I am definitely an advocate of slow travel. And I will continue to talk about it until more people decide they want to try it.
Have you heard my theory of very-slow-travel? When I lived in Slovakia, after two years in Japan, I came up with the idea that you need to live in a foreign place for at least two years to begin to understand it. In the first year, everything is new (and foreign!). But in the second year, you start to anticipate stuff – cherry blossom season outings in Japan, wine festivals in Germany – and learn the best ways to experience them.
But the sad part about this theory is that no matter how healthy and fit you are, there is a fairly limited number of two-year periods in your life – in my case, far fewer than the number of places I would love to live!
But trying to travel slowly wherever you go helps some of this, and the guests in this podcast episode have quite a few useful and interesting things to say about it.
Show notes: Episode 44 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast
How to Embrace Slow Travel
Slow travel is easily one of my favourite topics – taking your time when you travel instead of rushing around to see all the sights as fast as possible is a much more satisfying way to experience a new place, I think.
In Episode 44 I chat with three like-minded guests, starting with Brooke McAlary who, as the creator of the Slow Your Home blog and the Slow Home Podcast certainly knows a lot about slowing down, and shares some great thoughts about slow travel.
Matt Treglia, my second guest, is a younger traveller but a smart one: right from the beginning, he had a sixth sense that slow travel is the way to go and I think he and his girlfriend are really doing it right.
My final guest in this epsiode is Cait Flanders and we chat about her plans to spend a couple of months based in one place, getting to know it as the locals do.
Links:
- Brooke’s Slow Your Home website
- Brooke’s Slow Home Podcast
- Brooke’s new book, Destination Simple
- Matt’s site Words with Winos
- Words with Winos podcast
- Cait Flanders’ website
- Cait’s Budgets and Cents podcast
- Episode 13 – Takin’ it Slow – Travelling to Feel Like a Local
- Episode 25 – How Slow is Slow Travel?
- Episode 185 – Slow Travel Benefits
Transcript of Episode 44
Amanda Kendle 0:01
This is the thoughtful travel podcast. I’m your host Amanda Kendle of the not a ballerina.com travel blog. Every episode I’ll share travel Tales from several fellow travel lovers. And together we hope to entertain and inspire you remind you of some of your own great travel experiences and encourage you to hit the road again soon.
Amanda Kendle 0:32
Hello, and welcome to Episode 44 of the thoughtful travel podcast. And today we’re talking all about how to embrace slow travel. Slow travel is a pretty popular topic these days. And I have to admit we’ve even done two episodes about slow travel already. Yet there’s still so much more to say and people keep talking to me about it. And I think it makes sense because if you’re a thoughtful traveler, you’re more more likely to want to try slow travel or to already have to tried it and really love it. I know, slow travel, which to me is mostly an act of staying in one place for a longer time, rather than hopping all around the country. And you know, there’s other aspects to it, which we’ll talk about today. But that’s for me what the main main reason I would call it slow travel ease. And for me, that’s something that I really want to do more of. But I don’t always get the chance to do it. It’s something that I’ve learned to do over the years. But now with the restraints of you know, a child who’s in school and school holidays and, and the idea that he should be at school most of the time, and these kind of restrictions, makes it hard to necessarily slow travel all the time. But I certainly see in my future, a lot more slow trips, and I’ve got lots of ideas for where they might be. Anyway, today I’m talking with three different travelers who all have their own take on slow travel, but a lot of things in common. And first up I’m starting with Brooke calorie, who you may know if you listen to others, shows on that jackrabbit FM network because she’s the founder. And she is a real slow expert. She is the host of the slow home podcast and knows all about being slow in lots of different ways. So I was really excited to talk to her about slow travel. And I started off asking Brock to tell me what slow travel really is.
Brooke McAlary 2:21
It’s the opposite to how my husband and I traveled. When we first started exploring the world. We did the very typical early 20s thing of hitting Europe for eight weeks and seeing as much as possible, you know, and it was like, What day is it on? This must be Amsterdam, and
Brooke McAlary 2:38
how many judges have we seen? I don’t know what church I don’t know. What’s this? I have no idea.
Amanda Kendle 2:44
Just take a picture. We’ll figure it out.
