What does slow travel actually mean?
Travelling less far, less often and for longer, with fewer destinations per trip — an approach that emerged partly as a response to the environmental cost of flying and partly as a reaction against itineraries that amount to a checklist.
The principles, as generally described:
Fewer destinations, more time in each. Rather than five cities in ten days, one place for ten days.
Surface transport where practical — rail, coach, ferry — which produces a fraction of the emissions of flying and is a substantially different experience, since the journey forms part of the trip rather than being an interruption of it.
Staying in one place long enough to develop routine, which is where the difference actually lies: using the same shop, recognising people, seeing a place function rather than perform.
Local accommodation, food and transport, keeping more of the spending in the destination.
Fewer, longer trips rather than frequent short breaks — which is where the environmental gain principally comes from, since the emissions of a journey are largely fixed regardless of how long you stay.
The environmental arithmetic. Aviation is the dominant component of most travellers' footprint, and short-haul flights are disproportionately costly per kilometre because take-off and climb consume a large share of the fuel. Replacing several short breaks with one longer trip reduces emissions considerably, and substituting rail for short-haul flights reduces them dramatically.
What makes it practical or not:
Time is the constraint, and it is a real one. Slow travel is substantially easier for people with flexible work or long holidays, and the approach is sometimes criticised as a preference available mainly to those who can afford the time.
Cost. Rail is frequently more expensive than budget flights over the same route, which is a policy failure rather than a market truth — aviation fuel is untaxed in ways rail energy is not.
Overtourism pressure is reduced where visitors disperse and stay longer, though concentrated long stays can raise housing pressure instead.
The overlapping ideas: flight-free travel, workations, and "staycation" — though the last has drifted to mean any domestic holiday.