Twenty of the best slow travel holidays for 2023

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Twenty of the best slow travel holidays for 2023

By Brian Johnston
Santa Cruz on Tenerife in the Canary Islands has an elegant old town, dashing modernist architecture, good botanical gardens and a fringe of fine beaches.

Santa Cruz on Tenerife in the Canary Islands has an elegant old town, dashing modernist architecture, good botanical gardens and a fringe of fine beaches.Credit: iStock

In this sped-up, tick-tock, go-go world we increasingly look for ways to slow down. A decade ago the slow-travel movement was more or less a niche enthusiasm born from the slow food movement.

Now, with sustainability increasingly at the forefront of the travel experience, slow travel feels more like a necessity than a fad. More and more travellers are asking themselves not only what they want from a holiday but also what the planet needs from it. The answer?

Hurry less. Contemplate more. Tread more softly. Wind down and stay longer. Realise there's more to life than must-sees.

A reduced travel pace gives us more time to absorb our destination, find local connections and contribute more to local economies.

Funnily enough, if we go slow we find ourselves less harried, and less exposed to the drudgery of constant onward movement. The planet will be more relaxed too.

Of course, slow travel is not a new idea, having been inspired by the more formalised slow-food movement founded in 1986 in protest at the opening of a McDonald's in Rome.

However, in these times of pandemic, climate change and overcrowded tourist sites, it's a mindset and philosophy that has ever more relevance and urgency and encourages less consumption, reduced mobility and a lower environmental impact.

So, forget the race around the world, your Insta envy and that manic need to see a thousand things before you die. Take fewer flights and make the most of them by stopping over or extending your stays. Use trains and bicycles. Travel differently.

Even better, have a good, slow read of Traveller's following 20 sure-fire ways to apply the brakes on your next or future break.

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THE TRIP

A peaceful pilgrim trail trek

SLOWLY DOES IT Whether you follow a Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or Shinto pilgrim trail you'll find age-old cultural sights and beautiful landscapes and be encouraged to ponder what's important in life as you travel on foot.

TELL ME MORE Instead of the usual sightseeing rush, get slow and meditative on the pilgrim trail to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. You don't need to be a Catholic to appreciate that a long walk renews your spirit. While most people tackle the Camino across northern Spain, take the alternative approach from Portugal on a tour with Intrepid Travel. It's a bit more off the beaten track and visits seaside towns that add additional reason not to rush, but to take time to enjoy swims, seafood and wineries.

DON'T MISS The ruined fortress at Vigo, where you can potter around gardens and slow down even more by gazing out to sea. This Spanish city also has a great evening tapas scene.

ESSENTIALS Intrepid Travel's 10-day "Portuguese Camino" has multiple departures April-September 2023. From $2845 a person twin share. See intrepidtravel.com

THE TRIP

A blissful barge holiday

Credit: iStock

SLOWLY DOES IT A river cruise, such as those in Europe, is relatively sedate but dial down the pace even more on a barging holiday for a more intimate, personalised journey that allows you to soak up the pleasures of a single region.

TELL ME MORE Although you travel only short distances, you can hop off a barge any time to walk or cycle towpaths and investigate village life. Chief pastimes are socialising, eating and watching scenery drift by. Abercrombie & Kent charters a fleet of indulgent luxury barges across Europe on a series of cruises between March and October. Its "Spirit of Scotland" journey visits prehistoric sites and a whisky distillery as the barge travels various canals and lochs including Loch Ness and the highly scenic Loch Oich.

DON'T MISS Cawdor Castle, where the scattered personal objects of its earls give the interior a personal feel, unlike the museum atmosphere of most historic houses. Flower-filled summer gardens are magnificent.

ESSENTIALS Abercrombie & Kent's "Spirit of Scotland" barge holiday has multiple departure dates. From $7095 a person twin share. See abercrombiekent.com.au

THE TRIP

A salubrious wellness journey

SLOWLY DOES IT In a hectic world it pays to step off the hamster wheel and revive now and then. Add in exercise, wellness treatments and detoxes and you have indulgence without a downside.

