would like to slow travel, but need ideas

the idea of slow travel long term means staying in one location for awhile, I can do that but I'n not sure how it mentally makes any sense and thus I need a little advice.

There is a blog I follow The Art of Slow Travel, she is an expat but says there is no real difference in how to slow travel as a traveler vs expat and I'm not saying it isn't different but the cost factors are.

I understand moving around too much will cause costs to go up, but hostel living isn't cheap either let alone hostels have maximum stay limits so I could of course rent a vacation home/apartment, etc but then my money is tied up in a full month's rent or whatever terms and staying anywhere else would just add to my lodging costs.

Here's what I want to do:

I will be in Switzerland for 2 weeks starting Feb 26th as soon as I touch down I will stay in Zurich Sunday night, and spend a few hours Monday exploring I guess (learning the system) and then attempt to make my first journey outside of Zurich to some place like perhaps Rapperswil then to St Gallen (I don't know if I can do Rapperswil and St Gallen on the same day depending on how long it takes to get accustomed to Zurich/Switzerland) I just don't see how I can slow travel and see places.

I'll think of more as I get replies, so I thank you for sharing and participating

I guess if you're in Switzerland for only two weeks, you will by definition NOT be slow travelling. Don't worry about the "idealism" of slow travel and just enjoy every {expensive} minute there!

Mama-to-many wrote:I guess if you're in Switzerland for only two weeks, you will by definition NOT be slow travelling. Don't worry about the "idealism" of slow travel and just enjoy every {expensive} minute there!

already knew it would be expensive, I know Germany will not be AS expensive; just expensive still I will spend 3-5 days there unfortunately; well I could go to Germany and then go back into Switzerland whatnot.

Ok so what if I were spending more time there? Then how would I do it? I can only stay 3 months max per 6 months; at that point you'd rent an apartment right? As I was explaining before, it doesn't make sense to rent an apartment when you're touring a country slow traveling I don't think that works the way slow travel is meant to be.

Yeah, two weeks is definitely not enough for slow travel, that's just a normal vacation.

I guess if you were spending a minimum of a month somewhere using it as a base then that's what I'd consider "slow travel." For something like that you basically are going to do a short-term rental apartment, cities have these with varying degrees of success depending on the housing situation of the city in general. When you become an expat is something a little more questionable, probably when you have locals recognize you and chat.

I think the whole point of the "slow travel" thing is if you were traveling for 1 year or more you eventually get burnout so that's why people begin to advocate it. This shouldn't turn you off from shorter jaunts to places though because you by definition get to cover ground and see things you wouldn't otherwise (the world is just too big to ever see it all!), but while I wouldn't trade my months of rtw travel for anything I'm definitely happy to have an expat base now and do trips from there, and if I headed out again I'd probably rent an apartment in various places for a month or two before heading on. Travel can exhaust you in many ways, and there are so many nonstop Interesting And Important Places one can take one after the other before getting a bit overwhelmed.

Andromeda wrote:Yeah, two weeks is definitely not enough for slow travel, that's just a normal vacation.

I guess if you were spending a minimum of a month somewhere using it as a base then that's what I'd consider "slow travel." For something like that you basically are going to do a short-term rental apartment, cities have these with varying degrees of success depending on the housing situation of the city in general. When you become an expat is something a little more questionable, probably when you have locals recognize you and chat.

I think the whole point of the "slow travel" thing is if you were traveling for 1 year or more you eventually get burnout so that's why people begin to advocate it. This shouldn't turn you off from shorter jaunts to places though because you by definition get to cover ground and see things you wouldn't otherwise (the world is just too big to ever see it all!), but while I wouldn't trade my months of rtw travel for anything I'm definitely happy to have an expat base now and do trips from there, and if I headed out again I'd probably rent an apartment in various places for a month or two before heading on. Travel can exhaust you in many ways, and there are so many nonstop Interesting And Important Places one can take one after the other before getting a bit overwhelmed.

I agree with traveling can burnout so establishing a base is a good idea for semi short term and long term options. I am just not quite able to figure out how one would justify a base when they have to stay somewhere else (and then I guess at that point, you might as well get a new base location).

I want to use Zurich as an example even though I am only going to be staying 2 weeks: in 2-4 days as I understand it one would have seen all there is to see within Zurich there are things just outside of Zuirch one can see (the nature preserve) then there's winterthur which I am told isn't much but there are 2-3 museums there so a day trip or possibly overnight stay if done in one shot then there's Rapperswil there's only one place I'd like to see but I am sure there are others to see too this is also a good day trip. Once I go further east to St Gallen, it becomes no longer viable to keep a place for a month, I also looked at getting to Basel and other places in that direction; the trip would take an hour each way but then I would not necessarily want a base in Zurich and unless I were in a city like Berlin or NYC or Barcelona then maybe I might stay a lot longer and that is where it becomes more viable.

Agreed- it's not the sort of travel I would do on a two week trip either. In Switzerland I could only imagine doing it maybe by getting myself into a ski town and doing that almost every day, or using someplace as a base for hiking- ie things where there's an activity to be done.

