Slow travel

Part 4: Ten things to take into 2025

Welcome to this 10-part series on 10 things to take into 2025.

Here are the previous parts:
Part 1: Digital tools over digital drugs (Alt: Go at human pace)
Part 2: Go deeper
Part 3: Build your bucket-line community (Alt: Mutual aid for life.)

What are you taking into 2025? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to know.

Paddling a borrowed kayak on timtumili minanya/Derwent River.

Thing #4: Slow travel

You don’t have to go very far to feel a world away.

Slow travel is about ditching planes, slowing down, going deeper (ahem… there’s a theme going on here), making genuine connections, and getting off the beaten track.

The biggie of course is lowering fossil fuel use, but like most climate-action-y things, a bounty of benefits flow your way when you step off the cultural-expectation-treadmill and do things a bit differently.

For example…

Recently, a couple of friends came kayaking with us along with my mum and her partner, as ground crew. We drove just 30 minutes from our home to the campsite, where we camped for 2 nights in glorious weather under an enormous plane tree.

From our tent, it was a 2-minute doddle to swim in the river, which we indulged in on the first balmy evening. The next morning, we lugged the kayaks to the river's edge and set off on a very pleasant day on the water (see evidence in the image above).

It wasn’t adrenaline-raising nor particularly exotic. It was a stretch of the river we often drive past but don’t make the effort to stop and enjoy.

Enjoy it we did. We paddled between 13-15km, mostly with the tide. We chatted our way down and back up the river. We found a rope swing and a very muddy, undesirable spot to stop for lunch.

That night we contributed to the local economy by eating at the pub (this also meant we didn’t have to cook, which made our trip a bunch easier).

Essentially, we had an exceptional time and ticked off all the things one usually wants to get out of traveling:

• it was low budget

• we had an adventure

• it was easy and relaxing

• the company was excellent

All within 30 minutes of our home.

Slow travel. I’m into it.

Here I am being hardcore on a local hill. 😅

We have a few other slow travel ideas to have a go at while the weather is good.

We’re prepping up to bikepack the length of one of the islands near us at Easter (if we’re all physically up for it. One of us is on crutches at the moment, so we’ll see).

There are a few gravel backroads in the southwest, and northeast we’d love to make some cycling day trips of as well.

Here are a few more slow travel ideas I’ve cooked up:

• Ride to the closest campsite to your house (the cool bikepacking kids call this S24O - Sub 24hour Overnight)

• Swat up on forest bathing and get out into the wilds near you

• Take a bus or train somewhere new

• Do a multi-day hike

• Borrow a kayak and paddle in a nearby river (like we did)

• Walk across the length of your city (inspired by the book, Frugal Hedonism)

• Gamify exploring your city by bike using wandrer.earth (I’m obsessed)

• House-sit or pet-sit in a beachside (or other desirable) suburb near you.

• Be a tourist in your own town

• Follow a travel blogger’s or writer’s itinerary around your town or state

• Get a fresh perspective by learning photography as you walk around your area

• Discover new Hipcamps and Wikicamps in your area (we recently stayed in a friend’s tiny-house holiday rental, 25 minutes from home. It was SO relaxing.)

• Give WWOOFing, Workaway, Couch Surfing, or Warm Showers a go.

• Rent a holiday house with some friends and create a themed retreat (I’ve done a ‘Reading Retreat’ with friends and I’m about to head away soon on a ‘Skillshare Summer Retreat’—so excited for it)

Have you been on any fun local trips that you could add to the list?

When I was learning photography I would wander around nipaluna/Hobart with friends, seeing the place anew through my camera.

Annie Raser-Rowland and Adam Grubb in Frugal Hedonism say that travel is mainly about creating a contrast to your everyday life. So, if that’s the starting point, there’s so much opportunity to create contrast if we go slow and keep it local.

Maybe the most important thing to know is what enough looks like for you and kick comparison-itis to the curb because we all know comparison is the thief of joy.

Camping in a community food forest (with permission) on the central north coast.

A privilege check: I don’t have much wanderlust left in the tank, I think I used it all up in my twenties. I don’t desire to travel internationally anymore (apart from Canada again one day maybe, for family connections), so local travel is enough for me right now.

Also, I live in a wonderful small city which is squished between a river, the sea, and an 1100m high mountain. I could do any of those ideas on the list within an hour or less from my house, but I reckon that’s not everyone’s situation. I hope with a bit of modification and imagination, you’ll find some inspiration in that list.

A very sneaky extra note to say that the Radical Postcard Club postcard for March is going to be all about slow travel. So duck over there now and sign up if you LOOOVE slow travel as much as me.

Thank you for reading this installment of Ten things to take into 2025.

Do you have some slow travel plans this year?? Let me know in the comments.

Keep an eye out for the rest of this series coming to your inbox weekly.

This series is a homage to Catie Payne’s awesome Reskillience podcast's '10 Things’ series, in which her guests gather a list of 10 things to inspire a more resilient, skillful future.

Over 10 weeks, I’m jotting down 10 things (habits, ideas, mindset shifts, and gentle reminders) I’m taking into 2025, which is allowing me to sprinkle in all the juicy changes happening for me this year too.