Brooke McAlary 2:45
Exactly. You know, and don’t get me wrong. It was amazing. And we saw so much that we wouldn’t have been able to see we didn’t have the money. We didn’t have time or the you know the experience or anything to to go deep into places like that. We were very much on the backpacker trail. It was so much fun. It was an incredible time. But the older we got, and the more I think it’s also the more we understood what we like about travel and the places that we go, we really prefer to go deep into one place rather than shallow into a number of places. So we just, for example, would spend a month in Canada and we base ourselves in one town for almost certain time on and we get an apartment where we could proper apartment where we can cook our meals and unpack our bags and live there. And really, really feel like we live there. And what we discovered after doing that, once was that we we get to know a place in a completely different way. I’m not saying it’s necessarily better or worse than then traveling through a big area in a shorter period of time. But I think you just get to know place in a different way. You know, I do things like go to To the library, if we stay in a place for a while, like I love going to local library do, yeah. So I opening is you really get a much better sense of the community and the people who live there and the vibe of the place just by sitting around people who live there, you know, and having conversations with a coffee shop and going back to the same coffee shop a few times. And yeah, I mean, to me, it’s it doesn’t have to be spending a month in a place you can travel like that over a weekend. It’s I think it’s just more a willingness to give up covering a lot of ground in order to go deeper into a place and explore one or two things rather than 10. And really relish the slowness of doing it that way. Yeah.
Amanda Kendle 4:46
And it’s hard. You have to balance out that what are we missing out on versus what are we gaining? Yes. And I think, especially for people who don’t have the opportunity to travel very frequently, I think that’s a much harder balance to kind of deal with.
Brooke McAlary 4:59
Yeah. lately and I think that that’s probably one of the biggest sticking points when people hear about this kind of way of traveling. And I think that you’re right, you do need to find some balance and you actually find what works for you. Because what works for you might be spending every night in a different place and to experience what you what you want to the place, or as much as you can have a place in that time. And covering all that ground is what you want to do. You know, I think that it’s not going to work for everyone. It’s not going to work all the time either. But I think I think the question more is, why are you there? You know, what exactly are you wanting to soak up our experience in this place? And sometimes it might be to see this particular chapel or to visit this particular restaurant. And that’s it. I think
Amanda Kendle 5:46
a lot of people probably are reluctant to try the whole sort of slow travel philosophy because they don’t know how good it can be to know a place better. Yeah. So they probably think they want to see this. This This and this Take all these things off, and maybe they do. But I think it would be nice for more people to try the stopping one place for a week or two weeks and or a month if you can, and see what happens.
Brooke McAlary 6:10
Yeah, I think I think that’s right. And I also think that it’s more about shifting mindset as well, when you’re in a place, you know, so let’s say you’ve only got awakened or you’ve got awakened, you want to say three places like three cities. Fine, you know, great. How can you deepen your experience of those three places rather than try and see everything because the realities, you could live 1000 years and never say everything, you just blindly you know, you know, you really could you could live 10 lifetimes and never see everything you want to see. So that’s just something we have to come to terms.
Amanda Kendle 6:41
Yes, said but
Brooke McAlary 6:42
unfortunately, we will pass away without having seen everything that we want to say. Yes, sorry, but it’s true. And I all reading all the books. That’s right, exactly. You know, so instead of wishing for more when we’re in an amazing place, why don’t just enjoy the amazing place that’s right in front of us. We’re run in in the moment. And I do see that a lot with people, they’re kind of two steps ahead of where they are and not quite engaging with the place that they currently find themselves. You know, and and when you’re, you’re rushing, whether you’re, you know, you’ve got to go get the train because, you know, you’ve got your, your plan, you’ve planned a trip, sort of seven stops out and your everyday you’re moving on, which was Ben, and I, you know, and now it is,
Amanda Kendle 7:27
I’ve done that too.
Brooke McAlary 7:28
Yeah. And you we just, there was so many things that we didn’t see, we didn’t pay attention to because we were already mentally checking out and checking into the new place or, you know, heading to the station and waiting for a train. And I think that by just shifting your mindset, you don’t have to shift your timetable at all. You just shift your mindset to pay attention to what’s in front of you, and really look around and look up and take deep breaths and smell what you smell and feel what you feel, you know, really take stock of your senses, that imprints more on your memory and your experience of a place then rushing through it, and not actually fully saying any of it. So I think well so I mean, absolutely if you can spend a few days or a week or two weeks in a place, try it you know, because you might discover that being able to live in a place is an entirely different experience that you you might like you might not you might like but if you can’t don’t let that stop you from really deepening your experience as and when you have it. You know, and I think that that is true. That’s probably more more so the point of slow travel it’s to go deep bro into to go abroad. Yeah, absolutely. You’re quite right and back in an old episode I must forget which number it was. I remember talking to Lola Akon made about exactly that. And she you know is based in Europe and got a couple of kids and fleets around for work and you know, may only spend one or two days in a place but has exactly that. attitude of picking out the exact sort of what she wants to experience does she want to experience the food? Does she want to meet some people what she really want to do there and, and doesn’t worry about all the rest doesn’t worry about
Amanda Kendle 9:10
the highlights and the sightseeing, you know, mega spots and stuff. And, and so
Brooke McAlary 9:15
yeah, because I mean, in my experience so many of those mega spots are a little bit either underwhelming or unpleasantly crowded, so true. And some of them don’t get me wrong, there are things that you want to see and seeing them is. It’s a moment, you know, it’s a big moment. But I think it’s always kind of sad when you create an itinerary that simply serves that one moment. Yes, yes, exactly. Because maybe it’s week might mean that you could go and have like a picnic in a beautiful park while then going to say this mega spot. Whereas you know, you you kind of if that’s your only goal of the day, then you might miss out on the chance to discover things when you wander around and explore and just, hey, what’s in this shop, what’s down this alley, what the food’s like at this pub. You know, and I think, a bit more curiosity and a little less planning is also a big part of slow travel.
