Slow Down

There are many growing trends in travel.  One of my favorites is growing out of the Slow Movement.  Remember the old days of travel?  The hectic pace?  Back in the 1960's Americans took whirlwind tours of Europe that featured a lot of "drive-by" sightseeing and absolutely no connection to place.

One of the defining elements of slow travel is the opportunity to become part of local life and to connect to a place and its people. Slow travel is also about connection to culture.

An example:  I just booked a mother and daughter into a place in Italy for a week long cooking immersion.  They will stay in a lovely place, where they will pick produce with the owner from her garden, visit local markets, and learn the traditional methods of regional cooking.  "Slow down to see the world" is the motto of Butterfield & Robinson, one of the premier operators of walking and biking tours throughout the world.  Another example is volunteer tourism - similar to the Uganda trip I'm currently developing for Aid Africa.

What would be your dream for slow travel?  What would you do?  I'd love to hear from you.

Uganda Volunteer Opportunity

I have an opportunity to create a Volunteer Vacation with a group, Aid Africa.  We're planning a trip for August, 2011 and perhaps twice a year after that.  Not all work, because all work and no play makes for exhaustion - the beginning of the trip will go to Jinja,  which is the location of the Source of the White Nile.

The heart of the trip will be about 6 days at Aid Africa's center in Gulu - visiting villages, distributing trees, building stoves, dropping shoes donated by a local Montrose California Running Store, and a bit more. 


We will do some game viewing, of course, because it's Africa after all - and for you birders, Uganda has more bird species per capita than anywhere else - like this beautiful Crested Crane, the national bird:

And there is the opportunity to extend your visit by going to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to observe the Gorillas.  Rates to be advised, dates to be advised, but please comment here if you are interested in signing up for this amazing trip!