Why Slow Traveling Is Better for Digital Nomads
I’ve traveled a lot in the past, but mostly under the usual vacation format: taking time off work and dedicating all my time to exploring a new place. Early in my freelancing career I took a working road trip, a multi-stop ramble from Pittsburgh to LA and back in a mix of Greyhound busses and a friend’s converted van, and I quickly learned what lots of folks reading this probably already know: traveling is hard work. On that first trip I’d only had a part-time workload, with fewer clients and longer deadlines than I have currently, and it had still been tricky to squeeze it all in between getting from place to place—and actually enjoying myself once we got there. The trip was fun but exhausting, and I came back completely spent and with a pile of work to catch up on.
For my most recent attempt at a the much-touted digital nomad life, I decided to take a different approach: slow traveling. I booked my entire one-month stay in Mérida, Mexico, kept my full client load, and set out to test whether it was really possible to enjoy traveling while I worked, or if this was all just some big scheme orchestrated by travel agents and Instagram influencers.
What Is Slow Traveling?
At its core, slow traveling is exactly what it sounds like: stepping back from the busy pace of most vacations, usually by lingering longer in each place so that you have time to really connect with the place and its people.
Slow traveling isn’t just about taking a long trip, though. It’s a completely different mindset about travel that emphasizes the quality of experiences over the quantity. You can take this same mindset on a shorter trip by leaving yourself time to linger over attractions and choosing the activities and sites that give you a deeper, unique insight into a place—instead of dining at that famous, fancy restaurant, for example, you eat at a favorite local market or learn to make the cuisine yourself by taking a cooking class. Obviously it’s easier to have this laid-back mindset when you have more time to explore, and many slow travelers stay in one place for weeks or even months at a time.
Benefits of Slow Travel for Digital Nomads
1) It’s cheaper.
There’s the obvious amount you’re not spending on the airfare or gas of getting from one place to the next. You can also save a lot on lodging. If you book through AirBnB, for example, you’ll get as much as a 20% discount booking a stay of 28 days or longer. Longer stays also open up the option of renting a short-lease apartment rather than reserving a hotel room, and if you don’t mind taking care of pets during your vacation, you can stay completely free with a house sit.
Getting an AirBnB, house sit, or apartment has another advantage, too: you’ll have a kitchen. That means you don’t need to eat in restaurants for every meal, an expense that adds up when you’re on the road for an extended amount of time.
2) There’s less stress.
Being in a new place is awesome, but getting there—often times—sucks. And the stress of being constantly on the move goes beyond dealing with travel delays or worrying you’ll miss your train or flight. For remote workers, there’s the added stress of scheduling your workday around your travel plans, and figuring out what you’ll do if it turns out your train isn’t one of the ones with Wi-Fi. Even once you arrive at your destination, each new location means re-orienting to your resources, especially if your lodging doesn’t offer viable workspaces and you have to track down a cafe or coworking spot.
This is one of the biggest advantages of slow traveling for digital nomads. You don’t need to wonder or worry where you’ll work on any given day, or feel anxious that you’re spending time on your daily grind instead of enjoying your trip. You have time to settle into a routine that lets you balance work with traveling (and still leaves you time to sleep and eat).
Slow traveling makes the vacation and sightseeing side of your trip less stressful, too. When you only have a few days to see a place, it puts a ticking clock on everything you do. This leads to overloaded itineraries as you figure out how to see as much as possible. It also means you don’t get any second chances. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, travel takes longer than expected, or something else interrupts your plans, it can feel like a disaster. It could mean you won’t get to take that jungle hike or see those ruins—not unless you sacrifice another site from your itinerary. When you’re slow traveling, a rainy day or missed bus becomes a minor annoyance, and you can take your time lingering over and enjoying the things you see, because you don’t need to fit an entire city into three days.
3) You can check out things most tourists don’t.
During my last week in Mérida, a friend made the comment that it would probably be the coolest week of my trip—and he was right. I explored an abandoned water park being slowly absorbed by nature and visited the Museo Paranormal, where I learned about the bizarre (apparently haunted) abandoned Ciudad Maya with the scale replica of El Castillo inside. I hadn’t even known any of those things existed when I arrived in Mérida, much less added them to my to-do list.
With most destinations, you can see all the “big name” attractions in a long weekend. Those are the sites with universal appeal, though, and won’t necessarily be the coolest things in your perspective. Taking longer in a city lets you explore both the must-see attractions and the things that appeal to your niche interests, rather than forcing you to choose one or the other.
Slow traveling also expands the scope of your explorations to include more day trips and nearby attractions. Something that takes 4-5 hours to get to is a hard sell for short-term travelers unless it’s on the way from one destination to another. But when you’re slow traveling you can take day trips to neighboring towns and out-of-the-way destinations most visitors won’t get the chance to see.
4) You can really get immersed in the language and culture.
When you’re in each place for a week or less, you live like a tourist. You don’t have much choice; there’s no point shopping for groceries for three days, and it feels like wasted time taking public transportation when you can get there faster calling an Uber. You’re also more likely to be interacting with other tourists (and the staff and spaces that accommodate them) if you’re mostly focused on the top recommended attractions, restaurants, and neighborhoods. That means less exposure to the local language and fewer opportunities to practice it.
The thing is, the residential neighborhoods and other places off the beaten tourist path are where you want to be if you’re looking for language or cultural immersion. On a longer stay, you can eat, shop, and live your day-to-day like a local, spending more time talking to people who won’t switch to English the second they hear your accent. Basically, you have time to learn the rhythms of the place beyond the shallower, half-complete picture you get from a few days.
5) Deliveries and important mail won’t get lost in multi-destination limbo.
You can switch most things to virtual communications while you’re on your trip, but the longer you’re on the road, the higher the chance you’ll want or need to get something in the mail. One annoying trait of most things that still come through snail mail: they’re important, difficult to replace, or both, things like checks, legal documents, medication, or ordered items you can’t find easily in local stores. If you’re moving to a new place every few days, it’s much harder to coordinate deliveries to make sure things arrive when you’re actually there to get them.
So What’s My Verdict on Slow Travel?
In short? It’s my new go-to approach. When I got back from Mérida I was current with my work, buzzing with new inspiring experiences, and felt legitimately refreshed and ready to jump right back into my life in Pittsburgh—exactly what I wanted when I set out for the journey. YMMV, obviously, but based on my experience I highly recommend slow traveling for remote workers with full-time gigs who want to take advantage of their location independence. Personally, I’m already planning my next excursion and exploring the option of house sitting while I do it to cut down on the expense even further.
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