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| Slowed down. 2007. Hanging with grandma at Little Sandy Bottom Pond, MA. |
One thing that I wanted to do once I quit my job was to slow down a little and spend some time really getting to know a location before moving onto the next. I have found over the years that I do love seeing a lot of places, but often when we travel quickly, we end up seeing a lot of the touristy or busy places and really missing some of the hidden gems. My favorite trip to Paris was after I had already been once and I had seen the Eifel Tower and the Louvre and all of the other things. I went back and spent a month there and I had the best time ever just walking along the Sienne, reading my book in the park and getting groceries (and a baguette, let's be real here) every day and eating regular meals. I also liked to spend time in a café with a café au lait and my journal, whiling away hours watching people walk by.
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| 2004 vs. 2019: I look exactly the same! 👵 Right? |
I actually went back again with a friend and had a great time with him, as he had never been, but was more into food than attractions, so we ate a lot and it was all delicious. I went back again in November and it was rainy, but I was with a running friend and we just ran from place to place, even the Eifel Tower and Arch de Triumph and we covered a ton of ground on foot, much of which I hadn't seen before, which was also nice. He also had no expectations of food, so I took us to four different places that had duck confit so we could do a confit-off and see which one was best (PS I love duck confit). I could easily go back again and explore a different neighborhood and be totally happy. I could probably go back ten times and be totally happy and see new things each time. Speaking of, I just read Melissa's post about Monet's Garden and of course now I want to go there next time!
I want to see all of the places, but I am not really a fan of very touristy places, and I hate waiting in line, especially when it's hot and humid (Italy-cough-Sistine Chapel) and the woman behind you keeps saying in the loudest obnoxious voice that she is from CALIFORNIA (cringe!). Gag me. The good thing about my new existence is that I can take the time to find either less touristy places, or to go to the more touristy places in the off season, and hopefully have the city or the beach to myself. Do I care about swimming every day? Not really. But I do like it if there will be things to do, so I will plan accordingly. I also want to do some hiking, and of course, there is a limited time for that due to weather, so it may take a little jiggering to get it right.
For the last year, I have been lucky mostly. Even thought I was definitely not slow traveling, I got lucky with the seasons, and I arrived in Canada when many of the provincial parks were still closed. However, the cool thing about BC, which is where I was, is that if you can go around the closed and locked gate, you can stay in some of them! There is no running water or facilities (I had to pack out my trash) but you can use the camping pad and picnic table, which was a blessing. Also, there are sites called recreation sites that are first come first served where you can camp either for free or for a nominal fee, like $8 or $13 in some cases. The great thing is that I was there in April and May and so I always got a spot!
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| Camping near Banff, Alberta |
In June I went to Banff and it was not yet the high season, although by the end of my week there, it was getting more busy for sure. However, when I first arrived, some of the lakes on the Icefields Parkway were still frozen and many of the park campgrounds were still closed. I figured it out though and got to have some nice nights there. Then it was the Tour Divide, when I camped a lot or just took what I could get! I was really worried about Fourth of July weekend but I ended up being in a place where it was not an issue!
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| Crowsnest Highway, Alberta |
Then I got to the Midwest and it got a little harder. Not that I could not get a room somewhere but the prices were a lot steeper and there was a lot less camping. The same applied in Ontario, where a campsite was often $80 or $90!! For one night! For a tent and a bike and no services! What the H-E-double hockeysticks Ontario! In Quebec there was some camping, but it was not really on my route, so I opted to take the lazy way out and get a room, but they were not cheap!
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| The Toaster House, NM |
I have seen a lot of great places and met up with people and done some fun things this year. However, this is not the slow travel that I had planned. I knew this going in of course, but still, I have definitely experienced waves of decision fatigue, especially over the last couple of months, where camping was more sparse, motels were more expensive, and biking infrastructure was not always great. I am really looking forward to cutting down on costs and mental power by being able to plan things a little more ahead and also to not have each day be in a completely different place.
