Six benefits of slow travel and why it’s here to stay

By Amanda Burgess (updated in October 2025) 

As we look towards the future of travel, wanderers the world over will be looking to do it differently. We have an opportunity to recast many practices that were damaging to the earth, its creatures, and communities. We also have an opportunity to recast where, how, and why we travel. The ongoing shift towards more conscious travel will naturally push more travellers to embrace the benefits of slow travel. We sat down with one of the pioneers of the slow travel movement, Pauline Kenny, to chat about what it is, why it matters, how it differs from regular tourism, and its key benefits.

Why we’re betting on more slow travel in the future

Slow travel pioneer Pauline Kenny – founder of online travel communities Slow Travel (now defunct) and Slow Travel Europe – began using the term in the late 1980s as a way to tout the benefits of long-term vacation rentals in Europe. Then, she and her husband sold everything they owned to live in Europe for a year, beginning in France and then moving on to Italy, Switzerland and England. 

“It struck me that it’s easier to stay longer in places, and definitely cheaper – you have the ability to settle in well,” she says. “Booking vacation rentals was really important for us because I needed to be able to do some of our own cooking. I’ve been vegetarian for a long time, and while it’s a lot easier for travelling vegetarians now, it wasn’t back then.”

Kenny is betting that as the Boomer generation she’s at the tail-end of begins to retire in larger numbers, they’re going to be looking to travel more but take it slow. “Fast travel is the young person’s game. It seems to me as women get older, they do slow it down,” she says. “I’m not seeing a lack of energy or enthusiasm – they simply want to experience something more.”

How did the slow travel movement begin?

An offshoot of the slow food movement, which began in 1980s Italy to protest the opening of a McDonald’s in Rome, slow travel is a mindset that protests the concept of tick-box McTourism – a race to check off countries and experiences in a dizzying bid to see all and do all. 

Contrary to what the term itself implies, slow travel is so much more than the speed at which you travel, or even the length of your trips. It’s a mindset that you can adopt on travel of any length – even day trips at home – and focuses on a more cultural and environmentally friendly approach to travel.

The philosophy of slow travel is rooted in connection, and the individual and collective responsibility of travellers to protect and conserve. We define slow travel as taking the time to connect to people, cultures, and the natural world in a sustainable way.  

“It struck me that it’s easier to stay longer in places, and definitely cheaper – you have the ability to settle in well,” Kenny says. “Booking vacation rentals was really important for us because I needed to be able to do some of our own cooking. I’ve been vegetarian for a long time, and while it’s a lot easier for travelling vegetarians now, it wasn’t back then.”

How is slow travel different from regular travel?

If you’re coming home from a trip more tired than when you left, with a camera full of photos, memories that you see through a lens, and a twinge of regret that you didn’t check off every item on your list, you might be more of a see-all-do-all traveller.  

Slow travellers seek to:

• Immerse yourself in a place, connecting with locals and not just other travellers
• Support local businesses – shopping locally, eating farm-to-table, and seeking out locally-owned restaurants, hotels, tours and guides
• Do your research and seek places that are less travelled, putting your tourism dollars where they are needed
• Are aware of and accountable for the impact of your decisions on the earth
• Respect local cultures, customs, and traditions (including what to wear)
• Understand that you can’t possibly see and do all, and build your journey around what’s most important to you

Six benefits of slow travel

Slow travel is a win-win-win scenario. It’s beneficial to the traveller who is gifted with immersive travel experiences. It’s beneficial to the local economy that benefits from injections of cash from travellers who prioritize buying local. It’s beneficial to locals themselves and the communities they live and work in. Read on for a sampling of six big benefits to slow travel – for ourselves and our planet.

1. You settle into the rhythm of a place versus being a disruptive force

Kenny says the see-as-much-as-you-can attitude pervasive in all traveller demos is a myth. After all, what are you truly seeing if you’re constantly on the move? How can you even begin to process what you saw before moving on to the next? Slow travel gives the traveller breathing room, and time to adapt to the unique rhythm of a place instead of simply moving at their regular pace somewhere else in the world.

