4 Myths About a Slow Travel Lifestyle that Most People Don't Know

The slow travel lifestyle is popular, but there are still a lot of myths out there about how it works and what's involved. We get lots of people thinking that we're always on vacation or that we must be spending tons of money traveling to exotic places. But this isn't really what slow travel is about. In this video, we go through 4 myths about the slow travel lifestyle in early retirement that most people don't know.
#slowtravel #earlyretirement #retirementtravel

[@unwrittensymp]

Slow traveler here 🙋🏾‍♀️ fully agree and appreciate your take on the reality of this lifestyle! I’m not on vacation 🤦🏾‍♀️the commentary I receive is ridiculous 🤣

[@thomasfoldes]

We have slow traveled for a while now. While hard to accept at first, you need slow days- it’s okay to be board or just take a “zero” some days. If it’s all go, you’ll burn out, if it’s too slow/boring, you will not be happy. As a couple, you have to embrace finding a travel and weekly living rhythm. That rhythm is where travel, living like a local, and having new experiences find a balance. We’ve been at it for two years and have too adjust for that with each region and country. Don’t be discouraged by it or avoid it, it’s just a part of the adventure. 5:26

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

It does feel funny at first to spend some days just lounging around the apartment and doing a quick run to the cafe across the street instead of going out and exploring the fantastic place you’re in. But like you said, these days are important and you need to find balance. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[@fdm2155]

I was just telling someone that I spent 5 weeks in Medellin, Colombia last year. Rented a 2bdrm/2bath apartment in a great area of Laureles for under $1,100. My sister joined me for one week. A friend joined for another. They each chipped in, cutting my rental cost to about $750 for the month! I think my airfare was similar. I made friends who live there full time. So I didn't do a ton of touristy things. Spent more time hanging out at local spots with new friends instead. Yeah before, I did the same thing in Mexico.

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

Amazing!

[@HomeARoam]

Great Mythbusting! 😀 A much better way to travel, for sure. Not everyone can do it, but it's a beautiful thing when you're able to... 😀

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

Thanks!

[@dave.wendy.wander]

Just found your channel and subscribed. Enjoyed the breakdown, particularly as we're about to embark on our own slower travel adventures.

[@LesBleusvoyagent]

Well explained! We are slow travelers too from Montreal and we get the same remarks all the time! ✌🏻✈️🌏 Just subscribed to your channel 😀

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

Great to hear from you’ Welcome to the channel!

[@Zipppstr]

Hi Chris And Emilie, hope you're both doing well! I've been retired for almost 2 years, I love the freedom and my wife and I have traveled in the U.S. and Europe with more destinations on the agenda in 2025. If you wouldn't mind, could you share more about the digital nomad style work you do?

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

That sounds fabulous! Glad you’re enjoying retirement life. Our careers were in the software/tech space so we do a bit of contract work now related to that. It’s work that can be done from anywhere in the world (if you don’t mind a 5am meeting once in a while) and it gives us a lot of flexibility.

[@Zipppstr]

@@ChrisAndEmilie Hey there, thank you for your message and the additional info! You're both blessed to have skills that enable that type of work flexibility. I was in sales for 30+ years and while I don't miss the office, the commute and difficult customers (at times), I do miss making money and the challenge of building a portfolio. Trying to find something that's low-stress, not too much effort, has some flexibility, but provides a decent ROI. Either it's a pipe dream, or I'll figure it out eventually, or perhaps I'll lose interest in the possibilities the longer I'm retired. We'll see. Hope you both have a wonderful holiday season!

[@johnkeith1964]

We have a similar approach. We travel 6-8 months a year and return to our home base near Seattle for the summer and end of year holidays. On our travels we volunteer about 50% of the time supporting conservation efforts in Oceania. This summer we are expanding to include the UK. We too would go crazy just sitting on the beach or being somewhere just because it is inexpensive. We pretty much have the same routine at our home base as our travel locations.

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

That sounds great! Thanks for sharing what's working best for you.

[@maryanncraft4044]

I would like to point out that when you first start to slow travel, it is perfectly normal to have a "shut down" time period after you first start traveling. I shut down for 6 weeks after my third country. By shut down, I mean I could not travel, I just ate, went to the mall, read books and just did normal things I would do if I was at home. I did not understand what was happening at the time, but after talking to other travelers, I found it is a fairly common experience that people do not talk about. I have done slow travel several times in different parts of the world, but it only happened on my first trip. So, if it happens to you, do not worry you will get up and go again.