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| Bob likes colorful art. WI |
However, I am trying to hold on to the last part of THIS journey, and to remind myself that I have done a lot and learned a lot over the past several months. I remember my first day like it was yesterday, riding away from my parents' house in the drizzle (fitting, eh?), not having a clue what I was going to see or do aside from ride my bike each day. That in itself does have a sort of freedom, and I did develop a routine of sorts. I have honed down my packing system and dialed in my grocery store hauls. I have gotten used to (but still don't love!) wearing lycra. I am more comfortable riding on the side of the highway or on a single track trail than I was six month ago. It has been a lot of fun. I am not done yet, but this part of my journey is coming to an end soon. It's kind of bittersweet, but also kind of exciting!
Next week I will talk about what I have planned for the next leg of the journey and will talk a bit more about my travel plans for 2025.
When you travel, how long do you stay in each place? Do you like going to the mainstream attractions or are you more of a hole-in-the-wall kind of person? Do you ever get decision fatigue?
This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here.
Aw, the photos of the Rockies gave me all the feels! I love the kind of travel you describe, where you just kind of explore and live in a place. We used to do that when we'd go to Maui, we'd spend days just hanging around the beach or pool and walking around. Mind you, that was the kids' spring break so not exactly off-season. Now that Rob is retired we have off-season travel plans, but of course if you're going to go somewhere you want to be able to do things too. Like, let's not expect a whole lot of hiking in Banff when it's snow covered, unless you have snowshoes. So off-season but not off-off season, maybe. I love both mainstream attractions - like everything we saw in Italy - but I also liked when we were in Siena and Montepulciano, where we just wandered around. I'm interested to hear your new travel plans! It would be exhausting to me, what you're doing, as I like to travel but then I like to be cozy at home after.
ReplyDeleteArgh, I just realized I put Banff, BC on my photo! Oops, changed it. Anywho I agree with you in that I still want to see things and do things, but maybe not when the hoards are also there. I loved going to Maui, probably because my friend's family had a condo there, and we went to Costco when we arrived, and so basically just lived there for a week or so. You can also develop a routine, which I think is helpful, as when traveling quickly, it is often a lot of getting from place to place and not so much relaxing. I need a mix of all of it, seeing the sights, relaxing and having my routine, and I hope that slowing it down a bit will give me a chance to do it all! I will report back. I'd love to hear more about the quieter (less touristy) places you visited!
DeleteTHAT LAKE PICTURE. When I started reading your post I just wanted to hop through the screen into that lake on a floatie. It looks perfect.
ReplyDeleteIt is so different to visit a country/city/town as a short-term tourist vs. a long-term visitor. I'd love to spend a month or two in various cities around the world when the kids are grown and have flown the coop. I'll be taking notes on all your adventures in 2025. I don't think biking across the continent will ever be in the cards for me, but I can see spending time abroad taking flights from Point A to Point B and lingering for extended periods at various destinations.
That lake was a good one. Plus grandma used to always have good books, good food and good company! I miss that! It is so nice to be able to really soak in a place, get a routine down and get more of the nitty gritty rather than the hustle and bustle of trying to see everything at once. I am always amazed at people who go on a one or two week vacation and go to like four different countries. I know some of them are close together but I feel like that is more about checking boxes than really getting to know a place.
DeleteHoo boy do I ever get decision fatigue! I've learned to settle for doing 2-3 things instead of doing All the Things. I very much like going somewhere for 2-3 days and exploring, but I also like my longer vacations for a week to 10 days. I've never traveled longer than that, and probably won't since my better half isn't really into travel.
ReplyDeleteTeam Hole in the Wall! My travel goals are dorky things like wanting to spend at least one night in each state & province in the next 10 years and touring all of the State Capitol buildings. There's no trip to Paris on the agenda - I can't say that I'll never go to Europe, but it's not high on my list. Apart from being more interested in the off the beaten path stuff, it's way easier to do the less popular, less crowded things.
I definitely like the off the beaten path places! However, there are also some icons that I would like to see. So I try not to let the hoards cause me to not go to places. One of my favorite things was living in Istanbul and going to the grand bazaar to buy fresh roasted pistachios! And it was very, VERY busy there.
