Travel plan idea blog

Slow travel = staying in one place for a while and connecting with the culture

I saw someone wearing a t shirt today that said "slow travel" and had some text about staying in a vacation spot for a while and connecting with the locals. I've always been a fan of staying in a city for a month in order to really get to know it. I came home and searched for "slow travel" and found a few sites talking about it. I learned a new phrase!

The idea is to live at the destination. That means:

Stay for a while (I'd say a month is just about right).
Shop for groceries and other items that locals shop for.
Get into a routine and meet locals (like going to the same cafe every day).

The best example I have of slow travel was my honeymoon where we spent 1 month in Rome while I took a language teaching course. Some people in the course were Italians so we went out to dinner with them, went to a bar with them, etc. We also went to the same cafe, gelateria, and pastry shop every day (often more than once a day) and though we gained a bit of weight we did get to know the people there a little bit.

This was actually more evident in Assisi where we also stayed for 1 month. There was only 1 gelateria there and we got to know the owner pretty well since he was there every day (and we went at least once a day). There was a restaurant, Il Duomo, that we went to at least every other day. Also, one of my classmates from the course in Rome owned a shop in Assisi where she sold hand made wood toys and music boxes. My wife likes music boxes and these were quite nice so we went to that store often and bought a bunch of music boxes that we still have on display but that no longer work. I think they need some oil or something - they seem to get stuck.

We were planning to stay in Lisbon (not the Lisbon in Ohio) for a month this winter. Now we're thinking we might split that trip up so we spend some time in Amsterdam (where I was supposed to meet a friend a while ago and maybe we can finally meet there this winter), then somewhere, then Lisbon - maybe a week or a bit more in each.

That timing worked out pretty well when we spent a week in Munich, a week in Zurich, and about 2 weeks in Madrid. I don't really consider that slow travel although we did meet and get friendly with a few locals in Madrid. I actually felt more like slow travel in London when we would go to the same Costa Coffee every day and talk to the Italian guy who started the original Costa Coffee. I hope it's true because no one actually believes I met the founder when I tell the story - at least not if they know how big Costa Coffee is now.

Another trip I have planned for some day is a month in Italy for a language course so my wife and I can work on our Italian. Maybe Bologna.

And it was actually a slow travel story that got me motivated to travel when I was 22 or so. I met a guy who had spent a month in Ghana taking xylophone lessons and living in some village for $25 a week or something. It sounded pretty cool.

Has anyone here had a slow travel experience? If so, can you tell us something about it? Or if you had a month would you go somewhere specific for a slow travel experience?

Posted by James Trotta at September 27, 2009 11:08 PM