I did this email interview in April, for Packed Magazine, but it did not get published.
Interview by Paul Scraton, editor of Packed Magazine, a European magazine for independent travellers. With Pauline Kenny, Santa Fe, NM – founder of Slow Travel, slowtrav.com
April 10, 2007
What does “Slow Travel” mean to you?
Slow Travel means staying in vacation rentals and exploring the area close by. Instead of sleeping in two or three different towns in a week, or driving around to see every sight within reach, spend a week in one place in a vacation rental. This lets you slow down your trip and immerse yourself in the local culture.
How did you come to build the Slow Travel website?
In spring 2000, I decided to teach myself web design and figured the best way to learn would be to put up a website, so I needed a topic. We had been traveling in Europe, staying in vacation rentals, since 1988. Back then, finding vacation rentals was not easy, so I kept lots of notes on places we rented and other places that I thought looked good. From this I made a website! And then I made a philosophy to justify the way we travel.
What is important to think about when planning a “Slow Travel” trip?
Figure out where you want to go and find some good looking vacation rentals (read reviews!). Book the vacation rentals first because the good ones are taken six months to a year ahead.
Once in a place, do you have any recommendations for how travellers can delve deeper, and experience more?
Get out and see the village or town where you are based. Choose a favorite café (or tea room in England) and go there every day. Talk to the people in the tourist office, buy those self published guides that someone from the area has written, ask people in the town to recommend restaurants and things to do. Learn some of the local language.
What about people who are short on time…do you have any tips?
You don’t have to do a long trip to do a Slow Travel trip. If you have a week, spend it all in one place and really see that place. On the next trip, go to a different place.
Can you recommend any other resources beyond your site for people interested in the “Slow Travel” movement?
SlowTrav.com is the only site devoted to vacation rentals that is not affiliated with a vacation rental agency. If you can’t find what you need there, try other travel websites and message boards. Anyone who is a traveler can help you decide where to travel to. You then turn it into Slow Travel by staying longer and seeing more.
On to you…what is your main motivation for travelling?
I like to experience different lifestyles and travel gives me that. I can go to England, rent a cottage in a village for a couple of weeks and pretend I am English (not much of a stretch actually, I was conceived on the boat when my parents emigrated from England to Canada). Or I can settle into a house in the Tuscan countryside and pass myself off as … well, as an American visiting Italy.
And can you tell us about your most memorable travel experience?
I love traveling and set up my life so that I can travel a lot. We didn’t have kids and we gave up regular careers so that we would have time and money for travel. In the last 20 years we have traveled a lot. I have about 1,000 most memorable experiences. Watching the sun rise over a stone circle in northern England; standing on a balcony in our Rome apartment watching the New Year’s fireworks; being chased by bulls while walking through a field in the Swiss Alps.
What has travel taught you?
Travel has taught me to be flexible. Also the best place to buy cow bells in Switzerland, is at the hardware store.
What about Europe…where are your favourite places?
I go through country obsessions. For many years, I was obsessed with Italy, and went there once or twice a year, but then I reached the saturation point. My current country obsession is England. We have been going to England for one month each year for the last few years. Now we are thinking of moving there for a year, but to use it as a base for traveling in Europe.
…and where would you be happy to never go again?
Lichtenstein. It is overrated.
If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
Can I pick the season too? Right now, because we are having a cold windy spring day, I want to be in Hawaii, going for a long morning walk. No, England – England in the spring, walking through a meadow of wildflowers. Or France – sitting in a café in a village drinking coffee. July in Switzerland, just getting off a mountain ride, heading off for a hike. June in Italy, in Tuscany in the evening, sitting outside at a small restaurant, having dinner. Santa Fe, in the winter, when it is snowing. New York City, walking through the Village. Oh, wait a minute, the wind stopped, I am fine here.
Is there anything that you never travel without?
My computer. I have a small three pound Sony Vaio that I always bring with me. I can work, post on the message board, post on my blog, organize my photos. And we watch movies on it.
What is the first thing you do when you get home?
After collapsing from jetlag and renewing my bond with my cat, I embrace my washer and dryer with joy, because doing laundry is the worst part of traveling. Some vacation rentals don’t have a washer/dryer, some have those odd one unit things that are both the washer and the dryer and take four hours to do a handful of clothes. If we were in Italy, there was no dryer and we have been wearing t-shirts that are stiff as a board from being dried on the line. I know it sounds very house-wifey of me – but, after greeting the cat, the washer/dryer is what I am happiest to see.
Do you have the next trip planned?
We are doing a long trip this summer. Three weeks in Switzerland, in an apartment in the mountain town of Leysin, near Lake Geneva, to do some hiking. A week in Italy, in a villa near Assisi, with a group of friends. Then three weeks in England, in a cottage in the Cotswolds, to do some more walking and drink tea.