Amanda Kendle 10:08
I really do think that it’s hard sometimes to travel slowly for the first time when you’ve never traveled that way before, because you do run the risk of feeling like you’re missing out on something. But like Brooke and I discussed, I would encourage everyone to give it a go and see if it actually gives you a more worthwhile experience. And if you don’t have much time, I did mention that I already chatted with Lola, I can make his dream about using slow travel principles on a short trip. And that was back in Episode 25. If you want to go and have a listen to that. Now although Brooke and I both came slow travel by traveling fast first and learning that there was a different way to do it. My next guest actually started out with a slow travel attitude in mind, which I think is pretty impressive. So I’m chatting next with Matt traveler of the woods with wineries podcast, who came out of college and who already knew how to travel slowly
Matt Treglia 11:04
in, in college university, I was, I realized, like, I wanted to travel, like, that’s what I wanted to do for my entire life like that. That was, that was my what I want to do for a living like I didn’t have a specific career or job. It was just I want to see the world. And I’m going to do that forever. And I’ll, I’ll make it work. So that’s really how I got started. I just kind of said to myself, I was going to do it. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the last two years. I went to Thailand for six months, and I taught English there. And I stayed there. And we came back to America for just like a few months, and we were actually planning on working in America for a little bit because Marilyn was kind of getting like her friend, friends and family kind of were getting iffy on her traveling the world so she was kind of listening to them a little bit and I still wanted to travel and everything. So we’re from New York. So we moved to California to work but then after a few weeks there, we realized we don’t want to do that we want to live abroad again. So we moved to Korea. We were in Korea for five months. We also taught English there. And then after Korea, we got an online jobs. So we moved to Vietnam because it’s cheap. And it’s very easy to just like get visas there and just live there long term. So we were there for like seven and a half months. And then we went to Japan for three months. And yeah, so and then we went we been we do travel short term as well, like we go on vacations to countries we visit. We visit countries and cities and islands, on vacations while we’re traveling long term. So traveling long term is how we both travel. I don’t see myself doing it any other way. I think it’s the most brilliant way to learn about a culture and really just feel for the country. I don’t I think staying in a country short term is really the way to do it. I understand people who do do it that way, because that might be their only option. And that’s totally awesome as well. But for me and Marilyn at least we love just stay in countries for at least like three months.
Amanda Kendle 13:16
I completely 100% agree with you. And yeah, and that’s how I started off traveling the most as well. Although I managed to do it. Well, I did I I stayed longer, because I got sucked into places and I didn’t want to leave them. So I spent two years in Japan and and then a few years in Europe before I eventually came back to Australia. But you’re so right, it makes so much difference to be based somewhere for at least a few months. It’s an absolutely different experience compared to just popping over for a week or two.
Matt Treglia 13:45
Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree.
Amanda Kendle 13:48
Yeah, I saw on your blog that you chose in Osaka for your three months in Japan and so you are like my best friends ever because also the best place ever. So I was very impressed.
Matt Treglia 13:59
Thank you. Yeah. We were there for three months and we saw pretty much the entire city. We went everywhere for those three months. And it was, it was an awesome experience. We loved it.
Amanda Kendle 14:09
Oh, I bet it was what made you choose to go to Osaka instead of Tokyo?
Matt Treglia 14:13
The just price we like. We like living in all I do. Anyway, I like living in bigger cities just because of the convenience. I would definitely try living in smaller cities. Because I have sometimes like it’s like with my teaching English jobs I’ve got stationed in smaller cities, but if I have a choice, I think just going to a big city is just easier. So it was basically Oh, we’re going to Japan next it’s either Tokyo, Osaka and it only took like a few minutes of research like oh my god, the apartments in Tokyo are way too expensive. So we chose Osaka and it was a much more affordable and it was awesome. I loved it.
