Why  does a slow travel vacation make you feel so good?

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Have you ever come home from a vacation feeling more exhausted than you were before you left? Many of us live hectic, stressful lives, and the frantic pace only continues while we’re on a trip as we rush from one tourist attraction to another. But there’s a grassroots movement that has quietly emerged as a solution to tourist burnout: slow travel.
We live in a world where getting multiple tasks done fast is the norm. A contrary trend offers a response to our sometimes empty, fast paced lives. It’s slow travel. We’re stressed by modern travel, economic downturn, and a lack of sustainability. We need to de-stress and decelerate. “Slow travel” gives us that relief. We’re seek time to savor life’s pleasures.

Imagine living for a week in a little French cottage, buying fresh vegetables from the farmer’s market every morning, sipping cafe au lait on your favorite sidewalk terrace, and taking leisurely day trips to neighboring villages and chateaus. Sound appealing? That’s the magic of slow travel, where the emphasis is less on manic sightseeing and more on taking in your surroundings at a relaxed pace.

 

What is slow travel

It’s transportation.

 

  •   It’s traveling the Seine aboard a barge that meanders from Paris through the Champagne region.

  •   It’s emerging with the Vermont countryside one foot where you can stop and meet the locals and explore the land.

 

 

  •   It’s traveling the California Zephyr through the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada, and the landscapes not seen on interstate highways from Chicago to San Francisco.

  •   It’s hopping aboard a freighter for a 48-day trip that begins and ends in Houston but stops everywhere along the way to New Orleans.

 

It’s about how long and where we stay:

 

  •   Instead of moving from one big hotel to another and racing to cross off one tourist attraction after another, slow travelers rent a place to stay like parishideaways.

 

  •   It’s about jumping off the beaten path to focus on interacting with locals and sampling new customs. Where you skip the standard tourist restaurants, convenience stories, and chain stores. Choosing instead to frequent local cafes and grocery stores.

 

Slow Travel Resources

slowtrav.com, a slow travel site tell us that with slow travel you experience a deeper type of travel by staying in one place longer and seeing the things that are close to you. It is an easier, simpler, and slower way of traveling.

 

A book series launched in May 2010 by Bradtguides provides slow travel ideas with volumes that include: Bus-Pass Britain, Slow Norfolk and Suffolk, Slow Devon and Exmoor, Slow Cotswolds, Slow North Yorkshire and Slow Sussex and South Downs National Park.

 

Take some time off and go slow on your next vacation

If you have time, please leave a comment. Thanks!

 

 

 

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Judy Kundert

Judy Kundert, a recipient of the Marquis Who’s Who Excellence in Authorship award, loves storytelling, from folk and fairy tales to classics for elementary school children. She authors award-winning middle-grade novels designed to inspire and intrigue children. After she left her career as a United Airlines stewardess, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola University, Chicago and a Master of Arts from DePaul University, Chicago. Most recently, she completed a master’s Certificate in Public Relations and Marketing from the University of Denver. For fun, she likes reading (usually three or four books at a time), watching movies from the oldies to the current films, traveling, biking, and hiking in vast Colorado outdoors with her husband. Learn more at www.judykundert.com.You can find me at the foot of the Colorado Rocky Mountains hiking, biking

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