We Suck at Slow Travel
We are failing at slow travel
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Join us as we jump into the way back machine and help us reflect on our goals for our Nomad Life. Steve and I had planned to slow travel the world, staying one month at a time, moving about the world in a leisurely way, chasing 72 degrees.
But if you look at our numbers from our fourth year on the road, we’ve failed miserably at the slow travel part. Steve had tracked on his spreadsheet the amount of beds we’d stayed in on average for the year, and found out that in year four, we moved every 3.5 days.
That’s crazy.
We can explain it away by saying that we hiked a lot in year four, spending the night in a different location each night on the trail. And we did stay in a few places for 5 or 6 weeks. But the average, whew, came in at a crazy Less Than Ten.
Returning to Slow Travel, Another Fail
Back in May of this year when we were compiling our numbers and doing some planning for the upcoming year, we looked at each other. We admitted we were tired. We wanted to slow down just a bit. With our next year in front of us with very few plans in place, we set out the goal to slow down.
We had some “rocks” in place for the coming fifth year; we knew we had to be in Dublin in October and Syracuse, NY in May 2026. With those two holders in place, we started to sketch out the year.
First, we blocked off November to January (90 days). We found a place on Poros, Greece to stay for a quiet winter. We knew it wouldn’t be 72 degrees, but it’d be one of the warmer locations in Europe to stay during winter. With our newly acquired Greek visa, we wouldn’t have to worry about time limits forcing us to move out of the Schengen zone so quickly.
This left us with two big blocks of time, June to October and February to May, where we could return to our slow travel ideals. Sadly, we quickly screwed up the summer block of time.
Somehow a month in DC, a month in Houston, and a month in Maine jiggered into 3 weeks in DC, 1 week in Houston, 1 week in San Diego, 1 week in Maine, 1 week in the Finger Lakes, 1 week on the beach in Estoril Portugal, and 2 weeks hiking the Fisherman’s Way in Portugal.
We looked at each other and wondered how this had happened, again. Well, seeing our family generated several of the changes. We also decided that a month in Houston in August would be awful. We always wanted to hike more in Portugal.
And well, since we write our own rules and live a life where we can make changes, we did.
We have no regrets.
But honestly, I am completely looking forward to our time this winter where we’re supposed to be staying still for 90 days. Can we do it?
We Haven’t Always Failed
Yeah, we’re not good at this one-month-at a time strategy.
Nonetheless, we have spent many months in many places. It’s the cheapest and most relaxing way to enjoy travel, and despite our failures, we still strive to enjoy one month at a time.
Take a look at all the places where we’ve stayed a month (that we’ve written about) and what it costs:
Aruba,
Australia (various locations),
Buenos Aires Argentina,
Chania/Crete Greece,
Dublin Ireland,
Fetiyhe Turkey,
Kuala Lumpur Malaysia,
Lima Peru,
Medellin Colombia,
Mexico City Mexico,
Patagonia (Chile /Argentina),
Puerto Vallarta Mexico,
Riga, Latvia
Seattle Washington,
Southeast Asia (Thailand, VietNam),
Santiago Chile,
Split Croatia,
Vina Del Mar Chile
(We’ve stayed and/or hiked in many other places for less time. See those places here.)
Our Nomad Recommendations
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The Salt Path was a tough book to read, honestly. A husband and wife loses their home and decides to hike the English coast while they work through what to do with their life. It’s kinda like the movie Nomandlandia, but via a long hike. The descriptions of the English coast, its hailing weather, and the people along the way peaked my curiosity to hike the Salt Path, but I hope the reasons I do it are the happy ones of Nomad Life. See my book list, which has over 100 recommendations in the travel writing genre.
Nomad Treats
Every month we share two things from our packing list. We only recommend things we love and use.
I’ll be writing soon about why I actually spent $145 for this water bottle. Since I’ve purchased this water bottle and belt, I’ve gotten rid of the belt and just use the bottle. I love the bottle because it’s curved and fits into my back pocket of my shorts, allowing me to carry it with me, hands-free, everywhere. The belt is great, too, because it has a pocket big enough for a phone.
Fortunately, I’ve never had to use this handy 7-in-1 survival tool, but I’m always glad I have it. I attach it to my backpack for easy access in case I need to whistle, find myself, grab a light, check the temp, light a fire, or reflect something.
We’re Hiking at the Moment
When this newsletter sends, we’ll be on the Fisherman’s Way in Portugal, hiking from Lisbon to Lagos. Are you following along on our Facebook page or Instagram? How are we doing?
Whew, too fast for us! Curious what you think of winter in Greece. As for The Salt Path, there's a controversy over whether it really happened or not like she wrote.