Amanda Kendle 14:51
Oh, yeah. I mean, there’s still so much to see and do around that area. So yeah,
Matt Treglia 14:55
absolutely. easily spend three months there. Yeah.
Amanda Kendle 14:58
Oh, that’s fabulous. I’m impressed for a start that Matt and his girlfriend Maryland, figured out that spending a few months even up to six or seven months in one place, was a way better way of experiencing a new culture in a new country. I’m impressed. They figured it out so early on for a start. But I think he’s example of staying in Osaka for three months is a great example of really good slow travel principles instead of going for the most famous city. Instead of going for Tokyo. If you’re going to experience Japan, they decided okay, no, our money will stretch further and all soccer is still looks like a great place. Let’s go there. And I think that is a really important thing to consider when you’re considering traveling more slowly, is that staying away from the super duper touristy spots and the most well known places, is another great way to experience a culture and experience in your country. So of course, I’m a bit biased because if you’ve listened to this before, you know I really love Osaka because that’s where I lived for a couple of years, but still, I still think it’s a great What a great idea. My last guest today is Kate Flanders. And Kate and I chatted had this conversation late last year about her then upcoming trip in Canada, which was a great example of slow travel, and she compares it to a much faster 18 state us road trip she did recently. You might remember us talking about that back in Episode 39. But in this chat, Kate described her long state slow travel trip in Squamish.
Cait Flanders 16:27
So the next trip I’m doing it’s funny, it doesn’t even say in some ways it doesn’t feel like a trip but it is, is I’m going to Squamish bc which is in between Vancouver and Whistler. Oh wow. Wonderful. Yeah, it’s, it’s such a special city. I’ve been there I think four four times just in 2016 alone. And but every time I’ve gone it’s been for like two days and then four days and then 10 days. I keep wanting to spend more time there. I actually I did a writing retreat there in the spring and I finished my book proposal there. And it was, it was such just the perfect space for it. It’s known as the recreational capital of Canada or something like that. Because it’s, there’s a lot of extreme sports like, and I will not be doing these I
Amanda Kendle 17:20
was just going to ask you because you didn’t strike me as an extreme sport person.
Cait Flanders 17:23
No. You’ll hear people talking about like, Oh, do you want to go extreme flying and you’re like, what’s that?
Amanda Kendle 17:34
I don’t even like flying middle an extreme.
Cait Flanders 17:38
But, you know, and even other things that I don’t do but yeah, that are popular like rock climbing. There’s a lot of even just hiking and so I love going there for that. You can go snowshoeing, they’re lovely. And yeah, you know, it’s 30 or 40 minutes south of Whistler, so you can just drive up there quickly if you are. So yeah, I’m going there right after Christmas and I’m subletting a condo for two months. And the point of it is not only to kind of just get away and I want to get some creative projects done early on in the year, right, but I also just really want to enjoy and get to know the city
Cait Flanders 18:14
as people live in it, right.
Amanda Kendle 18:15
Yeah, exactly. And and a couple of months is a good time to be able to do that.
Cait Flanders 18:20
Yeah, yeah, I feel like I even a month wouldn’t be enough. Just for little things like I want to, you know, it’s not a huge place. I think the populations only like 17,000 or something like that. So it’s not a big place, but I’m like, you know, they’ve got lots of little coffee shops that I can go work from or something and I want to actually try them all or like, go to the library or, yeah, just really see the city for for how someone would see it if they lived there.
Amanda Kendle 18:47
Oh, that sounds fantastic. I love doing that kind of thing.
Cait Flanders 18:50
Yeah. And I also think it’s something that I need so desperately after the road trip. Because just just in terms of a next trip because the road trip while being so incredible for so many reasons, it was really fast. Yeah. And I did that on purpose. Like I was very intentional about that I knew that I was going to drive through like, right through some strict some states never really see them just to get from one friend to the next. Yeah, so I, I knew that but it it created potentially well and sort of an impossible environment for me to get any work done ever.
Amanda Kendle 19:32
Yes, I can imagine that.
Cait Flanders 19:35
Like you days where you drive even if you only drive eight hours, you’re not doing anything. I know. I know I say that. Like I only had a couple days that were longer than that. But my first day on the road was like 15 hours
Amanda Kendle 19:48
far out. I don’t think I’m not a good long distance driver. Despite living in Australia. I’m terrible at it.
Cait Flanders 19:56
I would not recommend it.
