Slow travel, as defined by TheArtofSlowTravel.com:

“Slow Travel is a mindset that rejects traditional ideas of tourism and encourages you to soak in your environments and keep yourself open to new experiences.”

And from SmarterTravel.com:

“Slow travel is not so much a particular mode of transportation as it is a mindset. Rather than attempting to squeeze as many sights or cities as possible into each trip, the slow traveler takes the time to explore each destination thoroughly and to experience the local culture.”

Slow travel allows you to make a real connection with the place you’re visiting – with its people, its culture, and really get the feeling of “living like a local”.

That’s exactly what we do with our Adventurous Life trips. We take a month in bucket list destinations around the world and linger, getting to know our surroundings, making friends at say, a local coffee shop, deep-dive into a particular cultural hotspot of choice, and getting a good idea of what it’s like to live where we are.

Making a real connection with a destination is a special thing, and one that not everyone gets to experience in their lifetime.

If you have any designs on perhaps living in a different country at some point, this is such an important exercise to really get a feel for a place and know if it may be the right place for you to settle.

Pam connected with Lisbon in a way that touched her heart. She describes it as “a feeling of home”. She got to know some of the entrepreneurial community through the coworking space we enjoyed while there last year, walking all over the city enjoying beautiful tiles, doors and architecture, and taking pictures of the outstanding street art found just about everywhere.

For Linda, she strongly connected with Rome. Everything about it lights up her soul and makes her happy. She loves to chat with the locals over an espresso and practice her Italian, to jump on the subway and head out to the outskirts of town and explore, and to simply walk and enjoy all the beauty that surrounds her.

We would love to learn where it is that you’ve made strong connections. Let us know in the comments below, so we can add to our wanna-go-to places and check them out too.