the art of slow travel
lessons from a campervan trip through australia
After Hawaii, I flew directly to Australia with my friend E. We rented a campervan and drove from Sydney to Brisbane over the course of two beautiful weeks.
In typical fashion, E and I flew into Australia without much of a plan. Aside from the dates of our campervan rental, everything else on our trip was up in the air. We didn’t know what route we’d take from Sydney to Brisbane, where we’d stop along the way, or – for that matter – where we’d even sleep the first night.
Lucky for me, E happily went with the flow. We’re both happy-go-lucky types, partial to spontaneity, adventure and a little chaos; for context, I had texted E about going to Australia together only a few weeks before and she responded yes before even confirming it would work with her schedule. E is one of those rare people for whom “magical” is the only way to describe them. I love her for the wonder with which she approaches the world: the magic in everything constantly unfolds before her because she chooses to see it.
Put the two of us together, and we were like two country bumpkins bumbling our way up the eastern coast of Oz with our heads knocked off. Our days in the campervan were beautifully, haphazardly thrown together1. In fact, we had little cell service and often ended up going with recommendations from Edwin, some 60-year-old Australian guy who sat next to me on my flight from Hawaii and steadily stream-of-consciousnessed me recommendations over the course of eleven hours as I tried to sleep. My notes from that flight, taken only because I wanted to be polite, ended up being a surprisingly useful offline resource for picking where to explore each day.
Our trip took us on a slow, meandering route from Sydney, through several national parks in the mountains, back towards the coast for a few days of beach and surf along the famed Gold Coast of Queensland (featuring a Kelly Slater sighting in the waters at Kirra), before ending in Brisbane just north of Surfers Paradise. We spent our last day holding koalas and petting kangaroos at a local wildlife sanctuary (yes, dreams do come true).
The words I would use to describe our Australia trip are slow, magical… flowing. In fact, I had trouble recalling any specific highlights when someone asked at the end of our trip. The lighthouse walk at Byron Bay was incredible, I managed to stammer out, along with a few other run-of-the-mill answers.
I had hesitated because when I thought about it, the highlights of our trip were not what one would expect – or even what I myself had expected. Yes, we had done plenty over the past 2 weeks: hiking to Australia’s tallest waterfall2, surfing world-class breaks in Gold Coast, holding koalas in Brisbane. But to my surprise, my favorite moments emerged not from the things we did, but from the fleeting moments in between:
Mornings in the mountains, waking up to the sound of rain.
Parking next to a beach with the trunk open, watching the evening pass us by.
Driving up the awful mountain roads at Barrington Tops and bickering with E about the number of potholes she (accidentally, supposedly) ran us into.
Getting Chinese takeaway and chasing it with local beers at the Irish pub nearby – right next to revelers out on a Friday night.
Why were these the moments that I remembered most?
The answer came once I realized that I had stumbled upon a new paradigm of traveling in Australia: the art of slow travel.
Slow travel, as its name suggests, centers around slowing down the pace of your travels. But what does that actually mean?
First and foremost, slow travel means rethinking your relationship with time.
Modern consumer culture views travel as a race against the clock: we demand to see as much as possible, in whatever time we have. We pack our itineraries with activities. We rank tour companies based on how efficiently they show us the greatest number of highlights within the shortest amount of time. And with the advent of travel Instagram and TikTok, we often treat travel like a Bingo card – a checklist of sights and activities we scramble to check off and flaunt on social media.
Slow travel asks you to slow it down – to give yourself more time in each place you visit. Instead of packing every square inch of your itinerary, give yourself downtime and breaks in between activities. Instead of bopping frantically from one city to another, consider reducing the number of places you visit and spending a few more days in each place. Allow yourself the pause option on the remote control – and not just the next button we’re so accustomed to.
Eckhardt Tolle (The Power of Now; A New Earth) wrote that “[people] treat the present moment as a stepping stone to the next moment – a means to an end.” In travel, it’s easy to constantly think about the next thing. But the second we slow things down and give the present moment our full attention, we become more mindful of every moment that passes by. We naturally become more focused on the present – the now of each moment.
Which leads us to the second, fundamental part of slow travel: being present. Sit in your thoughts and truly pay attention to your surroundings. Give yourself the space to observe and appreciate everything around you: the local culture, the people, your emotions, and how you fit into this mosaic of life surrounding you.
For as Tolle also said, the present moment is life itself. The present moment is where all the magic happens! Take a few minutes to sit on the street and watch the way the city moves. Strike up a conversation with the person standing next to you in line instead of pulling out your phone. Notice how the trees have not one but three different colors in their leaves; look up at the sky and name the shapes of the clouds.
