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Bike Tours — Slow Travel on Two Wheels
Slow travel is abuzz in my thoughts and my email inbox. What is slow travel? A less than 30-minute internet search produced a fairly simple description (paraphrased):
Travelers are encouraged to immerse themselves in a culture or town (big or small). Choosing less structure on their journeys.
One may wonder, visiting a distant overseas location, can that be slow travel?
Yes, it can.
The beginning of your travels and the distance between the next arrival is your gateway. Once arrived in your location of choice, the activities and how you connect one day to the next is the heart of slow travel. Now you made it to Netherlands or Los Angeles. Making the effort to allow your daily activities to unfold, contrary to a series of group tours, reservations, ping ponging from location to location, a holiday cram session, is the opposite of slow travel.
Another name, immersion travel. Slow travel can also involve adventure, hiking, urban trails, and water-based activities such as kayaking, canoeing, and surfing.
An interactive travel experience, slow travel is not for everyone. Nor is bicycling across, through, and around a region. Pedal power is an excellent way to experience slow travel. Cycling need not be a competition. It can be leisurely.