So as I said I wouldn't do it for a trip of only two weeks length myself (unless you were interested in heading to the beach or one island or something), but the idea behind the whole thing is you could get a bit of a temporary "home" someplace before moving on. After all if you're only going an hour away to see something it's probably worth just going back that evening instead of unpacking/repacking yet again which works particularly well in some places compared to others, and a lot of places just have a lot of activities one can do as well (language course, sport, etc). Probably also lots of finding a nice tree and reading a book under it too- something one doesn't do much when traveling short-term as there's always too much to see and you have a lot of energy to tackle the sights, but every traveler needs a break after a few weeks.

I'm trying to think up an example, so the best I can think of from my personal experience (beyond my life now as an expat) is how last year I spent nearly a month in Nepal after coming across China/Tibet, and I really just stayed in two places, Kathmandu and Pokhara. I was rather exhausted after Tibet so trekking didn't interest me much, so Kathmandu for the most part was seeing a few temples, reading/writing in cafes, checking out the shops, and an overnight to a place to go canyoning. In Pokhara I did a few day-long hikes from there, went paragliding, and signed up for a whitewater kayaking clinic that involved some time on the lake followed by two nights on a river in the Middle of Nowhere. Not what most people would do if they went on just a few weeks holiday there, but as I said I didn't have the energy to do a lot of the crazier physical activities and much preferred doing smaller things as they came to me... I also suspect it's partly just Nepal being Nepal, but I still keep in contact with more people I met there then pretty much any other place I've traveled to. Not saying I didn't elsewhere, but it was just a lot easier to ensure meeting up with people later now that I think back on it.

I really wouldn't worry so much about whether it is "slow travel" or not but what gives you the most value for your money and time. I do see quite a few people (mainly bloggers) calling themselves slow travelers these days when they are more or less expats for a good chunk of the year and travelers the rest. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that they can make a claim to being on the road or continuously traveling for 5 years, 10 years. Makes them feel better I guess, maybe it helps their readership.

Anyway. Most slow travel revolves around specific destinations. Generally, these are cheap, often tropical places where people can go to the beach, relax, hang out with other Westerners, etc. Alternatively, it may be a major city where there is a lot going on. Remeber also, people who slow travel tend to have another agenda other than travel as well whether it is learning a language, studying, surfing, reading lots, and so on. Benny at Fluent in 3 Months is an excellent example of this and his blog is a great source on how do arrange apartments, etc.

And remember nearly all travelers aren't slow travelers all the time. When they hit expensive countries they travel fast as well. For instance, show me one person who has slow traveled Norway. I'd be surprised if many people have spent more days in Norway than they can count on their hands, probably even one hand.

Of course, one of the unique places where one could actually set up a home base and yet still travel extensively is in Japan. With the lightning fast rail system and unlimited train travel available for reasonable cost it is actually an ideal location to home base from. We did this when we lived in Tokyo. It was more cost effective to return back every night and head out again the next day then spend the time/money getting a hotel elsewhere.

halfnine hit it pretty much perfectly. Slow travel is something of a mindset in how you approach destinations, and by definition typically requires a lot of time. If you're moving slowly, it takes a while to get anywhere.

My girlfriend and I are going to Georgia for 7 weeks beginning in April and we'll be mixing fast and slow travel. There are places we'll blast into, check out the historical or natural sites, and then move on. There are other places we'll look at finding an apartment or week rate in a homestay, and we'll stay in that one small town for a week trying to get a better feel for local culture.

Do what feels right for the trip you're on, and make sure you see and do what you want to see and do.

The last two replies were AWESOME

Which brings me to a good point; NYC is a good example of a place I could slow travel, there's A LOT to do there and 4 days in NYC I couldn't even scratch the surface (barring losing my cell phone cost me 18 hours).

I understand there's things to do IN Zurich and nearby, but I'm told this will easily be accomplished within 2-3 days (maybe 4); this tells me that Zurich is by no means anywhere near the size of NYC let alone with that much to do. Its funny because I've read guide and guides (and spare me the scolding) one thing it doesn't tell you is the nature preserve is available west of Zurich there are a couple of nature activities (besides the Zoo) one can do, they are a bit outside of Zurich though and require a car or bus (I'm not interested in driving in another country).

Ok a bit on outdoor activities:

Let's face it, I should be doing them even at home and I would NOT mind doing them while traveling; when I went to NYC I walked a lot of places, if a place was more than 2-3 blocks I hopped a cab cuz I couldn't walk much further than that; that's changing because now I have a portable mobility scooter that gets me 6-8 miles per battery. So that in itself will speed things up a little.

Hiking; I'm not into mountain hiking or rugged hikes, etc I would not mind doing short walks around the city limits or parks or even ride a bicycle (I won't ride them on the street where I have no familiarity) so I would not mind renting a bike near a trail and riding it part or all of the trail and then return the bicycle.

I don't have any interest in skiing; but I like sightseeing so jumping on a train to go up to the mountains is good for me.


I'd say slow travel is possible if you're in an area with lots of do and can branch out within easy reach 20-120 minutes away depending on the activity and how you're getting there, etc). I guess it makes sense to travel faster in more expensive countries in order to see more for less; but not really maybe not in Geneva; I don't know anything about Geneva right now to say anything really; except if it can be compared to NYC then I can safely say slow travel is possible.

It turns out my trip is now being extended a week, so I will get to spend time in Germany which costs less; but I will also get to see Berlin which I think is compared to NYC where slow travel is possible.

I don't want to always have to go see something every day, maybe I want to read a book in a cafe or in the park (actually I dislike reading where there's a lot of light); speaking of reading where's a good quiet place to read in other countries? A library?