DeleteI remember going to Banff many many years ago as a teen. Even then, I found it gorgeous and breathtaking.
ReplyDeleteThere are some places--those Bucket List-type destinations--that everyone wants to see. I still want to see the Grand Canyon. Other things, like the Eiffel Tower, I'm not so keen about. I remember going to Alaska and everyone going to all the little shops and things. We weren't about that. We kept wandering away and trying to see neighbourhoods and Real Life.
Decision Fatigue--unrelated to Travel, but yes! I am sick to death of making decisions in general: what to make for dinner, what to get at the grocery store, what to buy for gifts for everyone, organizing family get-togethers, etc. It's the Mental Load thing that most women carry and husbands say, "I'll help if you tell me what to do." Sigh.
They totally do that Nance! I hate the phrase "whatever you want" because it indicates that they are doing us a favor but really they are not helping with the decision making, so they are taking the easy way out. I got so mad at a friend (the one who ran around Paris with me) when we were traveling in Slovakia because I was figuring out the bus and the train and what to do and he would just stand there, waiting for me to like take him by the hand and lead him to the next thing. I finally blew up and made him get out the maps and figure out how to get to the next place (even though I had already figured it out). It took him forever and he kept looking at me like I knew where the bus station was in this foreign country that I had never been to.
DeleteI have never gone on an extended trip. Typically I would just take 1 week off and ideally would explore one location. I did do a more chaotic trip to southern Spain in 2016 which was fine but I much prefer settling into 1 location for a week (we went to 3 cities in 7-8 days). For our Banff trip last summer, it was a shorter excursion of 3 nights (plus I flew in the night before since I had a longer trip than Amber did). I would have preferred to stay longer but I am gone so much right now for work travel that I feel terrible having Phil do even more solo parenting... So I am in a weird spot with travel right now. I love to travel and yet I"m barely doing any outside of work travel. But I am glad I traveled as much as I did before I got married. I've been to Paris 3 times and 2 of those trips were in the late fall/winter which I really enjoyed. It was not "cold" for this hearty midwesterner and it's far less crowded. My first trip was during the summer and it wasn't so bad but it was very hot and rather crowded. But going during the offseason means that you miss out on some of the beauty at places like Versailles. But I remember when I posted about that trip, when someone saw my photo of Versailles they were like - where are all of the people??? Ha.
ReplyDeleteI think missing out on the tulips (or whatever) but having less people may be worth it. Also Paris in the fall is beautiful and maybe it is rainy, but it is nice to wander the streets without as many people (and to get into any attractions with no issues - we went to the Eiffel tower and had no line!)
DeleteI think not only does faster travel feel less relaxing, but it is also more expensive. If you are moving every day, you spend a lot of time in a train/bus/plane and less time on the ground. I feel like efficiency is not at its peak in that case.
I'm coming to your blog late in this adventure of yours. Can you remind me when you started? When did you drive away from your folks' house in the drizzle? And how much longer do you plan to travel?
ReplyDeleteMy brother and I traveled around for a few weeks using Eurail passes in 1992 over break while we were studying in Ireland for the academic year. It was amazing, but exhausting. I was panicked that I'd never get back, so I tried to see as many of the main things as possible. We visited our boys when they studied abroad in the last few years. We were gone about a week each time. When visiting Ed in Budapest, we did a lot of the main attractions as we hadn't been there. But when we visited Tank in Ireland, we did less touristy things because we'd been to Ireland before. We went to an off the beaten path place (name escapes me, but it'll come to me later) that's a hub for traditional Irish music. I think it was Dingle. That was amazing. Great music. Amazing scenic location. Loved it. We also visited with a dear friend who was in our wedding who I met while studying there. I hadn't seen her in 20 years.
I started in March! I have a post scheduled for Tuesday about how much longer I plan to travel, but I would say indefinitely is the short answer. I think that your feeling of not coming back is what makes us rush through things, but I think I know now that I will be back, or I can go back, and I don't mind going back to the same place twice. Sure there are tons of places I still want to go, but I don't see a repeat as being a bad thing!
