When planning a gap year or even a two week vacation, your pace of travel can make a big difference on how you feel on your trip. In this post, we are going to go into the difference between slow travel vs fast travel, the benefits of each and ways to figure out what pace of travel you would ultimately prefer.
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What Is Slow Travel?
I’m sure you have heard the phrase, I need a vacation from my vacation! When we travel too quickly, this is how we feel afterwards. It is not always a bad thing, but for some it is too much!
So, what is slow travel exactly? Slow travel is all about what it implies, slowing down. It is a more relaxed, flexible pace of travel that focuses on reflecting, making meaningful connections and not burning ourselves out.
Slow travel is all the rage right now, which, honestly, feels a little funny to me that it is a trend. It’s like we woke up one day and suddenly realized that packing our vacation schedule from morning to evening is actually not pleasurable for most of us.
Benefits Of Fast Travel
So, don’t get me wrong, there are benefits of fast travel vs slow travel too. Booking that European vacation where you see 5 cities, in 3 different countries all in 7 days sounds exciting. You can see so much!
Imagine this: You fly into London explore that day and take the train to Paris. Then you travel to the south of France and see the French Riviera. The next day you head to Pisa, then Florence and fly home.
While that itinerary is possible in 7 days, I would hate it! Yes, you can see so many amazing attractions, but are you actually experiencing them?
On the other hand, some people would love it! You are saying I can see Big Ben, the Eiffel tower and Michelangelo’s David during my weeklong trip to Europe? Sign me up!
Before our boys came into the picture, and we were young, we would make the most of every second of our travels. We’d live out of our suitcases, visit all of the sights we’d meticulously researched, and move on to the next location. And repeat.
Then we’d take the latest flight possible back home and show up to work the next morning feeling like we’d just crushed our vacation.
Our ideal pace of travel is so much different now!
Benefits Of Slow Travel
Slow travel vs fast travel means you experience places at a deeper level. You build in time to relax and to dive deep into the culture.
Instead of checking off the boxes, you spend more time exploring one area of a city and learning about it. You might simply enjoy an aperitif in a square rather than just snapping a picture and moving on.
We love slow travel most of the time. We are able to settle in, learn a little bit about the area, and plan out our time without feeling rushed.
When we traveled full-time, we took days for exploring and other days to just be.
Flexibility is key here!
You have time to listen to your body and change up your itinerary to fit how you feel or what the weather looks like for the day. Also, if you don’t vibe with a place, you can just move on.
Our Slow Travel Experience
When we took our family gap year, we actually only planned for 6 months of travel at first. We had our reasons, mostly Mike’s work, but we also didn’t know if slow travel was going to be for us.
After our trip, we realized that planning one month in each location was actually a little inflexible. There were locations where we could have stayed longer, and we missed out on some places we wanted to visit nearby, like Cartagena.
There were other locations that would have been better for a shorter period of time.
The Galapagos, for example. We couldn’t afford to do many of the tours and felt a little stuck on the tiny island where we were staying. We loved it there, but 2 weeks would have been enough!
Or Medellin. We didn’t really vibe with the city. It was nice to see it and the food was excellent, but we would be have been happy to be there less than a month.
First, we were locked into our accommodations making it impossible to adjust our time. This is something we wouldn’t do again.
Additionally, we planned a month for each location, because we got a discount from our vacation rentals. Instead, we should have looked at what we actually wanted to do in each destination and planned accordingly.
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What Is The Right Pace For You?
When thinking about slow travel vs fast travel there are a few factors to consider. You should think about how long your trip will be, what you want to see and don’t want to miss, and who you are traveling with.
How Long Is Your Trip?
How long your trip can be a huge reason to choose slow travel vs fast travel. Maybe one of the most important factors in my opinion.
Longer Trips
If you are considering a family gap year or traveling for longer than 2 weeks, I would travel slow.
The biggest reason is you don’t want to burn out! When we traveled full-time, we stayed a month in each location. This allowed us time to reflect and chill. We didn’t have to wake up early and be constantly on the move to see everything we wanted to see.
In comparison, in month 7, we started traveling much quicker. We arrived in Europe at this time and had limited time before we had to leave the Schengen area. With so many places we wanted to see, we stayed in each destination for 1 week at a time.
This may sound like a long time in each place, but after slow traveling for 6 months and then picking up the pace for 2 more months, we got burnt out quickly. It started becoming less enjoyable, and frankly, I was getting very short with our children!
Shorter Trips
If you are going on a 2-week vacation or less, you can pick up the pace. You might be tired after the trip, but it is a lot more sustainable for shorter trips than longer trips.
Your pace of travel is also going to be different than others. Like I mentioned earlier, if we were in our twenties and had no kids, we would be packing our schedules and doing as much as our budget allowed.
Nowadays, I can do fast travel for maybe 3 days. If my vacation is longer than that, I want my schedule to be more balanced.
For a week-long trip, for example, I would plan an activity in the morning, something relaxing in the afternoon, and one more activity in the evening.
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Questions To Think About
Consider these other questions when deciding your pace of travel for a vacation:
- What are the pesky responsibilities that will follow you during your travels, and what accommodations do you need to make for them?
- Are you traveling with little kids, and do they still take naps? Plan your schedule around this or bring a stroller/carrier where they can sleep while you explore.
- What things do you want to see and do in each location? Make a list of must-sees attraction and ones that would be nice, if there’s time. Plan out the ones you don’t want to miss into your itinerary and have information for the others. Then, fit them in if it makes sense. Don’t force it!
- How do you feel when you first arrive to a new place? Do you have anxiety until you get fully settled, are you comfortable embracing some level of uncertainty in new situations. If you need time to settle in, set aside some time to do this. This could be going to the grocery store and walking around the neighborhood to familiarize yourself.
- Does it energize you to be outside of your comfort zone or constantly on the move? If this is the case, fast travel might be for you!
- When you arrive at your destination, do you instantly unpack your luggage to start settling in, or is your first instinct to throw your suitcase in the door and immediately go out to explore your new surroundings? First one, means you probably lean towards slow travel vs fast travel. If you are instinct is to start right away, fast travel is for you.
Slow Travel Vs Fast Travel Summed Up
There is no right or wrong pace of travel. You need to decide for yourself if you prefer fast travel vs slow travel or vise versa. I definitely lean towards slow travel these days, but still have FOMO (fear of missing out) at times.
In the end, I would prefer to build in those down times and enjoy my vacation over speeding through attractions and feeling exhausted when it is all done.
And if you don’t know your pace of travel, that’s okay too. If this is the case, just go. Book hotels with free cancellation and create a flexible itinerary. You can adjust on the go! You will learn soon enough if you are bored or if you want to do less. Then, go from there.
Bon Voyage!
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