Slow Travelers go to Europe to experience different cultures and lifestyles, but they do it differently than most tourists. Instead of staying in hotels or B&Bs, they stay in vacation rentals – apartments, cottages or houses that you rent by the week. Staying in your own temporary “home”, even if just for a week or two, lets you experience a place more intensely because you get involved in the community where you are staying. You shop for groceries and supplies in the local shops, stop at the same cafe every morning, see the people in your village or neighborhood each day.
About a year ago I was looking at the Live Traffic Feed on Sevilla Tapas and saw that someone had visited from a place called Slow Travel. So I went and checked it out …
It turned out that one of the moderators had left a link to Sevilla Tapas on one of the forums, which rather pleased me. So I registered with them but then, what with one thing and another, forgot all about it until I received an email newsletter from them last week. And so I went back and had another look at the travel forums there, updated my profile page, and started participating on a couple of threads. I’ve also been doing a bit of virtual travelling by reading various forum topics about countries other than Spain, as well as checking out the photo galleries and blogs of other slow travellers.
It’s been great reading about, and meeting, people with a similar philosophy about travelling. I’ve always been a terrible tourist, preferring to people watch from a sidewalk café than rush around and see The Sights. So if you also enjoy ‘travelling slow’ then I recommend you visit this wonderful community of like-minded travellers before planning your next trip. Aside from the travel forums you can also participate in live chats as well as food and photo forums.
Slow Travel
Slow Travel Forums
casa azahar 
Hmm. Didn’t realize that the way I like to travel had a name and a movement. (Duh. Of course it does. Name one thing anyone does that hasn’t been defined, codified, commodified!) Metro and I did our honeymoon that way — rented an apartment in Paris (in the Latin quarter) for 10 days and just relaxed….
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And I’ve always travelled that way, Lori … though more often than not I’ve tended to just move to places. Still, it’s nice to find a community of like-minded people who can offer tips on out of the way places and cheap & cheerful accommodation, based on their own experiences.
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When Jim and I went to Sevilla and stayed in an apartment it was the first time we traveled “slow” and it was truly wonderful. They are so right, you get involved in a different way when you have to shop, do laundry, etc.
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Hi! I started the Slow Travel website in 2000 to write about the way that I traveled. I took the “slow” from the Slow Food Movement and gave it a travel definition. I knew that many other people traveled the way that I did and I wanted to meet them. Over the seven years that I ran the site, I met many Slow Travelers and learned a lot from them. It is a great community.
I sold the site last year and am starting a new site – Slow Europe – http://www.sloweurope.com. Not a community like SlowTrav, but a resource for finding vacation rentals in Europe. The site will be launched in a few weeks and I hope you will check it out! We have an interesting list of recommended vacation rental agencies and resources for Spain (also for Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and Ireland – more countries will be added).
Great snail photo!!
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I’m glad you enjoyed that set-up, hmh. Also, you got to live just around the corner from ME! 🙂
Hi Pauline and welcome. I’ve just popped over to Slow Europe and joined up. Looking forward to the launch.
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I am following you on Twitter and subscribed to your blog – looking forward to reading more!
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i went for a month-long summer course in macau and slow travel is definitely more relaxing and can be cheaper souvenir-wise. you can take time to shop wisely and make good shopping decisions instead of impulse buying. 🙂
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