10 Good Reasons to TRAVEL SLOW

Remember the Frank Loesser song about the Slow Boat to China? The verse goes something like this:

I’d love to get you
On a slow boat to China,
All to myself alone.
Get you to keep you in my arms evermore,
Leave all your lovers
Weeping on the faraway shore.

There’s a later song with the same title espousing the same idea. It’s sung by John Prine and you can listen to it here. The idea, of course, was that traveling by boat to China (from almost anywhere in the world) was about as long and slow a trip as one could imagine.

Lately, though, slow travel has become quite trendy. For some travelers, slow traveling means foregoing plane travel. For others, it means traveling independently and staying in one place for at least a week.

Regardless of interpretation, here are 10 good reasons to TRAVEL SLOW:

1. Slow travel is less stressful. There’s no more hurried packing and unpacking, loading and unloading.
2. Slow travel encourages you to make choices about where you want to be and how you want to spend your time.
3. Slow travel makes it easy to have new friends since it involves person-to-person contact and revolves around a deep appreciation of people and place.
4. Slow travel gives you more freedom. You have time to explore a destination thoroughly and to experience the local culture.
5. Slow travel is easier on your budget. If you slow down and stay in one place, your money goes further.
6. Slow travel is personally rewarding. You take the time to savor the countryside, enjoy food and wine, and search out local markets.
7. Slow travel encourages you to engage. It favors visits to spots enjoyed by local residents instead of following impersonal guidebooks.
8. Slow travel encourages personal growth and development. You have time to engage all your senses in adventures of cultural understanding, self discovery and personal enrichment.
9. Slow travel is an exploration of artful living. The emphasis is on deceleration rather than speed.
10. Slow travel gives you time to soak in the Spirit of Place. There is no more flitting from one ‘must see’ place to another.

Unlike Phileas Fogg, we don’t have to race Around the World in Eighty Days. We can choose to immerse ourselves in places and their stories, and at the same time we can enjoy low-impact travel that is respectful of our heritage and our planet. On your next trip, why not give SLOW TRAVEL a try?

Post written by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe.