The Backlash Against the "14 Countries in 10 Days" Trip
For decades, travel was measured in volume — how many countries you'd visited, how many passport stamps you'd collected, how many landmarks you'd photographed. Social media accelerated this, turning travel into a highlights reel optimised for engagement rather than experience.
But a quieter counter-movement has been building: slow travel. And it's winning converts not just among backpackers and retirees, but among people of all ages who've come home from a packed itinerary feeling more exhausted than when they left.
What Is Slow Travel?
Slow travel doesn't have a rigid definition, but its core principles are consistent:
- Stay longer in fewer places. Spend a week in one city rather than a night in seven.
- Live like a local. Cook in your accommodation, shop at neighbourhood markets, use public transit.
- Prioritise experience over achievement. The goal is to understand a place, not to check it off a list.
- Travel with less environmental impact. Fewer flights, more ground transport, lower carbon footprint.
Why It's Growing
Several converging trends explain slow travel's rise in popularity.
Remote Work Has Changed the Calculus
For workers with location-flexible jobs, the distinction between a holiday and a trip abroad has blurred. If you can work from anywhere, spending a month in Lisbon or Chiang Mai becomes logistically possible. The "digital nomad" lifestyle, once a niche phenomenon, has gone mainstream enough that cities are now designing visa programmes specifically for it.
Post-Pandemic Reassessment
After years of restricted movement, many travellers returned to the world with a different set of priorities. The experience of being forced to stay home — and discovering depth in familiar places — changed how some people think about what they want from travel.
Budget Advantages
Counterintuitively, slow travel can be cheaper. Staying in one place for a week often unlocks weekly rental rates far below nightly hotel prices. Cooking your own meals, avoiding tourist-trap restaurants, and skipping the constant inter-city transport adds up to significant savings.
How to Start Slow Travelling
- Choose one destination per trip rather than building a multi-stop itinerary.
- Book accommodation with a kitchen — apartments and guesthouses over hotels.
- Research neighbourhoods, not just attractions. Find where locals actually spend their time.
- Leave unscheduled time. Some of the best experiences come from wandering without a plan.
- Learn a few words of the local language. Even minimal effort is received warmly and opens doors.
The Honest Trade-Off
Slow travel isn't for everyone. If you have limited holiday days and a genuine bucket list, sacrificing breadth for depth may feel like the wrong choice. There's nothing wrong with wanting to see as much of the world as possible — the key is simply being honest about what kind of experience you're actually seeking, and designing your trip around that.
The slow travel movement, at its best, is less a set of rules and more a prompt to ask: What do I actually want from this trip?