The Backlash Against the 10-Cities-in-7-Days Trip
For years, travel culture glorified the packed itinerary — passport stamps, landmark selfies, and a relentless race to tick destinations off a bucket list. But something has shifted. Across social media platforms, a quieter, more intentional approach to travel is having its moment: slow travel.
The hashtag and its associated content have surged in popularity, with travelers sharing experiences of spending weeks — not days — in a single city or region, renting apartments instead of booking hotels, and prioritizing depth over breadth.
What Is Slow Travel, Exactly?
Slow travel isn't just about moving at a leisurely pace. It's a philosophy that emphasizes:
- Staying in one place long enough to develop a genuine feel for local life
- Choosing locally owned accommodation, restaurants, and experiences over tourist-facing chains
- Reducing the environmental footprint of travel by taking fewer, longer trips
- Allowing for unplanned moments rather than living by a rigid schedule
Why Is It Trending Now?
Several forces are converging to make slow travel particularly appealing right now:
- Remote Work Flexibility: The normalization of remote and hybrid work means more people can work from anywhere for extended periods — turning a vacation into a "workation" or even a months-long stay abroad.
- Burnout Culture Fatigue: After years of hustle culture dominating conversations, many people are consciously choosing rest and intentionality over productivity and speed in all areas of life, including how they vacation.
- Overtourism Awareness: High-profile stories about destinations overwhelmed by visitor numbers have made some travelers more conscious of their impact and more eager to visit places in a less extractive way.
- Cost Efficiency: Counterintuitively, slow travel can be cheaper. Renting an apartment for a month often costs less per night than a hotel, and cooking locally sourced food beats eating every meal at tourist-priced restaurants.
Destinations Leading the Slow Travel Conversation
Certain destinations keep appearing in slow travel content — places with affordable long-stay accommodation, reliable infrastructure for remote workers, and rich local culture to immerse oneself in. Cities and regions across Southern Europe, Southeast Asia, and parts of Latin America are regularly mentioned as slow travel favorites.
Is It Right for You?
Slow travel isn't for every trip or every traveler. School schedules, limited annual leave, and budget constraints mean that for many people, shorter trips will remain the norm. But even borrowing elements of the slow travel mindset — spending an extra day in one city, skipping one overhyped attraction in favor of wandering a neighborhood — can meaningfully change the quality of a travel experience.
The trend is less about following a specific rule and more about asking a different question before you book: What do I actually want to get out of this trip?