If you don’t know Keith of The Traveling Savage by this point, you have not spent enough time in the wilds of traveling blogging. Reading his philosophical and analytical takes on travel always leave me jealous, wishing I came up with his words first. He nails it every time, putting travel in a light seldom do. It is not just what to see or where to eat for the Traveling Savage. It is slow and experiential travel he streams from the fingers pounding that keyboard. Who knew savages had such technology? Please enjoy his down-shifting travel post below. Don’t forget to show him some love by leaving a comment and visiting The Traveling Savage.
Hitting the Breaks: Is It Time to Downshift Your Travels?
The conditions are perfect. A bottle of red wine breathes on the table. Mood music flows from the stereo speakers. The lights dimmed just a touch. Anticipation bubbles in your breast.
Laptops cast a soft glow on the scattered guidebooks and maps. Wait. Hold up. It’s…trip planning time?
Ok, not quite business time, but this is the setting in which my past travels have been conceived. For me, it’s a bridled excitement that fills night after night of studying cities, jotting down notes, debating, and drawing hilariously rudimentary maps on whiteboards. Invariably, I find a hundred places that demand my attention: metropolitan beehives dripping with sweet opportunities; clusters of villages flung upon shredded coastline; the incomprehensible beauty of mountain ranges, valleys, and deserts seemingly bereft of mankind.
Travel truly is a buffet of possibilities. And, like I was as a kid in the pizza line at Shakey’s, my eyes are often bigger than my stomach.
I was planning more action than I could sustain on my trips.
Even when I thought I’d been judicious and made difficult editorial decisions, I found myself on the equivalent of the travel autobahn waking up in a new city every other day. I loved those first few trips plane, train, and automobiling around Europe, but it became clear that the “planning savage” was too busy creating spreadsheets and trip outlines to listen to the “traveling savage.” Non-planning travelers can find themselves in the same position, drawn on an ever-expanding connect-the-dots jaunt around the world simply because they’re flexible and surrounded by cool places.
In the midst of a trip, it can be difficult to notice the dissonance between what you thought was a good idea and what’s actually a good idea. Here are some signs that you might want to consider downshifting your travels:
You Need a Vacation After Your Vacation
Finally, after 20+ hours of travel, you’ve made it home. You sink into the couch, sigh, and curse under your breath—you have to go to work tomorrow. And somehow you’re more tired than you were before you left. Many people want to buzz around on their trips, take in a variety of sites and locales, and come back feeling refreshed. That can be tough. I was thoroughly exhausted when I returned home on the eve of work after six weeks jaunting around Scotland and Spain. It was plain to see why – my wife and I hadn’t spent more than a couple days in any one spot. We had a blast, but there were two distinct consequences: our recollection became a kind of indistinguishable memory broth, and we were often mistaken for zombies for weeks afterward.
You’re Not Fully Present
Is your tour guide waving her hand in front of your face, your eyes glazed over and a rope of saliva reaching for the floor? Maybe it’s the fifth museum you’ve seen today or maybe you’re just doing something you think you should be doing. Don’t do that. Do what you want to do. Listen to your body. I’ve learned that I have a low boredom threshold for museums. In Scotland, I attempted to see something like five or six castles in one day. By some miracle two were closed or unreachable, but even by the third one I was ready to drown myself in a cask of whisky. I can’t even remember the names of the castles; it was as if I was lost in some feudal fugue. Capping the number of castles, abbeys, distilleries, and museums at a much more respectable two instantly reduced “glaze-overs” and improved my recollective capacity.
You’re Spending More Time En Route Than at Your Destinations
If you’re biking through Europe or doing a driving tour or trying to visit every capital in South America in two weeks, then you’re likely to be traveling a lot and you’re probably ok with that. But many travelers are more interested in their chosen stop. I think an important key is that no matter your age, no matter your situation, always assume you will return to wherever it is you go. I’m pretty much batting .000 at this. I’ve made two complete circuits of Scotland and traversed Portugal from north to south in relatively short periods of time. I made the best of the journeys, but I know there’s a whole other fulfilling style of travel waiting for me when I stop moving. And I want to experience it.
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I’m set on downshifting the speed of my travels and looking forward to spending many weeks in a place soaking in the experiential side. You’d think I’d have figured this out sooner, but I needed to go on those whirlwind trips to find out I prefer traveling in the lower gears.
Have you noticed these signs? Having trouble actually slowing down? I’d love to hear your story in the comments!
