To feel reinvigorated during challenging times, I want to share this post on a few ways you can incorporate slow travel into your daily life so that every day feels like a vacation. This is timely in the middle of a global crisis when travel is limited and we’re forced to find inspiration and rejuvenation in our own backyard.
Having been a chronically exhausted person most of my life, I fell into slow travel by accident. Though undefined at the time, slow travel made me feel good down to my bones. It inspired this blog, peeling back every layer of what makes slow travel so beneficial to our health, community, and environment.
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- Why Slow Travel is Essential for Your Wellbeing and Mental Health
- 5 Top Tips to Be an Eco-Friendly Traveler in New Zealand
But it’s not always possible to “get away”. Often we’re stuck in the grind of our lives. It can make us feel stagnant. It’s how I’ve been feeling lately because of this damn crisis. And it’s why I’m sharing this with you now.
There are many ways we can incorporate the principles of slow travel into our daily life. To disrupt routines. Visit new locales. Get inspired and come alive again.
Writing this post, I realized this is a roadmap to having a bit more joy in your life. These tips to incorporate slow travel into your daily life are fundamental values of mindful living. And they add a flair of novelty so you can have a taste of being on vacation every day.
What is slow travel?
Before we explore ideas to weave slow travel into daily life, let’s refresh. What is slow travel? What are the principles of traveling slowly?
Slow travel is the concept of having enriched travel experiences that integrate us into the lives of locals. This is paired with cultural activities that focus on connection, growth, and sustainability. Traveling slowly allows gaps within our day for flexibility and spontaneity. It’s ditching the checklist or itinerary in service of staying in a place longer and tapping into the authenticity of its people and culture.
Here are some fundamental values of slow travel that are weaved into the seven ways below to incorporate slow travel into your daily life:
- Slowing down
- Reconnecting with self
- Reconnecting with the earth
- Connecting with local people and their way of life
- Supporting local economies and small businesses
- Opting for sustainable experiences and environmental responsibility
Seven ways to incorporate slow travel into your daily life to experience slow travel every day without a vacation
1. SLOW DOWN: the first step to embody slow travel
This might seem unrelated but my advice first, foremost, and always… slow down.
Slow travel is nigh impossible if you don’t learn to slow down. Society has trained our brains to gallop through the day. The ultimate scam of how much time we don’t have.
But listen closely.
There is time. If you’re intentional about it, there is time.
This is a lifestyle change and might be overwhelming at first. I started with 20 minutes every morning for meditation and a bit of journaling. I don’t look at my phone. Or think about my day. I stay as present as possible, with slow breaths and languid thoughts.
This has literally altered my perception of time. I’m calmer, more focused, and unafraid to take time blocks out of the day just for me. It changes the entire day.
This is crucial to open the mental capacity to incorporate slow travel activities into our daily (yet busy) life.
Find resources that resonate with you. I use the Calm app to guide my daily meditations, or gather wisdom from my favorite speakers on YouTube like HINDZ or Buddhist monk Nick Keomahavong.
Commit to the practice. It opens up the heart and soul. This will deepen all the teachings of slow travel and mindful living.
2. Take a different route to new corners of your city
An easy way to add a flair of novelty into daily life is to disrupt routine. This opens a channel to new solutions. And it does all sorts of delicious things to our brain waves, making new connections and stimulating creativity.
I always think of the famous study on forced experimentation after the Tube closed down in London. Due to strikes, people were forced to find alternative routes to work. Curiously the study found that, after the strike ended, most people kept their new route.
Through forced innovation, people found a better commute to work. This opened great dialogue on the drawbacks of routine and people’s unwillingness to expend “search costs” to maximise daily activities. We deem the outcome “satisfactory”, so there’s less experimentation.
I invite you to experiment. Whether it’s the weekend or a sunny evening after work, walk or cycle to new corners of your city.
Stroll through a different neighborhood. Try a new mode of transportation. The “newness” will refresh the mind and open opportunities to explore. You might find a new cafe for your morning coffee. New businesses you hadn’t known existed, different people to connect with.
Slow travel is all about immersing in local culture and investing in local communities. New routes are perfect to don your explorer shoes and get acquainted with lesser known places.
And who knows, you might find some a new favorite hub to frequent. Or a superior cup of coffee.
3. Ask around for recommendations
No matter how long I’ve lived in a place, I’m always asking around for recommendations. This is the secret sauce to finding the coolest spots in town. Trying somewhere new is always fun. And asking people, whether they’re expats or locals, invites a range of tastes to experience.
I use Google Maps for this, marking my “want to go” places with a green flag. When I’m bored, I pick a place and go. It has led me to some fantastic unique places I wouldn’t have found otherwise.
It’s a great way to stay away from multinational corporations. And you get to explore new corners of town. I love locally-owned cafes and restaurants. Farmers markets that utilise local producers and locally-grown foods. Emphasis, local.
It feels good investing my money there to ensure these businesses continue to thrive for more people to experience them, locals and tourists alike.
