This post is about my Checklist for Slow Travel Destinations.
Destination Checklist
Slow Travel Destinations must score high on all seven categories of my Destination Checklist.
Ideal Weather ✓
Open Water Swimming ✓
100% Walkable ✓
Keto Friendly Markets ✓
Café Culture ✓
Music & Dancing ✓
Value ✓
Low Score Destinations
I sometimes go to places with low Checklist scores but not for slow travel. These trips are either short sightseeing excursions to natural and cultural wonders or pitstops in the United States for medical, dental, legal and financial reasons. High Checklist scores are absolute requirements for all of my slow travel destinations.
Not On Checklist
Noticeably absent from the Checklist are things I have no interest in, need for or experience with.
Low Cost living
Mobile Income
Instagrammable
Passport Bro Dating
Value ≠ Low Cost Living
You may be disappointed that low cost living is not on my Checklist. Locations that meet my requirements are among the most desirable, not cheapest, places in the world to live.
Value is on my Checklist because destinations may score well in all other six categories but have more or less Value depending on how expensive they are.
Value = Quality ➗ Cost
There are place in the United States that score high in all Checklist categories except Value. For examples, South Beach Miami and Honolulu’s Ala Moana neighborhood score well in all Checklist categories except Value because they are crazy expensive. I am unaware of any place in the United States with high scores in all seven Checklist categories. There are many places outside of the United States that score high in all Checklist categories including Value because they cost much less than U.S. destinations.
See my Destination Value post for a quick and easy way to determine relative values of slow travel destinations.
My Destination Checklist is a vital part of a slow travel lifestyle that works well for me in my late seventies. I am confident it will continue working well into the future.
See my other posts for in-depth explanations of all seven categories on my Destination Checklist.
Please submit questions, comments and suggestions about slow travel and nomad living beyond 70.
This post is about choosing slow travel destinations with Ideal Weather, the first category on my Destination Checklist.
Other Checklist Categories Affected By Weather
Require Ideal Weather
Open Water Swimming
100% Walkable
Affected By Weather
Café Culture
Music & Dance
Open Water Swimming Weather
Open Water Swimming Weather data are the only weather data need to choose slow travel destinations because they are the most restrictive weather requirements of all categories on the Destination Checklist.
Water Temperature
65 °F (18 °C) to 85 °F (29 °C).
Minimal Rainfall
Less than 2 in (5 cm) per month.
Only Weather Data Needed
Onshore and offshore weather conditions of large bodies of water are highly correlated. Destinations with suitable offshore swimming weather will invariably have ideal onshore weather for walking and outdoor café culture, music and dancing. Water temperature and rainfall are the only data needed to determine if and when locations have ideal weather.
Weatherspark.com
Water temperature and rainfall are the only weather data needed to choose slow travel destinations.
These are Weatherspark data for two slow travel destinations: Sámara, Costa Rica and Makarska, Croatia.
Water Temperature Windows
Sámara’s water temperature is swimmable all year but Makarska’s water temperature window is late May to early November.
Rainfall Windows
Sàmara’s rainfall window is more restrictive than its water temperature window. Sámara has minimal rainfall from late November through April. Makarska’s rainfall window is mid-May through August.
Ideal Weather Windows
Sámara and Makarska’s Ideal Weather windows are on opposite ends of the calendar. Croatia is a Schengen zone country that grants tourist visas for 90 of every 180 days. The best 90 days for Makarska would be from around the first of June to near the end of August. Costa Rica’s 180-day tourist visa is indefinitely renewal with border runs. There are no visa limitations to visiting Sámara during its five months of Ideal Weather between late November through April.
Makarsaka
Water Temperature – late May to early November
Minimal Rainfall – mid May through August
90-day visa
Best time to visit – June 1 to August 30
Sámara
Water Temperature – all year
Minimal Rainfall – late November through April
No visa restrictions
Best time to visit – December 1 to April 30
Possible Slow Travel Itinerary
Slow travel to just two destinations, Sámara and Makarska, results in eight months per year of Ideal Weather. The other four months can be filled with other ideal weather destinations, sightseeing and adventure excursions or U.S. pitstops for medical, dental, legal and financial reasons.
Ideal Weather is a vital part of a slow travel lifestyle that works well for me in my late seventies. I am confident it will continue working well into the future.
In other posts, I present in-depth explanations of the other six categories on my destination checklist.
Please submit questions, comments and suggestions about slow travel and nomad living beyond 70.
This post is about choosing slow travel destinations with good Open Water Swimming.
Open Water Swimming is the most restrictive category on my Destination Checklist.
Open Water Swimming Requirements
Ideal Weather
100% Walkable
Natural Features
Human Activities
No Go For Open Water Swimming
Not Ideal Weather
Water Temperature
Less than 65 °F (18 °C)
Greater than 85 °F (29 °C)
Rainfall
More than 2 in (5 cm) per month
Not 100% Walkable
Water Temperature limits are my comfort zone for swimming. Water Temperature, Rainfall and 100% Walkable are easily to research (see Ideal Weather and 100% Walkable posts).