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

Thanks for sharing. We often find ourselves spending time staying around the apartment or within a few blocks of it. For us, it's usually a day or two each week, but I can understand how it could be longer too.

[@tom5ironman]

Love this informative video- straight to the point. We are planning to do this in 2026 . I have two questions: 1) do you buy travel insurance and what type ? 2) which onward ticket company do you use ?

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

We’re Canadian so we buy a multi-trip insurance that works whenever we leave the province for a full year. For onward tickets, we typically buy a refundable ticket if we’re not sure of our next destination (though be careful as some airlines have complicated refund policies). We usually have an idea of what country we want to go to next so we usually use the ticket we have. And we’ve only had a problem once when we tried to change it. Though we hear can they work well, we don’t like the idea of buying a “fake” onward ticket.

[@RandyTimeTraveler]

Very well said even though we have not started our slow travel. We want to start within the next year and most will be done in SE Asia, staying from a few days to a few weeks at each location based upon the stay length of the tourist visa for that particular country. In Asia, a $15-$25 hotel room is as nice as a $100 hotel room in the U.S. Local food is very cheap and we are old so, we do not eat much ! Ha Ha Transportation is abundant and cheap in all countries and even a rental scooter is about $5/day. Yep, can not wait to get going. Perpetual slow vacation forever !

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

Exactly! We hope you have a great time in SE Asia. We’re aiming for that part of the world next year as well.

[@dotted8-]

I’m in the 7-30 day mode of travel and usually am hard-booked out a month or two into the future. Currently in BA and judging from your clips, will be following in your footsteps to a lot of places in SA.

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

We spent the last few years going around South America. Peru and northern Argentina were some of our favs. Hope you have a great time!

[@othandmark]

Great overview! I wouldn't say that our travel style so far would qualify as slow, but it's great to have this perspective in case things evolve that way. I kind of like the idea of having more time to familiarize myself with the places we're visiting.

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

Thanks! Slow travel has worked out really well for us. We do vary it up sometimes and switch up the duration depending on what we want to do. Or sometimes we keep a place as a base and do a few short overnight trips from there.

[@othandmark]

@@ChrisAndEmilie That makes sense!

[@andrewrobinson2565]

What sort of projects do you take on. We're going to slow travel for our gogo years when we retire next year, but would be interested to know how you make it work for you. +1 (subscribed) 👍

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

Our projects vary quite a bit. Our careers were in the software/tech industry so we still do some contract work in that space. We're volunteer emergency management responders with a humanitarian organization which has given us a lot of purpose. We also have learning goals with languages, digital projects,.... the list is too long 😂

[@lizrennick]

Just found your channel. Thanks for sharing! I’m about to start the slow travel lifestyle in a few months. When you say “onward ticket,” do you mean that you have your plane ticket to the next country? So you plan that much out? And, when you buy that ticket you decide on the place you’ll be in after?

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

An onward ticket is a way of proving to the immigration officer that you have plans to leave the country before your visa or allowed time in the country expires. The ticket can be a fully refundable plane ticket. In our experience it’s rare to be asked, but if you are asked and you don’t have something to show it can end up being a big pain. It doesn’t really require that much planning. We just get a ticket to the next country we want to go to and we can adjust the dates later if we need to (as long as we aren’t breaking our allowed time of the country we’re in). We hope you have a great start to your slow travel lifestyle!

[@lizrennick]

@ thanks!

[@izzytoons]

So, are you renting Airbnb's or VRBO accomodations? If not, how are you finding one-month apartments? And how are they inexpensive? Do you only travel in places like Mexico, central and south America, and Southeast Asia, or are you able to travel inexpensively in Europe? We focused like lazers on slow travel in Europe, and doing so mostly in second-tier cities. I mean, we will pop in to London, Paris, Rome, and Venice, etc., as we have many times as touristes in the past. But we're looking more at York, Angers, Turin, etc., this time around. But it doesn't look so cheap to me. $10K/mo. seems like a bare minimum.

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

We did an entire video on how we find accommodations, that you can check out here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eYa0nJihptGnY6c We've been able to find reasonably priced in the places you mentioned, including Europe, but like you said, it helps if you go to places that are off the main tourist routes. We don't spend anywhere near $10k/month.

[@malcolmnicoll1165]

As a senior citizen who wants to slow travel, what are some of your favourite places where one can live on around $1200 USD per month?

[@ChrisAndEmilie]

Peru was one of our favourite places and there's lots of great food and amazing things to do there. Check out some of our videos on Peru, including this one on Arequipa: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l5DWoYyaedWCorM

[@malcolmnicoll1165]

@ thanks…I’ll check it out.