Slow Travel for Families – Is it Possible?

We read a lot about “slow travel” on adventure and travel blogs, as writers share experiences ranging from months-long treks in Thailand to three-month stays Europe. With a family and regular day jobs, we struggled to unearth a realistic variation of slow travel for our own holidays. Over the last six months, we hit our stride, and feel like we “cracked the code” on slow travel for families. Below, you will find everything you need to know about slow travel, and we share three tips to help you to slow down your next family holiday.

Here at Living EZ, we strive to embrace the moment. We travel by bike and train to cultivate an awareness of our surroundings, even if it’s only our daily commute. We start each day with focus and intention, and our nighttime routine wraps up with gratitude journals. As parents, we read picture books for the 2,409th time, and still do the funny voices. Even with our relaxed speed for daily living, our family travel somehow accelerates to a pace that challenges our relaxed, savoring attitude.

Our holidays consist of waking up early to catch the perfect light at sunrise, as we start one of our epic hikes. We walk miles each day, carrying a toddler, multiple cameras, and more water than a pack mule traversing Machu Pichu. The reason why we take so many of the “admiring the view” shots, instead of family portraits? It’s been a long day; we are dirty, a little annoyed, and our hair rarely cooperates. After long days, we stay up late into the evenings for stargazing, fireworks, and long chats with family. Finally, to make sure nothing goes undocumented, we commence our media ritual: backing up memory cards and recharging batteries, before closing our eyes on the day.

This relentless pace of traveling leaves us road-weary, and burnt out after vacations. We started searching for a way to travel that is less about checklists and maps, and more about experiences and encounters: something deeper, something slower.

What is Slow Travel?

Backpackers, retired travelers, and nomadic families alike embrace the “slow travel” movement. The premise of slow travel is that vacations are more than week-long photography marathons requiring an hour by hour itinerary, three maps and two guidebooks. Slow travel advocates experiential cultural learning, by conducting your normal activities in a new location. This enriches your experience by cultivating an awareness of the subtle differences in local life through the routine, everyday tasks, like shopping for groceries to make dinner.

Staying in a home instead of a hotel opens you up to the realities of life.

When we pulled up to a very un-glamourous coffee farm in Kona, JZ turned to me with terror in his eyes and asked, “How many nights are we supposed to stay here?” But despite its “outdoor kitchen” (euphemism for a sink outside plus a grill), and concrete “camp” bathroom, we ended up loving our farm stay. We chatted with our hosts several nights, reliving their journey to Hawaii, the ups and downs of coffee farming, and the best places for lunch. We learned to appreciate the cool evening Kona breezes through an open window, instead of the dry stale air from constant A/C. This was in part because there was no air conditioning, but that’s the point. We discover new experiences and grow by extending our comfort zones, not by staying comfortable.

When you stay at someone’s home, you are more likely to feast on homemade pumpkin bread, and warm, juicy, garden grown mango in the morning, instead of grabbing an imported apple and packaged oatmeal from the “continental breakfast,” in the hotel lobby.

But is slow travel compatible with corporate careers and, at most, a paltry four weeks of annual holiday?

Is Slow Travel for Families Possible?

When we travel slowly, we feel like we are missing out on “must-see” places. We wonder if we will ever make it back to this incredible destination. Even if we do, will this natural wonder still exist, as it does now?

Slow travel is romantic and attainable for those with a backpack and a dream, but travel with a family does necessitate a certain level of planning. When you vacation with family, time is not on your side, it is on your ass.

You have 10 days of vacation planned, 2 travel days on each end, 3 days in the city, 2 day trips, and 2 days in the next city (wait, what happened to the 10th day…). On top of that, you have lunch time, nap time, snack time, potty time, and bedtime to fit into the schedule.