Rain Is Bad For Open Water Swimming
Natural Rainwater Runoff
mud & debris
human effluent
Human Rainwater Drainage
mud & debris
sewage & trash
industrial & agricultural waste
motorway grime
Low rainfall is an absolute requirement for slow travel not because swimming in the rain is necessarily unpleasant or dangerous per se. It is because rainwater runoff from the land flushes natural mud and debris along with raw sewage, trash, motorway grime, industrial and agricultural waste directly into swimming areas. This is especially true in developing countries that have inadequate infrastructures for sewage treatment, trash removal, storm sewers and drainage to handle runoff from the land. Rainwater runoff is a routine and ignored fact of life in developing countries.
Some of the world’s finest swimming beaches found in highly developed countries also have problems related to rainfall. For example, Honolulu’s beaches are closed to the public during rare periods of extreme rainfall that overwhelm waste treatment and drainage infrastructure. It is not worth the risk to ever slow travel anywhere during rainy seasons.
Excessive Rainfall is easily to lookup and avoid (see Ideal Weather post).
Natural Features Bad For Swimming
Rainwater Runoff (see Rain above)
Estuaries, Swamps & Lagoons
shallow, strong currents
trap trash, pollution & runoff
Unsafe Entry & Exit Points
High Surf, Chop & Rip Currents
Seaweed
Dangerous & Unpleasant Sea-Life
Determining Natural Features and Human Activities bad for Open Water Swimming is more difficult than looking up Ideal Weather conditions and determining 100% Walkability.
Natural rainwater runoff is an obvious and easily problem to avoid. Reasons may not be as obvious for avoiding other natural features. An example is Mauritius’ well known Flic ’en Flac beach. The beach looks great but the designated swimming area is a narrow shallow channel along the shore of the lagoon behind a barrier reef. Signs forbidding swimming outside the designated zone are enforced by coast guard patrol boats. There are strong currents over sharp coral and sea urchin spines outside of the zone. Flic ‘en Flac is not good for Open Water Swimming and is therefore not a place I would slow travel to.
In other posts I discuss potential slow travel destinations with natural features that are either good or bad for Open Water Swimming.
Human Activities Bad For Swimming
Land Drainage (see Rain above)
Direct Pollution
boat discharges
seafood processing
aquaculture
Watercraft
power boats, jet skis, sailboards, etc
no swimming-only zones
Chumming Sea Life
attracts sea life for tourist viewing
Land drainage is an obvious and easy problem to avoid. Reasons may not be as obvious for avoiding other human activities. For example, local tour guides often chum patches of water with food that attracts sea-life for tourists to view. It seems relatively harmless at first glance but it can exacerbate a natural problem. Chummed sea-life associate humans with food and approach swimmers looking for a free lunch. Observing sea-life while swimming can be a positive experience when the animals are going about their natural business. It becomes unpleasant and dangerous when they see humans as a source of food and aggressively pursue, interfere with and bite swimmers.
Please see other posts where I discuss potential slow travel destinations with human activities that are either good or bad for Open Water Swimming.
After looking up weather and walkability, choosing slow travel destinations with good Open Water Swimming is mostly a process of eliminating places with bad natural features and/or human activities. It takes research, a bit of guesswork and boots-on-the-ground exploring.
A big problem in researching Open Water Swimming locations is wading through massive amounts of questionable travel information.
Questionable Swimming Information
YouTube Travel Vlogs
Travel Websites & Blogs
Social Media
Misleading and inaccurate information
Sales pitches and product promotions
Monetized clickbait “travel porn”
Always read between the lines and look between the frames of travel information. Open water swimmability is NOT necessarily indicated by video clips of beautiful beaches. For example, Bali’s famous and photogenic Sanur Beach borders an unswimmably-shallow lagoon behind a barrier reef that fills with muddy polluted runoff every time it rains. It is unsuitable for Open Water Swimming and therefore not a destination I am likely to slow travel to again..
I tolerate places with questionable open water swimming for short sight seeing and exploratory excursions but not for slow travel destinations. For example, time spent on the Ganges River was a profound positive life altering experience for me. However, I did not jump in with the Hindu pilgrimages and go for a swim with cremated human remains. Other boots-on-the-ground Open Water Swimming experiences, good and bad, are detailed in other posts.
Open Water Swimming is a vital part of a slow travel lifestyle that works well for me in my late seventies. I am confident it will continue working well into the future.
In other posts, I present in-depth explanations of the other six categories on my destination checklist.
Please submit questions, comments and suggestions about slow travel and nomad living beyond 70.
This post is about choosing 100% Walkable slow travel destinations.
100% Walkable is one of seven categories on my Destination Checklist.
100% WalkabilityRequirements
Distances To Essentials
Elevation Changes
Pedestrian Friendliness
Essentials must be within walking distance of each other.
Public Transit Hubs
Accommodations
Grocery Stores
Swimming Beaches
Mapping Tools are used to locate Essentials.
