January 2021

Why Does “Slow-Traveling” make the best kind of Women’s Getaway?

WELL…Have you ever come home from a vacation feeling more exhausted than when you left? So many clients of mine, travelers, and other vacationers coming to Southern Spain, I’ve witnessed and seen live hectic, stressfully paced lives. Then they reproduce the same experience when they travel. They don’t even realize that they create the same unfulfilling experience when they take the time & plan for their vacation. Hurry rush-rush they do their tourist attraction filled a vacation. Imagine taking the time and living 5-10 days in a Spanish Pueblo, Italian village, or in a French cottage in the countryside outside of Paris. Buying fresh vegetables from the farmers market every morning, sipping Café con Leche at another appealing… now one of your favorite… sidewalk terraces. Taking a leisurely paced day trip to neighboring villages … off to an unknown Relic on an off-the-beaten-track ending your day where they make the best homemade bread and marmalade. Standing in the middle and witnessing how any one of these cultures really lives!

Seeing local music & dance that only an insider knows. Experiencing or taking part in the making of local food, art, wine, or festival. Sound appealing? That’s the magic of slow-travel, with the emphasis on less is more… then the manic “sights” seeing and daily trips tours. By putting more emphasis on taking the time & actually witnessing and participating in your surroundings in a relaxed cultural-seeping-in-pace. With wine included… hahaha

Slow travel allows you to form a stronger connection to the culture, a place, the people, your like-minded other travel companions & to the things you are visiting while feeling less rushed. With a slow itinerary comes, that pure reason we travel… An Ah-Ha Moment, a Transformation that drives the desire to go, to see other places/ cultures. Giving you something to hold onto and take home to your life at home.

“Sometimes, you need to leave home in order to come home.” 

With Slow Travel, you won’t experience the stress of attempting to knock out every site in your guidebook. Instead, you’ll stay in one place long enough to recognize your neighbors, shop at local markets, and pick your favorite coffeehouse or wine bar. Few societies move as quickly as Americans do, slow down in another country not only allows you to escape your own stressful daily life but also to slip naturally into the pace of another culture. Maybe leaving with a few new customs that work best for you… helping you to customize your own unique lifestyle anywhere you live. As many of us have roots long or short in other cultures, many of my clients have found themselves resonating with a local custom only later to see themselves included in their daily lives at home.

The essence of slow travel, of course, includes the slow food movement, which are meals made by hand locally, by tradition and of the season. Paired with wines and drinks of the culture. And in our themed tours you will meet like-minded women and enjoy the slow pace of conversation/sharing.

The Environment
Another distinct advantage of slow travel is that it’s generally much easier on the environment than other types of travel. As airplanes have been pinpointed as a significant contributor to global warming, we mix in trains and staying in strategic locations to keep transportation down &, thus, more eco-friendly. While we organize events in and around our unique sites, Palaces, Villas, or Chateaus. Typically at our locations, you can also enjoy alternatives such as biking and, of course, your own 2 feet in a walk of a hike.

There are no four cities in seven days tour of Europe. Instead, you’ll see new places explore new cultures in a way that’s less stressful for you, more respect for the locals their economy.

Why is “slow travel” so popular?
It’s increasingly more popular for people who looking to enrich their travel experiences; it’s not for everyone. For one thing, slow. If packing a lot of sightseeing into each day makes you feel excited and energized, then you may find a more laid-back pace frustrating or dull. And while there’s always another Slow Travel trip to see dive deep into another part of a beloved country… this mode of travel is slow. I also understand that If you think this may be your one and only trip to Italy to France to Spain to Morocco, then you may need to decide what type of trip is more important for you. A traditional sightseeing trip or the ultimate cultural experience of slow travel.

Hybrid Slow Travel; When you mix in a little travel before you arrive at our “Slow-Travel” Event;

This is a way to travel and have the best of both worlds. Many of my clients enjoy coming a few days before or staying after our events. They Hit the highlights in one of the major cities before we head out to our destination. For example, on a recent trip, three women spent several days in Barcelona, enjoying the sites then top off the back end of their tour in Madrid shopping before flying home. (By the way, one of the women meet the other two in our Private Trip Facebook Group!)

Who is Slow Travel for?:

• Those who love stepping out of the familiar with local guidance.
• Those who find interest and joy in traveling in a small intimate group of like-minded women.
• Those who appreciate experiences that open their eyes & their senses.

Taking that same attention to details that you are experiencing in a new country back to your life.

Who doesn’t wants to have a real transformational, cultural experience? It acts like a mirror to your soul …if you let it. Helping you to realize the depth to which your own culture colors you-own-intubation / experience of the world.
Helping you to return and reflect back. Looking at your own culture as something you can investigate, making it your own and not a fixed norm. Asking the questions, what is my culture? Why do we eat these foods? Why do we eat them when we eat them? Why do we work and rest the way we do?

I always return from travel with so much more energy and desire to be really present in my own life when I come back from a Slow-Travel Trip.

As a Westerner, I can’t help but come back with questions.
For example, “Why do we separating ourselves so much from living the joy “of Now” in our lives? We tend to be so caught up with … managing our time and getting our lists done and ignoring what we have today. We wait in the hope for some hidden goal/reward in the future when we all feel like we’ve arrived, and now we can live & life will be better.”

When I realized that so many cultures don’t live that way, I began to make that message my own. I now live my life each and every moment. “

—There is feeling and a hidden promises in-the-slowing-down & the noticing of experiences. Especially with the noticing of the space of time and intention.  The Japanese call this WABI SABI

If you have any questions, contact me at KathyCamp.com

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