Guided tours, resorts, and cruises take the questions and decisions out of travel, and make planning a cinch. Tours let you sit back and relax while someone else takes the reins. You don’t have to do the research, ask around, or make last-minute decisions that other people will complain about. But you also miss out on true one-of-a-kind cultural activities, sites that you are uniquely interested in, and the comedy of errors that can only take place in a foreign grocery store (how does one say “laundry detergent” with hand gestures?) This is much more enjoyable than the traditional Griswold-esque attempts to drag the family through a list of must-see places.

Reconciling the travel bucket list approach with slow travel requires a change in priorities and a mindset shift. Your priority becomes experiencing the country and its culture by living in it – even if it’s only for a few days. The family endeavors to learn enough of the history to ask intelligent questions, and maybe go on a specific tour so you can deeply appreciate the significance of the cultural icons you prioritize. The mindset focuses on expanding the family experience by going deep, not ignoring everything that is not on the itinerary (my weakness). This focus on openness, living in the moment, and breathing in every second with intention also provides space for children to explore and be children.

We spent plenty of extra time in random places because CZ took particular interest to a bird or plant. Generally, this led to chance encounters with locals, park rangers, and other experts. These encounters tend to take us of the beaten track to the uncover the hidden beauty many travelers miss. It’s how we received an invite to visit the Kingdom of Hawaii, experienced an epic Tasmanian Sunset, and swam with dolphins 3 days in a row.

How to Start: Slow Travel for Families

As we transition into a mindful, slower style of traveling here are the three concepts and strategies that we incorporate to help us on the journey:

Stay local – Sleep where locals live (aka not in a hotel, resort, or cruise ship). Think about it for a moment, if you ask the concierge where to go to dinner, the question he answers is: where do most tourists who need A/C, ice, chairs, and chicken nuggets go to eat? And you will go there to feast on bland chicken and rice because the concierge assumed you don’t like local cuisine any more than your child.

As we mentioned above, sleeping in a neighborhood (or farm) with people who love to open their homes to visitors provides you with cultural exposure you won’t find as an add-on room charge. If finding the right place seems daunting, check out our guide on booking a family friendly Airbnb. Other lower cost options are house sitting and/or house swapping with another couple or family. We read a lot of positive reviews from these experiences, but we are not ready to make the leap because they often come with animal responsibilities.

Be confident and steadfast – Yes, everyone and their mother-in-law will question your judgement when you decide not to see the Neuschwanstein castle (or the local equivalent). But here’s the thing, you will see other castles that thousands of tourists have never even heard about. You, and your family, will not wait in line for hours for a tour guide to shuffle you through another “cultural icon” like cattle.

You will see other beautiful places that are peaceful, quiet, and without bus parking or tourists. And guess what, many of these places certainly won’t be as “pretty”, but they will be real. You will discover invitations to 200-year-old homes with epic carpentry, hidden natural wonders, and the pride that comes from a family spending 13 generations in the same home. 

Pick one thing – Instead of trying to squeeze all of the top attractions items into one trip, opt for one activity per person. Just because you’re 3km from a popular destination does not mean you should force it into the 30 minute slot between snorkeling in the afternoon and family dinner. Do some research as a family, and independently. Then, encourage each person to pick one goal for the trip: an unusual meal, a specific animal, or a breathtaking view. When you incorporate these goals into your itinerary, everyone experiences a personalized moment during the holiday, and no one feels left out of the decision-making process. JZ and I are the main selectors at this point, but we try to pick a special activity for CZ as well. In Hawaii, my must-do item was star-gazing at the top of Mauna Kea, JZ’s was seeing molten lava, and CZ’s was koi fish feeding at Ko’ Olina.

We strive for relaxation, education, and insights on day trips, long weekends, and even week-plus adventures.

Similar to most families, we depart for day-trips, long weekends, and extended holidays with the goals of relaxing, learning a little about the culture, and learning more about ourselves. These goals make slow travel sound amazing, but we aren’t digital nomads. We have jobs that we are unable to take anywhere, and we have little desire to live out of a suitcase. We love traveling and discovering new experiences, and we also love coming home.

Have you ever considered a slower pace of travel? If so, how do you try to slow down your holidays?