Slow vs. Fast Travel on Sabbatical: Which is Better?
When it comes to sabbatical travel, there are two common paths. The first, slow travel, features extended stays in one location (often for a month or longer). The second, fast travel, features more brief stays in several locations. When it comes to choosing slow vs. fast travel on sabbatical, it’s important to decide based on your own goals and personal circumstances. Still, understanding the benefits and drawbacks of each travel “style” can allow for a more informed decision.
If you’re planning to travel during your sabbatical, chances are you’ve spent some time dreaming about what that might look like. Maybe you think about all the countries you could travel to in your months away, whether work-related or simply for personal reasons. Or maybe you’re drawn to the idea of settling down in one or two places for an extended period of time.
Before I get too far into weighing slow vs. fast travel on sabbatical, it’s worth pausing for a moment to ask: If you could travel anywhere, for any duration, during your sabbatical, where would you go, and for how long?
Sit with that question for a moment. Notice where your mind goes. Do you think of hopping from one place to another, one to two weeks at a time? Or maybe one home base abroad for six months? Or maybe a few stops, each a month long, followed extended time at home?
I like to start with this question before getting into the benefits and drawbacks of slow vs. fast travel because I think it’s helpful to start from a place of knowing your “ideal” scenario, and then adjusting for reality.
What is “slow” and “fast” travel?
Search “slow travel” and you’ll find all sorts of definitions. For some, it’s simply traveling without rushed itineraries. Others use it to describe a way of traveling sustainably, or immersing themselves in local culture rather than checking the most popular attractions off a list.
For the purposes of this article, here’s how I’m thinking about it. Fast travel is moving every few days (or even every day). Slow travel is staying in one place for a month(-ish) or longer. You’ll notice there’s some in-between left there – if you’re spending one to two weeks in a place, that resembles a moderatetravel pace.
The truth is, the labels themselves really don’t matter. What matters is that you plan your sabbatical travel at a pace that feels aligned with your overall sabbatical goals.
At the end of the day, the slow vs. moderate vs. fast travel labels are just a useful framework for thinking about the travel style shaping your sabbatical experience (and I’ll continue using them here for this purpose).
Fast travel: Exciting and inspiring (and sometimes exhausting)
Fast travel has obvious appeal, especially when you finally have the freedom that comes with a sabbatical. After years of teaching and a calendar packed with meetings and obligations, it’s tempting to want to squeeze in every destination you’ve dreamed about visiting for years.
Sometimes that’s exactly the right choice. If your sabbatical involves giving invited talks, visiting collaborators, or conducting research in several locations, moving frequently may actually help you realize your sabbatical goals.
Outside of work-related sabbatical goals, fast travel can be energizing. You can experience more places, meet more people, and return home with a suitcase full of souvenirs.
The tradeoff is that every move comes with costs: packing (and unpacking), travel (often across time zones), learning a new neighborhood (and basic language, public transport, etc.), and adjusting to another routine. These things add up, and before long you may realize you’re spending as much energy managing logistics as you are enjoying the experience.
Fast travel is fun, until it gets tiring. And, we want to limit feeling tired on sabbatical. For this reason, I recommend balancing fast travel on sabbatical with moderate or slow travel, or with extended time at home between trips.
Moderate travel: Balancing exploration and routine
For many people, traveling by spending one or two weeks in a destination during sabbatical is a comfortable middle ground. You still have the excitement of seeing several places during your sabbatical, but you also have enough time to settle into some form of a routine at each stop.
By settling down for a week or two, you can find your favorite neighborhood cafe, develop a daily routine, and feel a little less like you’re passing through and more like you’re a temporary local.
This pace can work really well if most of your research or creative activity on sabbatical can be done independently and from anywhere. You’re moving slow enough that you can settle down and get some work done in a local cafe for a few days, and then offset that with a leisure day or two before repeating.
Slow travel: Where many sabbaticals become transformative
If you ask me what I recommend for most sabbaticals, it’s this: at some point, slow down.
That doesn’t necessarily mean spending your entire leave in one location. You might begin with a conference, visit collaborators, or take a few weeks to explore somewhere new. But try to build in a stretch (ideally a month or more) where you’re not packing up a suitcase.
Something shifts when you slow down on sabbatical, whether abroad or at home.
For academics especially, a slower pace often creates the mental space that’s surprisingly difficult to find during an ordinary semester. Whether you’re writing a book, analyzing data, planning your next project, or simply recovering from years of constant deadlines, staying put allows your mind to settle.
Ironically, slowing down often helps you get the most out of your work and your travel. You get to know a place deeply, beyond its most popular locations. As you do so, your work often settles into a comfortable pace, allowing you to think more deeply while also experiencing renewal.
Adding in Family and Life Considerations
Pace and work rhythms aside, the reality is that choices about slow vs. fast (vs. moderate) travel on sabbatical often come down to your family and life circumstances.
However, it’s not as easy as saying, “If you’ve got a partner and kids, choose slow travel” or, “Folks without kids can choose any travel style.” There’s no universal rule, mainly because not every family is the same, not every person is the same, and we all have different sabbatical goals and priorities on top of this.
After years of travel on my own and with my family, I’ll offer this: you know what you need.
Some folks with kids will not leave home on sabbatical. Others will move abroad and put their kids in local schools for the semester (or year). And still others will enroll their kids in virtual school. These all have benefits and tradeoffs, and the travel options certainly require careful planning. But you know what you need.
Are you a solo sabbatical traveler? Some solo folks spend their sabbatical flying from one spot to another, living out of a suitcase. Others choose one place to live and slow down, for a truly immersive experience. Others stay home altogether. Again, you know what you need.
It’s possible for anyone to travel at any pace – slow, moderate, or fast – on sabbatical. What matters is considering your own sabbatical priorities in tandem with your own life circumstances, communicating with those involved, and making a decision accordingly.
My recommendation
If it isn’t already clear, I don’t believe there’s a single “right” way to do sabbatical travel pace, just like there’s no ideal sabbatical travel destination.
If your sabbatical goals require you to visit multiple institutions, conduct fieldwork across several sites, or give talks throughout the semester, moving frequently may be unavoidable. Even then, I’d encourage you to find a way to slow down somewhere.
Maybe that’s spending a month at your final destination before heading home. Maybe it’s returning home a few weeks before your sabbatical ends instead of jumping straight back into teaching. Or maybe it’s building in a period with no travel at all, where your only job is to think, write, and enjoy the slower pace of sabbatical.
In my experience, the most meaningful part of any sabbatical or time away isn’t the travel itself, but what the travel opens up for you.
