Slow Travel Rewards the Traveler (and the Environment)

Photo of a slow river taxi in Zhouzhuang, China, by Montrasio International via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

That’s what Ed Gillespie discovered during his 381-day journey around the world. The London native traveled by ship, bicycle and camel through Europe, Mongolia, Japan, Australia, French Polynesia, Mexico and Central America. He’s now working on a “slow travel” manifesto that asks travelers to embrace the experience rather than focus on guidebook-recommended landmarks.

Is travel “a checklist of sights that we want to go and see?” he asked during an interview with National Public Radio. “Or is it actually about the notion of just getting away?”

I suspect many of us would choose the latter, but a lack of vacation time, particularly in the U.S., no doubt contributes to a checklist approach.

Needless to say, slow travel minimizing the use of planes is hardly a new concept. See this, this and this, just for starters.

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