DeleteAhhh slow travel is definitely fun. I have realized when you think you have seen it all and start floating around your find the real gems.
ReplyDeleteBack in 2012 we spend 10 days in Vancouver. And the last day was the best when we figured we had seen it all. We just booked a day pass for the boat taxi and decided to get off at every stop and walk around for half an hour. We have seen a totally different Vancouver,
I like that. I also enjoy taking the bus or subway and getting off a stop or two early and walking the rest of the way. We actually were in Mexico city and my friend had to desperately use the bathroom so we ended up getting off in a completely different neighborhood and it was actually really fun!
DeleteNo, I don't like going to mainstream attractions with a ton of people! Your stories of Paris reminded me of one time when I was there, I was at the Arc de Triomphe, and there was a group of embarrassing Americans right near me. One guy kept saying loudly "Arc de Triumph?" in a stupid-sounding American accent and the people in his group kept correcting him: "no, TRIOMPHE!" "Triumph?" "TRIOMPHE!" etc. We were dying laughing.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to hear what you're doing next!
Also we seem really loud in a crowd because unfortunately we can pick out the American accented English more easily I think. Not that we are not loud, but when everyone is speaking something that you don't understand, the one you DO understand seems so obvious! I try to stay away from other Americans when I am traveling. Or sometimes I lie and say I am from Canada. Just kidding!
DeleteOh, I love duck confit too. If it's on the menu I will usually order it, unless something else is very tempting.
ReplyDeleteWe will probably do more slower travel now that we have finished doing the kids trips to Europe. For those I wanted them to see a fair bit in the two weeks available to them, but we still confined overselves to part of one country for each of them. I really enjoyed the walking holiday, althouggh we moved every day which we don't normally do, it wasn't a frenzied packing and catching transport, we just walked out the door and kept walking until our next hotel which was relaxing and you got to see tiny villages all along the way. I do get torn though because I want to see all the things, so I always start with expansive plans then cut back, and cut back again.
I do the same thing with all of the plans and the cutting back. However, I do like to have a longer list of maybes, and then am okay only doing a few of them. But I don't want to be looking up a lot of stuff at the last minute; I would rather waste time before the trip planning things I don't end up doing. I actually had a hard time with the trip I am on now, moving every day, because so many times people would ask me if I saw this or that, but my goal was not to linger in certain cities this time, but to go through many different places and see each of them just a little (the opposite of slow travel!) I know I can always go back though for more later!
Deletethis is definitely my experience as well. First time in Paris was good but felt rushed and touristic, this year's paris trip was fantastic because we were not rushed and did what felt good, not the must-dos. The more we travel, the more we know what we like and less FOMO for visiting all touristic places. If I could have more time, I'd always schedule 1-2 free days to just go with the flow. I am eager to learn your plans next year. Hopefully I get to host you wherever we will be.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the 1-2 free days. It is a little harder when you are on a one or two week vacation, and you only get one per year, as you do feel like you need to "maximize" your vacation (or at least I sometimes do) so going back a second time (or third or fourth) can make that feeling less prevalent. However, I need to try to do it more on first time trips too, as I do appreciate it when I do it!
DeleteI feel like we are very limited in our span of travel because the kids are in school now and I usually work over the summer, so we usually only have a week or ten days when we travel. I would love to spend a month travelling, though. When I was in my mid twenties, I spent three weeks in Italy on my own and it was such a great adventure. This was back before internet was so prevalent. I remember I booked the language school through the internet but the accommodations, I had to call around until I found a place that had rooms available. And even then, I wasn't sure if I had a room reserved because my Italian was poor and the person on the other end did not speak English either.
ReplyDeleteI get decision fatigue all the time. I think I would be just as happy with no choices as I would be with five or six or seven. When we were house hunting I used to tell my Husband just to pick a house and let me know when to move in.
I live in a very touristy area and there are definitely times i avoid the National Mall. But on the other hand, I do try to go see the Cherry Blossoms every year, and that's probably the most packed time to go downtown.
