6 minute read
Slow travel: Four ways to do it
Take it slow
A year of being forced to stay put hasn’t put paid to the slow travel trend and as we return to the pace of normality, you might well start longing for the leisurely life. Laura Gelder explores four ways to slow down
Slow travel is a state of mind as much as it is a style of travel. As tempting as it is to tick off as many sights as you can, there’s merit in exploring a smaller list but lingering longer for a more immersive experience, staying put altogether, or letting the journey be the main event. Here are some ideas for how to journey slowly - all bookable with Charitable Travel of course.
Take the train, not the plane
Trains are surely the travel lover’s way to travel. There’s something ridiculously romantic about trundling through new and everchanging landscapes, catching fleeting glimpses of places you never knew existed and stolen snatches of other people’s lives.
Train tracks can offer access to untamed landscapes that cars will never see. The TransSiberian Express (the longest railway in the world) crosses some of the most remote places on the planet – the vast grasslands of Siberia as well as the Gobi Desert. The Ghan starts out chugging across the vineyards of South Australia but crosses the country’s arid Red Centre – the name is a nod to the hardy Afghan camel herders who first explored this vast and inhospitable desert.
Of course you can’t get catch these trains from a UK station, but if you wish you can keep your holiday firmly on the rails from start to finish. Great Rail Great Rail Journeys offers rail journeys across the British Isles, including its Vintage Railways of the Isle of Man tour and a new Edinburgh, Inverness and the Highlands journey. Eurostar now links to Amsterdam as well as Paris and Brussels – and from any of these cities your choice of onward connections is endless. Or, if you want to travel in real style, you could take Belmond’s Venice SimplonOrient-Express, which will swish you elegantly from London to the romantic Italian cities of Venice or Verona.
Railbookers has lots of rail options for greenlist favourite Portugal. Fly into Porto and out of Lisbon, taking the train between with a twonight stop in Coimbra to explore its beautiful parks and Baroque architecture.
There are rail journeys in almost every country in the world, from the iconic - like the Rocky Mountaineer in Canada - to the obscure, like Taiwan’s Alishan Forest Railway, which winds through the green mountains, waterfalls, wasabi farms and tea plantations of Alishan National Park.
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Put your boots on
Sugarloaf Mountain. And there are The ultimate in slow travel, walking plenty of long-distance routes if you is a great way to appreciate want a challenge, from the UK’s landscapes and access remote Pennine Way between the Peak places. Using your own two feet District and the Scottish Borders means you can keep to your to 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail, preferred pace and stop whenever the longest hiking-only footpath in you want to soak up the the world between Georgia small details. and Maine in the U.S. You can incorporate walking into any Get on your Or you can conquer a peak, like Mount holiday, whether bike Kilimanjaro in you’re tackling the World Bicycle Relief delivers Tanzania or Mount high passes of a specially-designed bikes to help Kinabalu in Borneo. mountain range people in the developing world If you want to like the Alps or the to complete every day tasks make walking the cobbled streets of a which we take for granted. focus of a holiday, an European city. worldbicyclerelief.org organised tour takes
There are walking the strain by providing routes around the world guides for remote that offer access to ancient areas or, if you are walking treasures, like the Inca trail to Peru’s long distance, transporting your ancient city of Machu Picchu or the luggage between each way point, Great Wall of China. Famous walks leaving you light and free. traverse through or offer incredible G Adventures has introduced a views of cities, like the Sydney Great number of new hiking holidays Coastal Walk or Rio de Janeiro’s across Europe, including green-
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list destinations like the Azores and Madeira – both hiking heavens. Its six-day Azores journey takes in the islands of São Miguel and Terceira, with hikes past impressive waterfalls, lava fields and bubbling hot springs. And on Madeira walkers will follow the island’s famous ‘levada’ trails, or irrigation channels, through dramatic rocky terrain and past tumbling waterfalls.
Go via pedal power
It might be faster than walking, but cycling still embraces the ethos of slow travel, letting you go at a leisurely pace and stop whenever you feel the urge. Whether you are a mountain biker looking for challenging terrain and a thrilling descent or someone dreaming of pootling between French villages with a baguette in your basket, there’s a holiday for you.
Some of the world’s best and most accessible mountain biking can be found in Scotland or over the channel amongst the Alps, crossing France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Slovenia and offering challenging but well-mapped routes. Further afield other stand-out mountain destinations range from the Rockies in North America to the Himalayas in Asia.
If you’d prefer to keep it flat then you can’t get much flatter or more bike-friendly then the Netherlands, where you can pedal through its iconic scenery of windmills and dykes. Adventure specialist Explore has an eight-day trip covering the green heart of Holland, including the cheesy town of Gouda. Other easy-grade tours from Explore include its Cycling the Baltic States trip, taking in capital cities, national parks, beaches and medieval castles across Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
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Let the tide take you
While island hopping on a mega cruise ship isn’t really in keeping with the slow travel theme, there are cruising holidays which facilitate a more mindful style of travel. River cruising offers slow-motion scenery, with options ranging from the parade of historic cities along the Danube to exotic golden temples along the Mekong in southeast Asia.
Slower still, narrowboats are a great option for UK travel – the country is criss-crossed by hundreds of miles of canals which pass through major cities as well as stunning countryside. France also has a proliferation of waterways and French cruise line CroisiEurope has a fleet of barges which drift along the picturesque canals and rivers of Provence and the Loire Valley, serving gourmet cuisine inspired by the local terroir as they go.
If you seek the salty tang of a sea breeze, head to the Mediterranean for a sailing holiday. The beauty of yachts is that they offer access to deserted coves inaccessible to the average tourist. Tour operator Intrepid offers leisurely sailing tours through the Greek or Croatian islands. Or try its Hike, Boat and Kayak trip along Italy’s Amalfi coast - you’ll be incorporating three forms of slow travel in one go!