TELL ME MORE Go well by combining culture and sightseeing with activities designed to relax, rejuvenate and remind you that nothing is more important than your health. Inside Asia Tours has a wellness-oriented journey through the length of Vietnam that's active thanks to cycling and walking tours, and which involves the likes of sunrise yoga, organic cooking classes, an aromatherapy workshop, a stay in Alba Wellness Valley with daily spa treatments, and a kick-back beachside finale at Phu Quoc, Vietnam's hip resort island.

DON'T MISS Kick back on a multi-day cruise on Lan Ha Bay, the quieter alternative to Halong Bay but with the same humped peaks. Sunrise tai chi on the deck is a good start to the day.

ESSENTIALS Inside Asia Tour's 18-day "Vietnam Rejuvenation" is a personalised journey with flexible departures. From $8132 for the four-star accommodation option. See insideasiatours.com

THE TRIP

A languid long-haul stopover

SLOWLY DOES IT Instead of a 15-hour direct flight to North America, why not take a week to get there? Stop over and enjoy island downtime in Fiji, French Polynesia, Hawaii or New Zealand.

TELL ME MORE A stopover adjusts you better to jetlag, breaks up marathon flights, provides an extra mini-holiday with little more effort or carbon footprint, and plunges you into another culture you mightn't otherwise consider. Fiji Airways flies to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu and now Vancouver too, tempting with extra time on a balmy beach or flitting with fish above a reef. Denarau Island, a 20-minute drive from the international airport, has a congregation of luxury beachfront resorts, and is a convenient jumping-off point for the Mamanuca Islands.

DON'T MISS Garden of the Sleeping Giant near Lautoka for its fabulous orchid displays, ponds afloat in lilies and landscaped lawns – a reminder that Fiji isn't all about sand and surf.

ESSENTIALS Fiji Airways flies twice daily from Sydney and daily from Melbourne to Nadi. Onward flights to Vancouver depart Mondays and Fridays. From $1895 (Melbourne) or $1905 (Sydney). See fijiairways.com

THE TRIP

A relaxed repositioning cruise

SLOWLY DOES IT A cruise is already a relaxing, easy-paced way to travel. But a repositioning cruise (defined as a cruise that tends to occur at the end of a cruising season when a cruise ship is moving from one home port to another) even more so, offering not a purposeful itinerary but a laid-back, sociable way to get between two continents.

TELL ME MORE Expect fewer port calls and more days at sea on a cruise that allows you to escape the merry-go-round of shore excursions and relax. Even better, wallow in luxury for up to half the price of a regular cruise. Regent Seven Seas' 18-day Rio-to-Lisbon cruise isn't all open ocean, since it tarries along the Brazilian coastline and calls at eight ports overall. Eight days at sea are broken up at Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, which have spectacular volcanic landscapes, plunging cliffs, pine-scented forests and sometimes snow-capped mountains.

DON'T MISS Two stops in the Canary Islands. Santa Cruz on Tenerife has an elegant old town, dashing modernist architecture, good botanical gardens and a fringe of fine beaches.

ESSENTIALS Regent Seven Seas' 18-day Rio to Lisbon cruise departs March 19, 2024. From $11,410 a person twin share. See rssc.com

THE TRIP

An unhurried long-distance train journey

Credit: iStock

SLOWLY DOES IT More and more travellers are rediscovering the languid pleasures and meditative clickety-clack of train journeys that unashamedly take their time. You can avoid airports, see more scenery, better access city centres and make a grand eco-friendly journey with ease.

