Fast Travel vs. Slow Travel

Have you ever thought about how most Americans spend their vacation time, when they take it at all? Often, it’s a week spent trying to cram as much into a vacation as possible. Let’s maximize our time, let’s get our money’s worth, let’s not sit still they way we don’t sit still at home.

I know this is how I have traveled for most of my adult life. Not because I really wanted to but because I only had a limited amount of time and there was so much I want to see. Have you ever planned a Disney vacation? It’s exhausting! And most of us only get a couple of weeks of vacation a year. That’s not very much time. Especially compared to the rest of the developed world.

Studies say that to maximize mental health, you ought to take shorter, more frequent vacations rather than one or two big trips a year. Shorter trips cost less, are easier to plan, and it gives you something to look forward to more often, which can relieve as much stress as actually taking the vacation itself.

Fast Travel vs. Slow Travel

A helpful concept to think about when planning a vacation, no matter how long, is fast vs. slow travel styles. What is the difference?

Fast Travel

Fast travel is the typical week-long Disney vacation. It’s the highlights of Europe in 21 days. It’s definitely my blitzkrieg road trip to Canada. Fast travel define those vacations where you either change location frequently in order to cover a lot of ground, or there’s just an awful to see in one place and you are trying to sample it all. (I’m looking at you, Orlando.)

Vacations like these have their place. I needed to put down tracks all the way to Canada at that point in my life. I’m also a big Disney parks fan and I don’t regret any Disney vacation I’ve ever taken.

But the consequence of fast travel is that it is almost invariably expensive. My week-long jaunt to Canada cost about $1000, and I didn’t do a whole lot except sleep and drive. A 21-day trip with a Rick Steves guide through Europe exceeds $5000 per person, and that’s not including airfare. (To be honest, I really love Rick Steves. I saw him speak in person recently and really enjoyed it. But $250 a day to travel is a lot of money!) And we all know that Disney will take the money right out of your pocket and is getting more and more expensive every year.

Slow Travel

So what’s the alternative? Slow travel is where you go one place and park it for the duration of your trip. It’s the beach vacation or the camping trip. It’s focusing on one area of Yellowstone instead of trying to see the whole thing in a day. At it’s core, slow travel is using more time to see less. Going more in-depth on one subject instead of lightly touching all of them.

The biggest benefit to slow travel is cost savings. You can usually save money on week or month-long stays at vacation rentals, you’re usually not doing as much driving, and you can sometimes squeeze more enjoyment out of a single entrance fee over a longer span of time.

Once, my family spent an entire week at beautiful Brookgreen Gardens near Myrtle Beach, SC, for the low cost of $10 per person, thanks to Dad’s senior discount. (Tickets are still good for 7 days, but the price has since gone up.) We took guided tours and saw evening concerts, all included in the ticket price. Even the cost of Disney World gets more manageable if you buy a season pass and can visit frequently. It’s still not cheap, but you are stretching your money further.

Freedom in Travel

I frequently feel torn between these two concepts, fast travel vs. slow travel. I often don’t feel I have the time for slow travel, there is so much I want to see! But wouldn’t it be nice to stay in one place and see everything it has to offer, at a slower, more affordable pace? Wouldn’t it be just wonderful to have total freedom in travel?

I will see where those dreams take me. But for now, I will focus on slowing down my travel, more than it has been in the past. Focusing in on the details of one thing rather than trying to see it all at once.