For more on slow travel from this savage, please head on over to The Traveling Savage.
Great article! I have had many similar experiences myself. Just last year, my brother and I took a trip through the Balkans. After originally scaling the trip WAY down, we were still in a different city nearly every day, driving many hours per day, simply stopping at this ruin or that ruin. It was a great trip, but, as you say, I could have used a vacation after it. All the ruins started to run together and you hit that travel wall. It’s a cost/benefit of either seeing a lot and being exhausted, or soaking things in and taking it easy. I’m starting to lean towards the slowing down side. Seeing as many ruins and sights have been there for decades to thousands of years, they’re probably not going anywhere soon.
Same here Matt. When I come home from even a short weekend trip that is just go-go-go, I need a few days to recoup. I’m excited to just be in one place this summer, seeing everything at a much slower pace. Sometimes those places I just spend one night in or two nights, I feel like I didn’t even go there. Spending a longer period in a destination tends to lend a picture you wouldn’t see or even realize on a short stop over.
I think we’re so used to accomplishing things that it’s difficult to slow down. Sometimes we measure things by the number of things we’ve said or done but really the best moments are when we’ve done nothing.
Now being in a seacoast village of 800 people we are biased, but we know from seeing our guests faces that a slowcation restores the mind, body and soul. Thanks for encouraging folks to slow down!
Agreed agreed and agreed! It’s hard to resist the urge to plan as if you’re superman. I always battle between the desire to see and expereice as much as possible vs. settling down in a unique place and getting under it’s skin. But I know I always enjoy a place more when I take it slow 🙂 great post!
Love that you found a way to intro with Flight of the Concords. Great post. Travel can be extremely draining. My rule for a yr in Oz is if I stop having fun or am not happy-just go home. I can always go abroad again.
Thank you, Suzy, for giving me the opportunity to write for you site. I really appreciate the comments everyone.
“always assume you will return to wherever it is you go”
I couldn’t agree more. Really there’s no reason to think otherwise. Who’s to say you won’t end up there again! I plan to mix slow travel with a whirlwind tour on my trip but the one thing I want to believe is that it won’t be my last time in each of the places I visit.
Great post Keith. Why we force ourselves to move so quickly I just don’t know. While I have an itinerary and a time frame, I’ll not be upset if I don’t visit all the countries on my list when I make it to Europe.
It’s better to see the place than watch it at 100km an hour.
Great job Keith! I agree with Suzy about your writing style. So descriptive and beautiful! My first trip through Europe, I felt like my friends and I were traveling all the time and moving from city to city so much that I didn’t have time for anything to sink in. Sometimes I didn’t even feel that I was in the amazing city I was in. I am planning to go to Stockholm to visit a friend this summer and I might stay there 2 weeks and I think it will be nice to just stay in one spot and take it all in.
Oh man, I totally relate to this. I call it “power traveling,” and I’ve declared under no circumstances will I do it on my next long trip. We’ll see how that goes…
I have a hard time understanding the people who run from destination to destination. I rarely ever visit more than one country when I travel, even if it’s for multiple months. Staying in one place allows me to get to know that location. Running from place to place just leaves me exhausted and in need of another vacation.
great post. I think it’s something all long term travelers deal with. I took the first 4 months of my travels in SEA, laying in hammocks, people watching in cafes, sleeping. It brought me down to a normal pace and it got rid of that guilt that comes along with ‘not doing it all’
A bit late on commenting, but a great post. I will agree with others that the line ‘always assume you will return’ is particularly cool. I am however several minds of it.
I have seen enough travelers do a whirlwind tour of some place thinking, ” I just want to see as much as possible. I know I’ll be back.” This tends to set their mindset. Especially as next trip I hear, “Well I’ve been to X before, lets go to Y and see a bunch of stuff there.” Thus the circle starts. I almost wonder if assuming you will never get a chance to come back to a place enforces more of a “let’s enjoy the here and now as much as we can.” Although this may say more about my own mind than anything else.
In any case, I agree wholeheartidly with slow travel. I love knowing that the best eats in town are through the unmarked doors and dark bar to the lush green courtyard. You don’t find those places quickly.
Great post! I learned some time ago that if I don’t have a lot of time to spend travelling, I might as well stay at home. I live in Europe, so I do take weekend trips here and there, but the minimum I do outside of Europe is 2 weeks, or I don’t go at all. Why? Well, I know that to truly enjoy my trip I need that much time, at least. I don’t want to just visit the place: I want to live it!