10 Things I Love About Slow Travel: It’s All About That Pace 

You might be wondering, what’s the deal with slow travel? It’s not just another way to slowly see the world; it’s pretty much a lifestyle and a journey of its own.

Forget about rushing from one tourist spot to the next; slow travel is all about getting up close and personal with the places you visit.

Right now, I’m hanging out in South Africa, renting a cozy house in the middle of a nature reserve for a few months. You could say I’m taking slow travel to the max.

Picture this: in the morning I wake up early and go for a stroll, and zebras are peacefully munching on grass.

And I see a baby giraffe, wobbling around, a baby that wasn’t around yesterday. Every evening, just before the sun dips below the horizon, I see a gang of nyalas (gorgeous antelopes you find in Southern Africa) gathering right outside my house. Apparently, it’s the perfect spot for them to crash for the night.

It’s all these little things I started to notice about the ebb and flow of life around me that make slow travel so charming.

Slow travel allows you to immerse yourself fully in the local culture, customs, and way of life. It’s like becoming a temporary local, and that experience is priceless.

You get to learn about all the local hotspots, that amazing deli that has the best French cheeses, and the bakery that has the best freshly baked bread. Nice cheese and bread are the things I usually miss when I am traveling to South Africa, but now I know just the spot to get my fix.

With no rush to tick off a list of must-see attractions, you can savor each moment, avoiding the burnout that often comes with whirlwind tours. 

When you travel around a lot, see new places and meet new people every day, it can get quite overwhelming. Travel-fatigue, where you get very blasé about all the beautiful things you are lucky enough to see, is a real thing. Living out of a suitcase for months on end can also start to feel like a drag. Sometimes all you need is some time to slow down, so you are able to enjoy everything again.

As I mentioned elsewhere on this website, I am quite the introvert. I really need time to charge my social battery. Don’t get me wrong, I love hanging out with people, but I do need some recuperating afterwards. Slow travel allows me to do just that.

Witnessing the seasons transition is a beautiful part of slow travel. From the colors of fall to the blossoming of spring, you’re in sync with nature’s rhythms.

When I started my field guide course in South Africa in 2022, which allowed me to spend a year in nature, I arrived in September, which is the beginning of Spring in South Africa. The trees were still barren, the grass yellow.

In November, just after the first rains, the bush came to life. The trees started to blossom, impalas started giving birth and all the birds were busy finding a mate and making nests.

Then in autumn, which is around April in South Africa, the days got shorter, and the nights were starting to get cooler. The animals were all fat from the lush grass after all the summer rains, and ready for the harsher half of seasons.

Winter brought another type of beauty. The temperatures during the day were still nice, the nights were chilly, but so cozy, when talking around the campfire with friends.

And just like that, the year was over, and I had watched all the seasons pass. Slow travel didn’t feel all that slow that year, but it made me feel extremely connected with nature.

Slow travel encourages self-care. There’s ample time for reflection, meditation, or mental health walks in beautiful natural surroundings.

At the risk of oversharing, I will tell you that I am prone to depression, so I really have to take care of my mental health. Lucky for me, it’s mostly seasonal, so traveling to a warmer climate is already helping me tremendously. But I noticed I also need certain routines. Eating healthy at regular times, not draining my social battery, taking walks, things like that can really make or break my overall feeling of well-being. 

Right now, where I am staying, I always have my fridge stocked with healthy food, because I have all the time in the world to go grocery shopping. When traveling non-stop, I tend to eat irregularly and get whatever looks yummy on the menu, which isn’t always the best choice.

Staying in one place for an extended period means you can find more affordable lodging options, making long-term travel accessible. Airbnb offers discounts on stays that are longer than a week, or if you have a few months to spend abroad, you could just rent a place, like I am doing now. 

And of course, there is housesitting. Like mentioned in other blogs, I love housesitting, so I’ve done this a lot in the past, and it’s my favorite way to slow-travel. I love pets, but with me traveling so much, I can’t have pets myself. So when I found out about international house sitting, I was over the moon. Looking after furry friends and having a beautiful place to stay for free, it’s amazing!

I’ve always picked places and pets that fit my character, and chose longer housesits.

I’ve spent time in gorgeous homes in Austria, Switzerland, Spain, France and South Africa. And in between housesits I’m usually doing a road trip, slowly sightseeing my way to the next housesit. For me it’s the best of both worlds; seeing all the sights with time to charge the battery after.

Whether it’s painting, writing, or learning a new skill, slow travel gives you the luxury of pursuing hobbies and passions you might have otherwise neglected.

For me this is reading. Since I arrived here, I’ve read so many books; I finish almost one a day. And yes, I’m also all caught up on all my guilty pleasure garbage reality tv shows.

And then of course, I had time to start this blog, develop new skills while doing it, and have the time to be creative. In other words: do all the things I felt I missed out on when I was traveling around a lot.

For those who need to work while on the road, slow travel allows for a healthy work-life balance. You can dedicate the hours needed to do your job, without sacrificing exploration.

Since remote work has become more common, so has the digital nomad life. But when you travel non-stop, there is no actual time to get work done. 

When I was doing a 3 month road trip through Botswana, Namibia and South-Africa, there was no internet connection most of the time, so there was no way I could work on a regular basis. Which is fine for a while, but unfortunately most people do need some form of income at some point. Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t though?

From eating regularly and healthily to going for daily walks, slow travel makes it easier to establish and maintain healthy routines.

When every (travel) day looks different, it’s hard to build any form of routine. They say you need at least three weeks to get into a new routine, and I found this to be true as well. During traveling days on road trips I survive on car snacks and Red Bull. And that without hardly any form of exercise, because I’d just be too tired after a day of driving.

Now that I am settled in one place for a while, I still survive on Red Bull (I feel they should sponsor me, with the amount I drink and times I’m seen with a can in my hand), but at least I have a healthy bowl of yoghurt and fresh fruit in the morning, and eat my veggies. In the mornings I have time for a walk and when it gets hot, I can go for a swim in the pool. It’s a small pool, so it’s tiny laps, but still.

Slow travel magnifies the beauty of the ordinary. You notice the details, like the intricate craftsmanship of weaver birds constructing their nests above the pool, or the African Paradise Flycatcher that was building a nest in the garden.

Right now I am very amused by a particular weaver bird.

First a little backstory. The male weaver bird builds a nest to attract a female. If the female is not impressed by his nest-building-skills, she will destroy the nest without hesitation. Harsh!

Anyway, back to my weaver-bird in the garden. He has been building at least 6 nests so far, none of them have impressed the local females. He screams to attract the ladies, but he hasn’t had any takers so far.

The females don’t even go through the trouble of destroying the nest, they just fly off after taking one quick look at the nest. This morning he was so frustrated that he destroyed two of the nests he had meticulously built before. The poor thing.

In a world that often rushes from one place to another, slow travel reminds us to savor the journey itself, rather than racing towards the destination. It’s a way of travel that deepens our connection to the world, and reminds us that sometimes, it’s all about that pace.

Slow travel isn’t limited to taking a sabbatical year (or four, like me). Even if you have a limited amount of time for your journey, you can still forge a meaningful connection with the country you’re exploring.

So, here’s to embracing the beauty of slow travel – where time slows down, and every moment becomes a treasured memory. Whether you’re exploring a nature reserve in South Africa or embarking on your own slow travel adventure, may you find joy in the unhurried, immersive experience that this way of traveling offers.