Avid travelers know the stress of getting up early each morning and trying to fit in as many iconic destinations as you can before taking off to the next country. While admittedly, you can get to see many unique places, it may not be as satisfying or enriching as the slow travel experience. After all, what is the point of saying you have been to 10 countries if you could only spend one or two days in each capital city?
If you love to travel but end up feeling exhausted after your vacation, you may want to learn about the slow travel trend. Here is everything you need to know about the art of slow travel and how you can implement it in your own life!
What is Slow Travel?
As you may have gathered, slow travel is an approach to traveling that allows people to take in their environment while connecting to local people, culture, food, history, and music! The goal of slow travel is for travelers to stop and embrace their surroundings.
With social media, it can be easy to get caught up in hitting all the top destinations and grabbing as many Instagrammable photos as possible. However, slow travel is about improving the quality of travel rather than the quantity. Most families find that leisurely travel means they have the opportunity to learn, explore, and relate to the culture.
What Are The Benefits of Slow Travel?
Enjoy a relaxing vacation - Although modern-day society puts a significant emphasis on work culture, it is essential to remember to enjoy the time you have off by relaxing on your holidays. Instead of hustling from place to place, try to leisurely travel and thoroughly experience a destination before hopping on the train for the next one. Slow travel will not only be an enriching experience for you and your family, but it will also act as a mental reset, making it good for your mental health.
Connect with local people - Slow travel means taking the time to not only see what the city has to offer in terms of destinations, but it also means learning about the local people. With time, you will get to learn about them, their values, and how they live. Learning about how people are different can be a significant part of travel and experiencing the culture.
Experience authentic foods and traditions - Most large cities and restaurants near tourist destinations cater to international crowds. This means they may not serve the most authentic foods. By venturing into smaller towns and expanding your trip beyond the major city, you can experience small authentic restaurants that serve foods you would never have tried otherwise.
How Can We Embrace Slow Travel?
Leave your comfort zone - Be willing to travel to areas where they might not speak your language. At first, it may be difficult and frustrating to communicate. But, over time, you learn bits and pieces of another language while learning how to communicate through gestures and nonverbal communication.
Take your time - Don’t be afraid to spend a lot of your time in one place. You may think that you would get bored in one location, but meeting the same people at the market allows you to build connections. Spending more time in one city also lets you see the city in a new light. Who knows? There may even be places you didn’t notice when you first arrived.
Sign up for It’s July - Slow travel is the perfect way to get your family to experience new cultures in a meaningful way. With It’s July, you can take slow travel one step further and connect with local people. It’s July is active in many countries around the world, allowing you to match with other families on your vacation and experience life as they normally do. By using It’s July on your travels, you can make enriching connections and have memories for a lifetime.
Want to learn more and get inspired about SLOW TRAVEL? Check out this beautiful website!