🐌 What exactly is slow travel?

Slow traveling (with a family!) explained. Plus I fill you in on Pistoia, Italy, and chat about a company that'll do all the hard parts of slow travel for you.

Author

Austin Eldridge
September 27, 2023

Estimated read time: 5 minutes and 22 seconds

Are you curious about the idea of “slow travel”? Do you value traveling with your family and meeting other like-minded families? Consider booking a call with Boundless Life to learn more about setting up a one or three-month long international trip!

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 🇮🇹 Buongiorno from Pistoia, Italy! I’ve managed to write this entire newsletter in the amount of time it takes to get a check after a traditional two-hour-long, three-course Tuscan lunch, so I hope you enjoy it as much as the Tiramisu I just had.

If you’ve noticed this email is coming from the wrong continent, I can answer your first question of the day—No, Mike didn’t find some epic travel hack to fly a few thousand miles overnight…

Rather, my name is Austin, and I’ll be your author for today’s Daily Drop 🙋🏻‍♂️

Today’s newsletter is focused on one of your most popular questions: How do I travel hack with a whole family??

Let’s jump in and see what we can learn:

  • 🙋🏻‍♂️ Piacere di conoscerti - I’m Austin

  • 🐌 Slow Travel 101

  • 🌎 Where in the World Wednesday

  • 🏡 Slow traveling without the stress

🙋🏻‍♂️ Piacere di conoscerti - I’m Austin

Before we get to the good stuff, I want us to get to know each other a little bit.

Behind the scenes, I’ve been pulling the strings at FareDrop for Kara and Nate since July 2020 and Daily Drop since we launched last August.

I have a beautiful wife of 11 years named Magan and three amazing kids: Lilly Ann, David, and Jackson.

Out of the ten folks who work behind the scenes on all things Daily Drop, I’m only one of two brave souls who attempts to travel hack with children 👀.

Oh, and I remain the lone, full-time camping family (at least when Kara and Nate are outside the US). 👇

Despite a rough first experience, I’m also into OneWheels. And yes, that is actually me. And yes, throwing yourself into asphalt at 15mph and breaking your helmet in five places does hurt 🤕

But enough about me (or click here if you’re the curious type) - I want to get to know you, too! So tell me 👇

Do you have any interest in camping topics covered in Daily Drop?

Almost 80% of DD Lounge members own or are interested in owning a van, RV, travel trailer, or fifth wheel. Would you like to see some camping topics inside Daily Drop?

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👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 How many companions do you normally travel with?

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🐌 Slow Travel 101

I had actually never heard the term Slow Travel until recently, but the basic premise is pretty straightforward:

  • Travel somewhere new and establish a home base.

  • Take a day, weekend, or even longer trips to easily accessible places in the region, but have somewhere to come back “home” to.

Slow Travel is essentially the family version of a digital nomad's workcation.

Depending on where you go, you can be fully immersed in a new language and culture and experience travel VERY differently than you do when you’re cramming everything into 7-10 days (while simultaneously fighting off jet-lag 🥱)

Sticking with our food theme, Slow Travel also comes with a secret menu 🤑

By slow traveling, you minimize the number of times you have to pay for the unavoidable expenses and get the most experience for your hard earned cash/points/miles.

If your family is supported by remote work, or you find yourself in the middle of a sabbatical, gap year, etc., then this is a great way to maximize some of your big ticket expenses!

By extending the duration of your trip, you maximize discounts and long haul expenses.

The reality is, finding multiple award seats on a single flight (where you and your young kids are seated together) is hard. In my case its 5x as expensive because, you know, five seats for my crew.

Additionally, you can get HUGE discounts on lodging and car rentals by booking monthly vs. daily or weekly. As an AirBnB Host myself, I know that the platform defaults to 50% off for month long bookings 😳

Do you remember when I said I live in a camper? That's normally true, but right now, my family and I are on our first international trip together and are spending three months in an apartment in Pistoia, Italy! 🇮🇹

Speaking of random Italian towns in the middle of Tuscany…

🌎 Where in the World Wednesday

Today, we’re talking about slow travel in Pistoia, Italy.