$80 or $90 for a campsite seems really bonkers to me.
I've really really enjoyed reading about your amazing adventures! It's been so inspirational and aspirational.
I am a morning bird, and also a runner, and so try to do things like the cherry blossoms as soon as the sun comes up so I can kill all the birds with the same stone. Plus sunrise is so nice too, so it is a win-win.
DeleteOh gosh, I remember the days of traveling without the internet! We had paper maps and had to ask people directions, imagine that! I think I did not even call around for accommodation; I just used the Lonely Planet (the bible!) to find a place and do remember arriving to train stations (Rome) late at night and having no idea where to go and somehow figuring it out! My Italian is not that good either (Prego! Gratzie!) I started this blog in 2006 and was constantly in search of an internet cafe every time we got to a new place.
We've only been able to go on short vacations, which have been so much fun, but I think it would be wonderful to stay in a place for a month and get to know it. I'd also love to spend more time getting to know places that are close to me. We have our routine and don't venture out beyond it too often.
ReplyDeleteI think many people do this! It is easy to get into your routine and stay there, that is for certain. Don't get me wrong, I sometimes miss certain things, but I usually feel that the adventure is well worth missing the little things. I have done a lot of exploring in my (previously) local areas too! I love getting out and hitting the streets, and used to do that in San Francisco on my lunch break. I would just walk whichever way the crosswalk was green, and see where it took me!
DeleteI looked up in the summer "what is slow travel?" and turned out it's 3 months or MORE. Who made that rule I don't know but that's what the Internet spewed out. I was like WHOT??
ReplyDeleteI went to Italy for two weeks in the summer and spent a week in each location and thought that was pretty slow. We did day trips and stuff but mainly stayed put and I was a bit bored to be honest. France will be the same- about a week per region. But we will have a car then so we can definitely visit other places :)
I consider "slow" travel one month or more. I don't know who decided it was three, especially since some countries only have a 30 day visa! I am calling BS on that one! :) I think a week in each place is perfect most of the time. However, I plan on basically taking a three month period and having two places where I stay one month (and maybe do a few day trips to close places) and for the other month, I will move a little and be in each place for a week or two each. I do not want to move every three days, or even every week for the most part.
DeleteAs a family we do like to go on road trips but I always try to throw in a 2-day stay here and there to have more time to explore an area and to keep the distances short so we actually have time to do things. I like off the beaten path since it gives you a bit more solitude. One of my kids is not fond of crowds so I am always trying to accommodate that. I also try to keep the itinerary to a limit. I want to have time to take in the sights and not rush from one attraction to the other. If we really like a specific place we can always come back.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with everything you said. I think off the beaten path is great, crowds are not (but if you are willing to get up early, they can often be avoided), and you can always go back! Also, as a maximizer, it is sometimes hard to wrap my mind around not doing all the things, but I am learning!
DeleteI like travel but I like being at home, too. I don't think I'd want to be away from home (and my cats!) for longer than a week. But when I *am* traveling, I like to take things slow. I don't need to see everything and be on the go all the time. I like doing 1-2 things per day and that's all I need.
ReplyDelete1-2 things per day is perfect! And you do a lot of cruises, which probably lends itself perfectly to this method. I have never done a cruise, but I imagine some relaxation days and then some activity days, which is a nice mix.
DeleteGreat post although I am so new I don't know where you started, how and to what end which makes me curious!
ReplyDeleteI agree that the second or third time to a big city like Paris are so much more enjoyable!
The short story is that I started traveling this year in March, and have been doing a bikepacking trip around the US and Canada, so am basically staying in a new place every day. In January I will go to Europe and slow things down a bit! The long story is long, but can be found here .
DeleteWell, I've definitely been to many touristy places (because I wanted to see them) but I am also always seeking things out 'off the beaten path' when possible. It's smart to take time and really immerse yourself in a place.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait! I am already getting excited. I also like hiking in places, as you can get a routine, but get to see different places each day.
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