Amanda Kendle 19:59
Really I think I could do 15 hours. My dad lives like an hour and a half away and I’m already starting to know it off just before I get. So, uh, no hope on 15 hours a day.
Cait Flanders 20:08
No, it was really hard. But you know, even on just an eight hour day, you’re not getting anything else done. You know, like when you whenever you get to your destination, you’re not going to do anything other than eat some dinner and put your feet up. Yeah, the thought of even opening your laptop is an awesome day.
Amanda Kendle 20:25
I think if I managed to open the laptop, what would come out would not be over high quality.
Cait Flanders 20:31
Yeah, that’s about right.
Cait Flanders 20:34
So yeah, it was it was really tough. Like I I loved. I loved that I crossed so many states. I love that I still get to see them even though I was just driving through. And I hit 18 states in two months. Wow. But yeah, I mean, there was just I don’t know, there wasn’t enough time sometimes. There wasn’t. Yeah, I just I could have used that extra Bry room to get some work done and you know it was also the point of getting to each of these destinations was to see friends and that’s what I did and sometimes I would spend a couple days ago yeah I’m really not getting anything done here either. I don’t know where I’m ever going to get it done
Amanda Kendle 21:19
so that’s why I really like the idea of the trip that I’m going to do like in Squamish is just I’m still going to go somewhere I really want to go and spend more time and that I can dip down to Vancouver I used to live there so I can see friends you know maybe once a week if I want to and something I it’ll be great but just yeah just kind of hang out be somewhere now. Kate’s ideas about getting to know a place the way the locals experience it is just something that really resonates well with me. Like she said, try all the coffee shops. And I remember having David Sato Jr. on a previous episode, and he said slow travel was when the guy in the coffee shop knows your order. That’s when you traveling slowly and you’ve been to that same coffee shop and I like that. And Kato said go to the local library something that Brooke mentioned as well. And yeah, just that way to experience a place like a local Is it a completely different experience to being a tourist who stays in a hotel in the middle of town and just goes to see the main sightseeing spots. And I, you know, I know which kind of travel I prefer, you know most of the time. So that was interesting to hear now. Now that time has gone on since Kate and I had that chat. I know that her time in Squamish has been amazing and all that she’d hoped for and definitely a great example of a slow trip. So thank you so much for listening to Episode 44 of the thoughtful travel podcast. As always a huge thank you to my guests and this is where you can find them. So I spoke first with Brooke McHenry of the slow your home website at slow your home.com and the slow home podcast and I’ll leave a link to that in the show notes and you can look up the slow home podcast in iTunes. heartily recommend it and Brooke also has a new book out called destination simple, which is all about some really simple things you can do to start doing some slow living. It’s a quick but an excellent read. And it’s actually next to me on my desk because I’m, I’m hoping to reread it because I loved it so much the first time but I didn’t do it. And now I really need to do it now that the years taking over and not slowing down the way I want to be. So I have a link to how you can get ahold of that. in the show notes of the book. I chatted with Matt trigger of words with whiners, he’s at words with whiners.com or search for the words with whiners podcast, always entertaining. And lastly, I spoke again with Kate Flanders and you can find her at Kate flanders.com Katie CAIT and you can also listen to her on the budgets and cents podcast. So perhaps if you are having trouble coming up with funds for your travels, you need to listen to Kate’s budgets and cents podcast so that you can put together a few extra dollars and go travelling preferably slow Traveling, I lost a laser links to our previous slow travel episodes if you want to dig even deeper into this topic there at Episode 13, and Episode 25. And all of that information will be at the show notes and for this episode, they’ll be at nada ballerina.com forward slash 44. Now thoughtful travelers group on Facebook. It has got quite a few new members lately. Welcome to all of you. And you can find it just by searching for thoughtful travelers in Facebook. You can also catch up with me on Twitter, just tweet me at Amanda Kendle or use the hashtag thoughtful travel pod. And absolute last but definitely not least, thank you so much to all of you who have left a review lately. I’ve had some really lovely ones. They just warm my heart so much to hear that people are enjoying listening to the podcast as much as I enjoy making it. And it seems that just like I enjoy talking to lots of different people and getting all their different stories. You enjoy listening to lots of different people and their different stories and I’m very glad to continue to do that. So if you feel the same way, hop over into iTunes and leave a rating and review for the thoughtful travel podcast and I will be so so grateful. Thank you so much in advance.
Amanda Kendle 25:17
This has been another episode of the thoughtful travel podcast, show notes and other information I read not a ballerina.com slash podcast. Join me again soon for another chat about why we travel. Bye for now.
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