First, two rules you need to know:

  1. ☕️ No cappuccino after 12:00 p.m. You can still have coffee, but ask for a latte at your own risk… You’ve been warned. Also, don’t order a latte. Cafes will look at you funny and then bring you a glass of milk 🥛

  2. 🍕No Pizza before lunch (and really before 7:00 p.m.). Wood-fired pizza ovens don’t get lit until the evening, but it’s totally worth the wait.

The city itself dates back to Roman times, and while not nearly as large as Rome or Florence (Firenze for all of you aspiring Italiano speakers), Pistoia is on the larger end of a typical Tuscan town and includes a generous pedestrian zone with 9+ piazzas or squares.

Last weekend, Piazza della Sala was covered in grass and turned into a park for 24 hours. 🤷‍♂️ This weekend there was a MASSIVE Renaissance festival. There seems to always be something fun happening in Pistoia!

Between the pizza, the pasta, and the daily markets, you won’t find yourself hungry 🤤 

And if beverages are more your thing, September is harvest season for the famous Sangiovese grapes used in most Tuscan red wines 🍷

Beyond Pistoia is where things get even more interesting for Slow Travelers:

A 10-minute train ride away lies one of the biggest spa towns in Italy, which happens to also be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Montecatini Alto is the village on top and dates back to medieval times. You can take the funicular to the top that’s been operating since the 1800s!

Hopping on a one-hour train will take you to a town centered on an ancient Roman amphitheater with beautiful cathedrals and towers dating back to the 12th century.

When visiting, you must stroll around the top of the defensive walls that date back to the 2nd century B.C.

Just around the corner from Lucca is the world-famous Leaning Tower (which you can actually climb to the top of!)

Don’t forget to take your mandatory tourist selfie supporting the massive tower with your tiny fingers 😅

Most known for the carnival of Viareggio in February, this seaside town is lined with more Italian lidos (beach clubs) than you can count. Seriously, look at the satellite view for all the meticulously-placed umbrellas 😯

Oh, and did I mention that Florence, Rome, and Cinque Terra are also super easily accessible by train?

🏡 Slow Travel without the Stress

Think you’re ready to try a four-week slow travel getaway to Pistoia? Or perhaps a three-month adventure in Sintra, Portugal 🇵🇹, Syros, Greece 🇬🇷, or Bali, Indonesia 🇮🇩 is more your thing? Excited about the concept but unsure where to even get started?

One thing I haven't told you yet is how we ended up picking Pistoia, Italy as our home for three months.

We’re on week 3 of 12 in Italy with Boundless Life in an amazing 3-bedroom, fully furnished apartment to maximize the 90 days a U.S. citizen can stay in the Schengen Area.

The shortest description I’ve heard of what Boundless offers is a “soft landing” into international travel.

Outside of booking our flights, Boundless literally took care of everything. Here's all that we were responsible for:

  • Fill out a few forms and make a payment

  • (Optionally) attend a webinar to learn about the city and meet the 15 other families we’re now sharing a co-working space and education center with

  • Have our kids’ group interviewed over a Google Meeting to help the Boundless educators get to know them (Did I mention they go to an amazing school from 8:45-3:30 every day???)

  • Join a WhatsApp group and a platform called Mighty Networks

  • Book our flights as mentioned above and hop onboard (and enjoy some airport lounges along the way 😉)

It was really that easy. Boundless Life has taken care of everything else, and I can’t say enough about how easy it’s been to settle into the Italian la dolce vita.

We’re having the trip of a lifetime, and the most stressful thing about our day is deciding what delicious food we want to eat.

It’s hard to keep my job with Kara and Nate and also take a three-hour lunch break each day, but workation, right? 🙃

Just three weeks into our three-month trip, over half of the families here have already booked an additional cohort with Boundless Life (which is about as strong of an endorsement for a company as you can get!).

Have I convinced you yet?? Maybe I’ll get to meet you in our next cohort! 😄

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I hope you’ve enjoyed this family-focused, “slow travel” newsletter (and I hope all of you solo travelers still got something out of it!).

Tomorrow, you’ll be back in Mike’s trusted hands, but I plan on coming back in a few weeks to share some more family travel tips as we adventure to all the places I listed above!

Feel free to hit the reply button and let me know what you thought about today’s newsletter.

Ciao for now!

Austin Eldridge
President, Daily Drop

43.9325° N, 10.9167° E