Food is a gateway to understand someone’s culture. Deepening my knowledge of local cuisine makes me open-minded to try new things and develop respect for the myriad of communities all living cohesively in my town.
My current home, Wellington, isn’t a large city. But doing this allowed me to dip into the variety of cultures coexisting next to each other. Indian, Chinese, Ethiopian, Turkish, Argentinian… families wanting to establish a sense of home and share it with others.
Collecting recommendations broadens your horizons (and your taste palette) and opens your eyes to the diversity that exists within your city. It offers opportunities to connect with new people and learn a thing or two.
It’s one of the most joyful ways to incorporate the values of slow travel into daily life without needing a giant holiday.
4. Stamp time in your daily calendar for a nature walk
Another way to incorporate slow travel into your daily life is to stamp time out in your calendar for a nature walk.
This is one of my favorite teachings of slow travel: it’s not about finding the most exotic or dramatic places in the world. Slow travel reinforces connection to the earth, no matter where you are. This is where we all come from. It’s something we share universally.
You don’t need a 12-hour plane ride to soak in the natural world. Find green spaces in your region (bonus if you haven’t been before) and go for a nature walk. Cycle through the trees. Put your feet in the river.
And drink it in. Remember tip #1 above: slow down. Breathe. Do a meditation.
Slow travel realigns our priorities. We detach from the need to constantly do. We settle into a leisurely rhythm and the world comes alive around us.
From nature, we learn to be still. To move with ease and share the earth’s resources with all creatures. It’s the best thing we can do in service of sustainability and slow travel: to remember what we’re protecting.
Even if it’s a simple 10-minute walk after work, I always find time in the week to stroll through a park and study any changes as the seasons cycle on. Watch birds flit tree to tree. Admire all the creatures I share this earth with. It quiets the voices in my head and diminishes my problems.
Slow travel, after all, can be very healing to the soul.
5. Book a local slow-travel experience
As much as you think you know your city, new experiences are always popping up. Especially as the slow travel movement gains momentum.
These days, there are endless slow travel experiences to choose from, including cycling tours, farm-to-table experiences, or dinner events with local chefs and farmers.
Have a dig around your area. A simple Google search will unearth a delightful list of outings and adventures for your domestic travel pleasures.
I’m lucky enough to live over the hill from the Wairarapa, an agricultural and wine region. There, new cultural experiences are always running, organized by local families and small businesses.
A local favorite is the yearly lavender harvest. Every summer, Ranui Essentials open their farm for lavender picking. As night envelops the sky, the farm facilitates a stargazing event, guided by an astronomer to learn about the stars. It’s a memory I’ll never forget, bundled along the rural hills, encircled by the smell of lavender, gazing upward at a sparkling dome.
6. Stay with locals for a weekend getaway
If you’re keen to indulge, a local weekend getaway is a balm to a travel-aching soul.
Domestic travel can actually be magical in its potential to relax without having to put in too much effort. Stay at a locally-owned B&B or find a cultural homestay to experience something new. Rummage around AirBnB, if you must. You can even use Couchsurfing if you’re strapped for cash… a sure-fire way to connect with interesting people.
This will add some travel magic into your life without a packed itinerary to ensure a true slow travel experience, exploring local places.
I love weekend getaways in my backyard because the connections you make can result in true friendship. It’s easier to maintain a relationship when you both live in the same region!
I once booked a getaway over the hill at Kaituna Riverside Cottage. Not only was it a magical stay (the outdoor bath was magic). But the hosts and I became friends, chatting over coffee as the sun rose over the ranges. We keep in touch and I know I’m welcome back again and again. A priceless connection that made me feel more connected to my community and the land below my feet.
7. Just drive
The joy of slow travel is being flexible and spontaneous. And there’s nothing better than a road trip.
If I learned anything from living in multiple places across the world, it’s that there’s always something interesting in the next suburb or town over.
Slow travel is understanding that we don’t need the fancy stuff to experience the world. There’s opportunity everywhere to make connections, learn something new, and support businesses doing good things for their communities.
I’m lucky to live in New Zealand, where there’s something interesting in every direction. From Wellington, we’ve taken many day trips. We just get in the car and drive. Doing this, I got to explore some quirky little towns like Greytown (small town charm, incredible coffee), Eastbourne (seaside views and local pubs), and Paraparaumu for its wild beaches and soaring cliffs.
Domestic travel is the perfect opportunity to practice slow travel. It’s your training ground to understand humanity a bit better. And learn that it doesn’t take much to stay entertained. The connections you make will become lifelong as you can continue visiting these places over and over again. Best of all, you start to feel more ingrained in your own community.
Domestic slow travel strengthens our sense of home. It plants our roots a bit deeper. It’s essential knowledge we can bring with us when international travel turns back on. As slow travelers, we can set an example for the rest of the world to preserve communities and the planet.
I hope you enjoyed this post on how to incorporate slow travel into daily life without needing a vacation. Slow travel is accessible to all of us, anytime, anywhere. Together we can launch this movement until it becomes normalized across the globe.
