In a world obsessed with ticking off bucket lists at lightning speed, slow travel offers a refreshing alternative. Instead of rushing through destinations, why not stay longer, live deeper, and connect authentically? Here are the best places in the world for slow travel, where you can savor every moment.
Kyoto, Japan: Where Every Moment is a Celebration
Kyoto moves to the rhythm of tea whisks and temple bells. With over 1,600 Buddhist temples and centuries-old traditions preserved in daily life, this is where you learn that true beauty reveals itself slowly.
- Live in a Machiya: These narrow wooden townhouses (many over 100 years old) let you wake up to the sound of neighbors sweeping their entrances with straw brooms.
- The Art of Waiting: Queue for 40 minutes at a tiny tofu restaurant where the chef serves just 12 customers a day—because mastery takes time.
- Forest Bathing: In the bamboo groves of Arashiyama, join a guided shinrin-yoku (forest therapy) session where you’ll learn to listen to trees.
Pro Tip: Visit in February when plum blossoms bloom—equally beautiful as cherry blossoms but with 1/10th the crowds.
Tuscany, Italy: A Landscape That Teaches Patience
Tuscany’s rolling hills have inspired artists for centuries because they change by the hour—golden at dawn, emerald after rain, amber at sunset. This is a place where wine takes decades to perfect and friendships form over four-hour dinners.
- The 100-Mile Diet: Stay at an agriturismo where breakfast eggs come from the backyard and olive oil is pressed from trees you can touch.
- Lost in Translation: In the hill town of Volterra, strike up a conversation with the elderly man who’s been hand-carving alabaster in the same workshop since 1962.
- The Slowest Train in Italy: The Ferrovia Porrettana chugs through forgotten villages at 30 mph—no WiFi, just window views of laundry fluttering on medieval walls.
Stat to Savor: Chianti’s vineyards age their sangiovese grapes for a minimum of 10 months—a lesson in delayed gratification.
Bhutan: The Kingdom That Banned Hurry
Bhutan measures prosperity by Gross National Happiness and requires visitors to spend $200+ per day—a policy that naturally filters out rushed tourists. Here, prayer flags outnumber traffic lights 1,000 to 1.
- Homestay High in the Himalayas: In the Paro Valley, help your host family harvest red rice while dzos (cow-yak hybrids) graze nearby.
- The Original Digital Detox: Trek to the Druk Path, where you’ll sleep in tents without electricity and hear monks chanting from cliffside monasteries.
- Archery Lessons: Bhutan’s national sport is played with handmade bamboo bows—it takes years to master, just like everything worthwhile here.
Mindful Moment: At Tiger’s Nest Monastery, the hike up takes 3 hours. The reason? The journey is the pilgrimage.
Portugal’s Alentejo: Where Time Stretches Like Cork Bark
This golden region has more sheep than people and cork oaks so ancient they’ve witnessed Roman rule. Life here follows the seasons, not schedules.
- Sleep in a Montado: Stay on a cork farm where the harvest happens only once every 9 years (the bark regrows naturally).
- Bread-Making as Meditation: In Monsaraz, wake before dawn to bake bread in a 300-year-old communal oven still used by villagers.
- Stargazing Sabbatical: The Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve has zero light pollution. Lie in a wheat field and watch the Milky Way for hours.
Did You Know? It takes 25 years before a cork oak can be harvested for the first time.
Oaxaca, Mexico: Where Every Bite Has a Backstory
Oaxaca’s Indigenous cultures have preserved traditions that turn meals into ceremonies and markets into theaters. This is where food isn’t fast—it’s folklore.
- Chocolate from Bean to Cup: At a Zapotec women’s cooperative, grind cacao with a metate stone, just as their ancestors did.
- The 7-Mole Pilgrimage: Spend a week visiting different villages to taste each sacred mole variation—some recipes contain over 30 ingredients.
- Mezcal Mysticism: In Santiago Matatlán, watch a maestro mezcalero roast agave hearts in earthen pits—a 3-day process unchanged for 400 years.
Slow Food Fact: The chapulines (grasshoppers) in your taco were likely harvested at dawn by a family who’s been doing it for generations.
The Slow Traveller’s Manifesto
- Walk Until You Get Lost (then ask for directions)
- Learn One Local Word Per Day (not just “hello”—try “What’s the story behind this?”)
- Resist the Urge to Document Everything (some memories taste better than they photograph)
If this plan is commanding a premium for quiet vacation, you can always go to your back garden, verandah or even terrace – just to gaze stars, listen to nature’s harmony ( pro tip to this is that you leave your mobile on charging). As the Portuguese say: “Devagar se vai ao longe” (Slowly, one goes far). Where will you slow down next?