“It’s about having more intense experiences. I’ve travelled a lot, but I haven’t been to many countries. I really know Italy, I really know Switzerland, and I really know France,” says Kenny. “When you return to a place that you’ve been to, it’s just so different. You see so much more than on your first experience. Your first is more superficial – your eyes are catching the flashy things. Then when you start getting used to the place, you’re comfortable in the cafes, you’re comfortable with the driving, you’re starting to learn the language. You just settle into it differently.”

2. You can play at living in a place

Whereas tick-box tourism is rather like window shopping at a breakneck pace, slow travel is like spending a full day with a private shopper – you get an opportunity to try on a place and see if it works for you. Staying in a vacation rental or homestay in areas where locals live gives you an opportunity to live like one. 

You get to almost play at living in place, says Kenny. What would it be like to live here full-time? Does it match your lifestyle? How much would it take to live here? Could you be happy here? It’s like trying on reams of clothing with no obligation to buy. And if you visit a place you love frequently, the nuances become clearer to you over time – which area you’d want to live in, what type of housing you prefer, near what amenities. You come to understand if it’s a place you simply love to visit – or one you’d like to live in.

3. It gives you time and space to simply be

On some trips, a rest day isn’t exactly restive – it’s forced downtime used to travel from one destination to the next. When you’re in a destination for a week or more with a home base? You can give yourself a real rest day.

“When you’re doing a longer trip, you’re not high energy the whole time. You need to have one day a week where you can crash, and vacation rentals really lend themselves to that,” says Kenny. “You can have a nice day puttering around the garden, hanging around.”

4. It gives your travel a focus

Slow travel narrows the aperture of your journey, allowing you to explore a wider swath of a single region or country. As Kenny notes, it gives you time to immerse yourself in the space where your interests meet local specialization or cultural events – think cooking classes in Italy, pottery making in Japan, art classes in France, music or cultural festivals.

When you plan a slow trip around an interest, it takes on a different cadence and gives your trip deeper purpose. A week-long cooking class in Italy might lead you to the farm where the sweetest tomatoes you’ve ever tasted were grown, or to the producer of the olive oil unlike any you’ve used, or to the home of the instructor for a family-style meal with six other new friends. This is the unique flavour of slow travel.

5. You contribute to a local economy – and the environment – in a meaningful way

Slow travel is an investment in a local economy. Putting your dollars in a single region or country over an extended period of time pays dividends. Live like a local, help the locals live better. 

When travel resumes, it will be about much more than slow travel or sustainable travel – it will be about regenerative travel. What is that, exactly? It’s about more than reducing your impact, or feeding the local economy. It’s about leaving a place better than you found it. 

For example, Tourism New Zealand measures its success not only in economic terms but also on other indicators such as nature, human health and community identities. There’s even a booking agency called Regenerative Travel that vets its 45 member resorts based on a swath of economic, environmental and community health metrics like carbon usage, sourcing local food, employee satisfaction, and immersive guest activities. 

6. The biggest slow travel benefit of all? Connection.

By its very nature, slow travel reconnects travellers with their environment, landscapes, people, cultures and selves. When you slow it down, you spot opportunities you might otherwise miss. 

At the beginning of 2020, I spent two months travelling solo through Australia, New Zealand and Bali, spending a total of five weeks in the latter. I divided my time between Ubud and Canggu opting for a women’s dorm at the Yoga Barn in Ubud and a villa for one on the beach in Canggu.

In Canggu, my don’t-look-further-than-tomorrow itinerary saw me book and receive two tattoos, accept an invitation from a friend I’d met in New Zealand to attend a DJ show in Seminyak and a night of traditional cultural dance in Ubud, attend workshops, and generally go wherever my whims blew me. 

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