageable with children, especially young ones.
Eventually, it will be necessary to be vigilant in countries where it is culturally odd to travel alone off the beaten track, especially if you are a woman. It is therefore important to carefully study the habits and customs before choosing your host country, in order to avoid unpleasant or even potentially dangerous situations.
In summary, slow travel emphasizes the quality of the travel experience rather than the quantity of destinations visited. However, for the moment it is mainly aimed at a rather masculine, childless and privileged, in terms of budget and time allocated, minority. Let's hope that its use grows to become the main mode of travel for globetrotters.
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