I’ve taken the flight free pledge for 2021 because I believe there are so many amazing experiences gained by travelling slowly through the world instead of flying over it.
Committing to another year without flying gives me and my family a chance to immerse ourselves in the joys of slow travel.
Slow travel is in my bones: I’ve never owned a car and for the last year I’ve been building Byway Travel to help others experience amazing slow travel holidays without them having to put a lot of time into researching places to go or experiences to build in along the way.
There are so many gems away from the beaten path and the common tourist trails that we discover when we give ourselves time to slow down, savour and explore. There are often spontaneous opportunities thrown up by grounded travel, and there’s more diversity of landscapes, histories, foods, traditions and experiences here in the UK than many people realise.
“There are so many gems away from the beaten path and the common tourist trails that we discover when we give ourselves time to slow down, savour and explore.”
It’s brilliantly easy to get to the continent by train, and there are wonderful places to pause in as you travel through. While I don’t know whether we will be able to do too much European travel this year, slowly is certainly how my family and I will be exploring Europe in 2022.
This year I’ll be travelling with a relaxed schedule and a flexible outlook, building my holidays around joyful journeys by train, bus, boat and bike.