TELL ME MORE Get across continents without long-haul flights, and with the bonus of seeing in-between places you might never otherwise visit. Even monotonous outlooks onto wheat fields or forest can be relaxing and exhilarating as you tuck into meals in restaurant cars. One of the great rides is the 4466-kilometre journey between Toronto and Vancouver on The Canadian. Sure, it takes 94 hours instead of five by air, and that's if you don't stop over, but you get to see wide-open prairies, Canadian Rockies and cities such as Winnipeg and Edmonton.

DON'T MISS The Rockies are the obvious highlight, but Manitoba is like chugging through a Rothko painting: slabs of yellow sunflowers, blue sky, red barns. White clouds drift overhead like colossal sheep.

ESSENTIALS Globus' 14-day "Great Canadian Rail Journey" has multiple departures May-September 2023. From $6869 a person twin share. See globus.com.au

THE TRIP

A cruisy cycling route

SLOWLY DOES IT On a bicycle, you can immerse yourself in landscapes and interact with local communities. Set your own pace: in Europe especially, beer gardens and cafes are always around the corner.

TELL ME MORE Ditch the car and its carbon footprint, wheel along at a sedate pace, enjoy fresh air and explore byways, villages and countryside unseen from highways. Companies such as UTracks offer e-bikes and luggage transfers, so it doesn't have to be hard. Take 14 days to pedal 500 kilometres along the Danube between Passau in Germany and Budapest in Hungary. With logistics taken care of, you can enjoy Vienna and Bratislava, national parks and protected areas, monasteries, castles and every bakery you come across.

DON'T MISS Austria's Wachau Valley between the baroque pile of Melk Abbey and medieval town of Durnstein is the most scenic section, winding through vineyards, apricot orchards and villages embraced by Danube cliffs.

ESSENTIALS UTrack's self-guided 14-day "Danube Cycle" has weekly departures between April 30 and October 1, 2023. From $3150 a person twin share. See utracks.com

THE TRIP

An immersive experience

SLOWLY DOES IT Travellers are discovering that staying in one place and unpacking only once is better for the planet and good for the soul. Who says a journey has to involve charging around?

TELL ME MORE Settle into a single base and you can soak up local life, get an in-depth look at its culture, and use it as a springboard for day trips without the hassle of changing hotels. A three-week stay in Florence with Smithsonian Journeys, the travel program of the prestigious US Smithsonian Institution, gives you time to explore its dense art, history and culture and slip into an unhurried local pace in its markets and restaurants. You can also opt for language, cooking or art lessons.

DON'T MISS As you'd expect in Tuscany, every excursion is marvellous – Siena, San Gimignano, Cortona – but wall-ringed Lucca is the highlight. The formerly independent city-state is crammed with architectural beauty and has views towards the Apuan Alps.

ESSENTIALS Smithsonian Journey's 23-day "Living in Italy" tour has multiple departures April-October 2023. From US$5890 a person ($8361) twin share. See smithsonianjourneys.org

THE TRIP

A heavenly hiking holiday

SLOWLY DOES IT You can't get slower than a walk, and no way of going better gets you immersed in your surrounds or interacting with passing people.

TELL ME MORE Hiking and trekking tours are feel-good, get-fit, fresh-air ways to encounter distant places, suck up the soul-soothing benefits of nature, reduce your carbon footprint and support local remote communities. Challenge yourself or just amble along, and stop to gaze and picnic where you will. World Expeditions' trek through western Mongolia absorbs you in the remote beauty of one of the world's least-visited places. You'll feel like Marco Polo travelling the ancient Silk Road. You get into the crisp glacial landscapes of the Turgen Mountains, enjoy nomadic hospitality in flowery valleys and cross grassland and semi-desert.

DON'T MISS Altai Tavan Bogd National Park, which features high mountains, a splatter of lakes and a symphony of gurgling streams. It's encountered over three trekking days, with luggage carried by camel.

