What Is the Best Travel Pace for Your Next Trip?

camel shadows Merzouga

What Is the Best Travel Pace for Your Next Trip?

You’ll be surprised how hard it is to determine your best travel pace and stick to it. The following will most likely present challenges:

– not finding the perfect dates or availability for flights, accommodations, etc.

– excitement to see as much as possible in the region

– exhaustion from moving around too much

– cost

– work schedule (if you’re working while traveling or have a set amount of vacation days)

– time of the year – whether that destination is in peak, shoulder or off-season and its weather patterns

– visa limitations

 

What Pace Is More Suitable For You? 

Well, it depends on many factors, such as your goals, budget, energy level, time off, etc.

Fast Travel

Fast travel, or hopping around to various destinations at a faster pace is good for those that:

– have a specific amount of time available to travel

– are trying to see more in a consolidated amount of time

– do not need to work on large assignments while on the road

– are carrying minimal luggage/belongings with them 

– typically are in regions with many destinations they’re visiting nearby

– interested in organized tours or vacation packages

– is high-energy and curious to explore as many destinations as they can within allotted time

That said, there is a lot of benefit in slowing down, even if you’re only traveling for a week or two.

Slow Travel

Slow travel, or staying in a destination for a few weeks or longer at a time is good for those that:

– are more flexible with the amount of time they have available to travel

– are trying to get a more local experience by immersing them in the place, cultural and daily life

– need to work on assignments while traveling

– are carrying more luggage/belongings and equipment with them

– are aiming to save money by renting apartments by the week or month and cooking in versus eating most meals out

– might be visiting regions that are more remote or a city that has a lot to offer, explore

– interested in studying the language or a skill while visiting

– wants a more relaxed approach to exploring the destination

 

What Has Our Travel Pace Been?

We fall into the second category – since we work online and mostly dictate our own schedules, we have the flexibility to stay in a place for longer. That said, we do enjoy little breaks to adventure & explore (fast travel) in between the places we decide to settle for a little longer (our ‘remote homes’).

sunset in Seville

the lovely view from the rooftop patio of our Seville ‘home’

How we go about it varies on the location and transportation methods. We also have to figure out what to do with our stuff, because even traveling with just a full suitcase, backpack and tote bag is not ideal when hopping around.

For instance, in Europe, it’s quite easy and affordable for 2 people to take a road trip (if you can drive a manual car and don’t mind narrow roads). This also aids carrying our stuff – as we have more control. After living in Porto, Portugal for a few weeks, we packed our bags, rented a car and took a 6-day road through Portugal to Seville, Spain. We stopped to enjoy several destinations along the way, including beaches and hikes and seeing family. There is also a multitude of budget flights that permit you to expand the region you visit or take a quick trip and return to the destination you’re using as a base. We did both by going from the Azores > Porto > London > Romania, and also Seville > Marrakech > Seville.

Algarve coasts

Road trip along the Vicentine and Algarve coasts

However, in South America, cities are further spread out and roads are not as favorable. So we were flying more often. If we were flying into a city but then traveling on from there for a few days and returning, we might stay in a hotel a night or two and ask them to hold our luggage (and offer a payment or tip to do so) until we return to that base city. We did this when we traveled to Rio de Janeiro city and then headed up the coast to Búzios and then back to Rio for a week and then went in the opposite direction to Ilha Grande & Paraty.

We haven’t done so yet, but if we plan to take a longer hop from a base city, we might reach out to a hostel or guesthouse and ask to pay to store some belongings for a period of time and promise to stay there before and after the hop.

What About Burn Out?

No matter how excited you are to take your trip, it’s inevitable that you will experience some sort of burnout or exhaustion if it is for a lengthy period of time.

If you are exhausted, listen to your body to avoid getting sick. Slow down your travel.

In the beginning of 2016, we had a base for 1 month with regular language classes and gym routines and then from there, we hopped around for a month and a half. I think we were crazy when we planned this (but mad excited to meet up with friends & family along the way). Flight to Rio – 2 days there, then 3.5 days on an island, 4.5 days back in Rio, then a flight to Vitoria, 12 days there, flight back to Rio and immediately head to the coast… spent 20 more days hopping around the northern and southern coast of Rio state. During this trip, we received permission to extend my visa. After all that, all we wanted was to slow down. We booked an apartment near a remote beach in the south of Florianopolis and hid away there for 7 weeks working, exercising and relaxing.

I would not recommend moving that quickly. It’s costly, it required a lot of intricate planning, and even though it should be so exciting to visit so many places, it can get tiring and possibly even lose some of its specialness when you’re feeling run down.

In the second half of 2016, we aimed to stay in an apartment (‘remote home’) for a month at a time and then spend a week fast traveling in between. Of course, that didn’t work out as desired, trying to dodge southern Europe in August and not getting the apartment dates for the full month in one destination. Then adding on a road trip with some family, because, hell yeah!

As we go forward, we will probably try to slow down, even more, staying at an apartment at least 1.5-2 months at a time and then batch our fast travel to be less often but maybe a little longer. We’ll see how that aligns with our work schedules…

There are so many ways you can go about your traveling pace and methods to carry it out. But accept that it is never a perfect science!

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Porto from aboveIf you want to read more about slow travel, check out our post, The Awesome Benefits of Slow Travel.

 

 

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How about you — what pace do you find works best? Leave a comment below!

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Lauren Martins
laurenpmartins@gmail.com
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