E and I began to slow travel in Australia because we weren’t rushing to get anywhere. This gave us the time to appreciate the most mundane moments – stopping in the tiny mountain towns we passed; chatting with the lady at the one pie shop we visited three times3; watching the leaves outside flutter and vibrate in the wind.
So why do I remember these passing moments the most when I look back on the trip? In hindsight, the answer is surprisingly clear: it’s because slow travel allowed me to be present and give my full attention to each present moment – however fleeting or seemingly unimportant.
As Jon Kabat-Zinn said, the best way to capture moments is to pay attention.
I don’t think slow travel is an absolute – that all travel should be slow travel. As with all things, it’s about finding the right balance. It can be nice to have a few jam-packed tourist days here and there, where you get a lot done. Travel vacations are often short and warrant some busier days, especially with time and costs in mind. Most people have a limited number of days off from work and have good reason to pack things in.
And I’ll be honest – it’s hard to shift into the slow travel mindset. In many ways, slow travel feels counterintuitive. It asks you to suppress the ingrained habit of filling your time – something society has conditioned in us from an early age. More than that, it requires you to resist FOMO, to be okay with potentially skipping certain highlights, and perhaps hardest of all – to just sit still.
But I’ve learned that slow travel can make traveling a completely different experience – one that’s more purposeful, thoughtful, and eye-opening. When I slow travel, I’m much more observant of and curious about the world around me. I find myself more present in every interaction I have: I’m a better listener and I ask more questions. I’m more curious. And in moments of stillness or boredom, I look inwards and reflect or mull on a thought instead of scrolling on my phone. I end up learning a lot more about myself and discovering more about the world.
I also think I’m happier mentally when I’m slow traveling. The nature of slow travel removes so much of the stress and anxiety of constantly bustling around (where do we buy tickets? what time does this place close? what time does the bus leave?). In Australia, I truly had never been so stress-free on a trip before. And it felt amazing.
Most importantly, slow travel allows me to focus on the journey of traveling rather than the destination(s). Travel is a rollercoaster ride with ups and downs, unexpected surprises and hidden wonders; slow travel allows me to appreciate every single second of it all, and not just the “fun” parts.
So the next time you travel, try giving yourself some room to breathe. Sleep in and enjoy the rain; give yourself time to relax and really take in the view from your hostel or hotel room. Give attention to what’s happening in front of you – but also what’s happening inside your mind. Slow travel might just completely change the kind of experience you have.
To end it with one moment from Australia my mind keeps floating back to:
I woke up to the most comforting sound in the world: rain. It drummed against the metal roof of our campervan, falling in a constant, pacing rhythm that was neither fast nor slow. Tap, tap-tap; tap, tap-tap, tap. Occasionally the wind rustled the branches above the campervan, a gentle creaking that formed a low baritone for our little rainy day symphony. Pure acoustic bliss.
I snuck one arm out from under the covers and peeked through the curtain. Through the inlets of water patterned across the car window I saw grey skies, grey clouds, and then some more grey.
I looked over at E, tucked under the sheets with only her head peeking out. For a second I thought about rousing her out of bed. It was a little after 10am, a time that, by typical travel standards, warranted a scramble out of bed to jumpstart the day.
But what was the point? We had nothing planned for the day, nowhere to be. And I was so darn cozy – like the feeling you get when you wake up on a snowy day, safe and warm under the covers. That’s exactly how I felt, though it was rain not snow outside, and I was tucked under a couple of sleeping bags instead of a comforter.
In some ways, I liked this even better. I smiled to myself and snuggled back to sleep.
In addition to our campervan road trip, I also took a few days to visit family in Melbourne and see my best childhood friend in Sydney! Thank you Jeff/Regina/Dunc and Jeremy/Daph for having us.
Photos taken by yours truly during the drive from Sydney to Brisbane.
A typical day in the campervan:
First and foremost, pick a place for breakfast. This was a very important and laborious process we never rushed, occasionally to our detriment.
Drive towards some general area we had picked out the night before (based on Edwin’s Recs and some hasty scrolling around on Google Maps).
If we passed by a town we liked or a cool-looking patch of grass we’d stop and check it out.
Sightsee, surf, hike, walk around town. Or do nothing and read/nap.
At night we’d head to a campground or drive around until we found a quiet backstreet to park overnight. In hindsight, the sight of our van crawling slowly through the streets at dusk must have been a sight for worried parents…
We later found out it’s actually Australia’s second tallest waterfall…
Meat pies are an Australia delicacy, and safe to say, we fell hard and fast.
the vibes sound immaculate