ESSENTIALS World Expedition's 18-day "Mongolian Panorama" trek has several departures June-August 2023. From $6290 a person twin share. See worldexpeditions.com

THE TRIP

An extended road trip

SLOWLY DOES IT Depending on your vehicle of choice, this isn't the eco-friendliest way to go (though you can do some routes by coach) but it does encourage a free-flowing itinerary on which you can take detours and stop at will.

TELL ME MORE Road trips fell out of fashion but have recently bounced back, with renewed interested in destinations such as Route 66 in the US. No travel style better suits Australia. The Savannah Way runs from Cairns to Broome through an extravagant swathe of grasslands and orange outback; take a leisurely 14 days to enjoy its first half to Katherine. Among highlights are the Atherton Tablelands, vast underground lava tubes at Undara, former gold-mining town Croydon and several spectacular rust-red gorges.

DON'T MISS The Savannah Way skirts the Gulf of Carpentaria, with Karumba a great spot for barramundi fishing or simply kicking back at the local pub over a barramundi meal.

ESSENTIALS The route requires a four-wheel drive and should be tackled in the May-October dry season. Bring extra water and fuel, and ideally a satellite phone. See queensland.com, northernterritory.com

TEN TYPES OF 'EASY-DOES IT' DESTINATIONS

UNIVERSITY TOWNS

Ditch the guidebook and enjoy cheap eats, great nightlife, arts scenes, quirky museums and historical settings without sightseeing duties. Big student populations mean a laidback lifestyle. Try Bologna in Italy for its sunny dolce vita. See bolognawelcome.com

UNDER-VISITED COUNTRIES

Get off the tourist trail into unexplored places to slow down. One of our near neighbours, utterly gorgeous Tuvalu, gets a mere 3600 visitors a year, and happily there isn't much to do other than snorkel, snooze and snack. See timelesstuvalu.com

HOLY PLACES

Contemplate your god, your navel or the otherworldly vibe in places associated with age-old rituals designed to boost the spirit. Head to Rishikesh in the Indian Himalayan foothills, where meditation and yoga retreats abound. See uttarakhandtourism.gov.in

CAFE CULTURES

Credit: iStock

No matter how bustling, cities with cafe cultures provide every excuse to abandon bucket lists. Cafe hopping in Ljubljana in Slovenia allows you to soak up centuries of inimitable style from sun-soaked terraces, and stickybeak at passing people. See visitljubljana.com

SPA RESORTS

Shake off the need to see and do, and settle into the soothing bubble of hot baths to find tranquillity in pretty country settings. Kinosaki Onsen in Japan is a quintessential example, where you can wend along canals from one bathhouse to another. See visitkinosaki.com

SPARSELY POPULATED PLACES

Crammed countries ratchet up stress levels, while empty places encourage contemplation. Try Mongolia, whose 3.3 million people enjoy 1.5 million square kilometres of exhilarating grasslands and mountains beneath cloud-scudded skies. See mongolia.travel

MUSIC CITIES

Get alternative in cities famous for their music scenes. They provide living culture and an excuse to toe-tap the time away while quaffing cocktails or cold beers. Nowhere better than New Orleans in the US, filled with jazz and blue bars to satisfy the soul. See neworleans.com

ISOLATED ISLANDS

Stressed-out urbanites fantasise about tropical islands, where they can live out their Robinson Crusoe fantasy at a sluggish pace. In little-developed Mare in New Caledonia you can swim with fish, eat seafood and slip into the rhythm of island life. See newcaledonia.travel

QUEENSLAND BEACHES

Nowhere invites you to take it easier than a beach with surf and sunsets. Chill out at Four Mile Beach at Port Douglas, one of Queensland's best, backed by tropical rainforest and humped hills, and disturbed only by scuttling crabs. See tropicalnorthqueensland.org.au

GOURMET TOWNS

Any town with a gourmet reputation provides unhurried hours in street markets, delis, bakeries and restaurants. Lyon is the gastronomic capital of France, and dense in bouchons or neighbourhood eateries that showcase traditional dishes. See lyon-france.com

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