For the first three months of this trip, we stayed at nearly 30 different AirBnb’s & hotels (and a few nights on boats & airplanes). This is fast travel! It’s much like what you would do on a typical vacation. It’s stimulating and exciting and you get to see lots of history, cities, towns, and cultures.

For much of this first phase of our world trip, we spent many evenings to research and discover the best and most interesting things to see for a family of five. This would include the ‘must see’ sights (which are easy to find with a Google search), but also off-the-beaten-path locations (hat tip to Atlas Obsura for some quirky locales!)

For me, this fast travel became draining over a long periods of time. Don’t get me wrong, it was an unforgettable experience we had an amazing time! But across our road trip (which had an average of 2.3 nights per stay), it started to wear me down. Instead of finding energy to go for a run or getting energized by a city with centuries of fascination history, I found myself wanting time to sit quietly in a room to recharge my batteries...

The Lure of Slow Travel

The Independent Traveler defines slow travel as:

…not so much a particular mode of transportation as it is a mindset. Rather than attempting to squeeze as many sights or cities as possible into each trip, the slow traveler takes the time to explore each destination thoroughly and to experience the local culture.

We did slow down once we arrived in Portugal in August. We spent 10 days with Annelies’ parents at their house. It was nice to relax, catch up on work and eat some amazing home-cooked food. We also started homeschooling the children in earnest. I’m sure we’ll get better at that as we go but so far kids are generally responding well - we have a weekly schedule that covers several subjects and yet have loads of flexibility in when we do the school work.

We previously visited that area of the Algarve in Portugal, so instead of rushing around to see all the sights, we took our time to do the things we enjoy. Going to the beach, visiting the weekly farmer’s market, dining at the fresh fish restaurants, and strolling around the old cities are some of our favorite things to soak up Algarve culture. And plenty of downtime for school, reading, and work activities.

Work Time for Adults

Before we left, we focused quite a lot about getting the children geared up for homeschooling (worldschooling that is!) Overall I think we’re doing very well on that front. But with the fast travel, I found it difficult to peel off for a half day and sit in a room to do focused, computer work. It’s hard to skip out on an excursion because I also don’t want to miss out. In other words, it was difficult for me to context switch away from travel.

During fast travel, it was hard to get into flow state. I run my own business, which offers tons of flexibility. That said, during the road trip, the business was largely on maintenance mode instead of growth mode. I started craving some slower travel to be able to get into flow and build for the future of the business.

Slower Travel: Time for Culture and Structure

There is beauty in the simplicity and structure of a routine. Having a basic schedule in a location where we’re staying longer than a few days, I think, will help create conditions for getting into flow. This could include a daily schedule for kids and school as well as a daily schedule for adults. And it also means having the flexibility of not having a fixed schoolhouse or job location.

We all need our outlets (i.e “me time”) as well as productive time. My personal outlets are meditation, journaling, running, and yoga - with various frequencies. Annelies largely gets her me time by going for long runs, reading and listening to podcasts. The kids enjoy playing with their few toys (mainly Legos and Hatchimals), swimming at pools and going to the beach. Generally I think we’re doing well as a family respecting that we all need our outlets.

On one hand, I started to crave this basic structure. On the other hand, the interesting thing about the not having a home is we can choose where to be...basically anywhere! As we start to plan for next phases of this trip, I think a great combination will be periods of slow travel with some fast travel mixed in as we change locations.

Today I write this as we’re settling into our 2nd week during a one month stay at a bungalow in Bali, Indonesia. The fact that I’m even making time to write this post shows me that this slower travel is working for productivity. I’ve been making progress at work and clearing up a long backlog of important, but not urgent tasks. Bring on the slow travel!