Slow travel tips for your next sojourn

Leon Della Bosca

4 years ago

Have you ever arrived home from a holiday and feel like you need another holiday to recover?

Why not slow down and travel to fewer locations, spend more time learning about the area and allow yourself to truly soak up the culture and the surrounding area?

Slow travel brings you back to the roots of why you travel – to take a break, relax, rejuvenate and connect, to people, cultures, food and music.

With some help from the experts in travel and working holidays, the Global Work & Travel Co, we’ve put together five slow travel tips for your next holiday.

1. Strike up a chat with the locals
Connecting with locals is the easiest thing you can do and will add the most value to your experience and understanding of a place.

On my own travels through Canada, I found the best experiences, food, shops and even more interesting people and activities through talking to the people working behind the bar, in the markets, standing next to me in line for coffee or while waiting for trains.

Having conversations with locals about their favourite things to do and see will add the most value to your experience and understanding of a place.

After all, staying in a place long enough to live like a local is the best way to travel.

2. Eat like a local, not like a tourist
One of the fastest ways to connect with a culture and its people is through food. We all need to eat and who doesn’t love to share their favourite dish? Understanding the local cuisine is the first big step in understanding a new culture. Besides, who wants to travel halfway around the world and eat a cheeseburger meal from McDonald’s?

3. Stay in a B&B/house swap/guest house
If you really want to slow travel, there are so many options to choose from other than big name hotels: smaller family-run hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses, and farmstays, says Global Work & Travel Co.

You can get even more local by using services like Couchsurfing and Airbnb, house-sitting, or choosing to rent an apartment in a non-touristy part of town. By choosing to forgo the usual hotel chains, you will come in contact with the local neighbourhood, in a way you wouldn’t otherwise.

4. Take alternative forms of transportation
You may have to take a plane to get to your destination, but that doesn’t mean while you’re there that you need to be taking the fastest routes around town. The train can be a great way to sit back, relax, watch the passing landscape, and spot an attraction or two that you never would have seen by car. It’s also a great place to do more destination research or simply sit back and enjoy the journey, even before you get to your destination.

Driving trips are also a great way to slowly navigate destinations and see the road less explored – you can always stop at your leisure, too.

5. Stay in one place
It’s only natural that we want to make the most of our time off, but the truth is you will never see everything a place has to offer, says Global Work & Travel Co. Taking a two week, 11 destination holiday will have you running around and run down.

Lauren Hartree, who is currently teaching in Thailand, says if you really want to connect with a destination, spending extended time in your country of choice is the best option.

“I’ve had the chance to explore all over Thailand, from top to bottom, and enjoy one of the best working abroad experiences available,” she said.

Take time to have authentic, local experiences and really understand the city or town that you are visiting.

“I would recommend getting to know as many people as you can, be friendly to everyone and you will gain something from that.”

Do you like to fully immerse yourself into another country’s culture? The Global Work & Travel Co can offer a range of holidays and volunteering trips all around the world – once we’re able to travel again.

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