Web Browsers
Search and locate essentials
Accommodation Aggregators
Airbnb.com
Booking.com
Mapping & Navigation Apps
Google Earth Pro
Maps.me
Google Earth Pro screenshot showing Essentials within 500 meters (0.3 miles) of an accommodation in Makarska, Croatia.
Essentials within 500 meters (0.3 miles) of an accommodation in Makarska, Croatia.
A typical day’s walk to the beach for a swim followed by grocery shopping on the way home. The total walking distance is 1.4 km (0.9 mi).
Over mostly flat ground.
Pedestrian Friendliness is not as easy to research as locating essentials on Google Maps.
Pedestrian Friendliness
Pedestrian-Only Walkways
Even Footage
Pedestrian Right-Of-Way
Traffic Controls
Crime-Free
Hassle-Free
Night Lighting.
Pedestrian Friendliness is rare in much of our auto-centric world. In the United States it is a luxury found only in a few affluent locations like Miami’s South Beach and Honolulu’s Ala Moana neighborhood. The same is true for parts of other highly developed countries including Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Developing countries often have worse Pedestrian Friendliness than the highly developed countries mention above. Developing countries prioritize motor vehicle infrastructure over potable tap water, sewage treatment and pollution control. Sidewalks are not even on their radars. Large western-style shopping malls don’t count as pedestrian friendly. They may have miles of perfectly walkable interior corridors but outside is a different story.
Pedestrian Friendliness often goes hand in hand with good public transportation infrastructure. The real stars of both are Japan, United Kingdom and Europe. The only caveats are elevation changes in hilly cities like Lisbon and smooth surfaces everywhere that can be slippery when wet. Both are ruled out by two other categories on my Destination Checklist. Ideal Weather excludes rain and Open Water Swimming is done from flat shorlines. Beach towns in Japan, United Kingdom and Europe are safe bets for 100% Walkability but only Southern Europe has Ideal Weather windows June through October.
What about Walkability at other times and places? It takes research, a bit of guesswork and boots-on-the-ground exploring.
A big problem in researching Walkability is wading through massive amounts of questionable travel information. The few good sources of information about Walkability are drowned in a sea of questionable information.
Questionable Walkability Information
Questionable Sources
YouTube Travel Vlogs
Travel Websites and Blogs
Social Media
Questionable Information
Often misleading and inaccurate
Sales pitches and product promotions
Monetized clickbait “travel porn”
You have to read between the lines and look between the frames.
Pedestrian Friendliness is NOT indicated by video clips of walking in streets with motor traffic, driving around on motor scooters, riding in tuk tuks, mall walking and motor traffic that does not stop for pedestrians. Pedestrian Friendlies is NOT indicated by warnings about pick pockets, aggressive street people and horror stories of sever injuries from falls caused by poor footage.
I tolerate places with questionable Walkability for short sight seeing and exploratory excursions but not for slow travel destinations. For example, a month spent in Rio de Janeiro for Carnaval was a profound positive life altering experience for me. However, crime and aggressive street people diminish Rio’s Walkability score to zero and rule it out as a slow travel destination. Rio’s crowded, dangerous and polluted beaches don’t help.
Other boots-on-the-ground exploring have yielded different outcomes for finding 100% Walkable slow travel destinations. Tamarindo and Sámara looked like two promising beach towns in Costa Rica. I explored each for a month. For me, Tamarindo is a barely walkable spring-breaker hell scape. On the other hand, Sámara is a very walkable and pleasant slow travel destination during Costa Rica’s dry season. Other boots-on-the-ground Walkability experiences, good and bad, are detailed in other posts.
Choosing 100% Walkable destinations is a vital part of a slow-travel lifestyle that works well for me in my late seventies. I am confident it will continue working well into the future.
In other posts, I present in-depth explanations of the other six categories on my destination checklist.
Please submit questions, comments and suggestions about slow travel and nomad living beyond 70.
This post is about choosing slow travel destinations with Keto Friendly Markets.
Keto Friendly Markets is one of seven categories on my Destination Checklist.
Keto Friendly Markets became an absolute necessity at the age of 76 when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I was miserably obese and every inch of my body was racked by debilitating inflammation. I began experimenting with a low carbohydrate and intermittent fasting diets sourced from Keto Friendly Markets. My health rapidly improved.
Everyone’s health and approach to health care and diet are unique. There are many types of dietary diseases and treatments. I am fortunate to not suffer from alcoholism, lactose intolerance, celiac disease, nut allergies or any of the many other types of metabolic and immunologic diseases related to diet. My body simply cannot tolerate dietary sugars and starches. I am fortunate that there is a simple cure – not eating sugars and starches. I am fortunate that carbohydrates are not essential nutrients. I am fortunate there are no risks and great benefits from not eating sugars and starches just as there are no risks and great benefits to not consuming alcohol for alcoholics, gluten for celiac disease and so forth.
These are many names and definitions for low carbohydrate diets and intermittent fasting. I just say my diet is OMAD Keto. OMAD stands for one meal a day (every 24 hours). Keto is short for ketogenic which I define as a caloric content of 70 to 80% fat, 10 to 20% protein and 5 to 10% carbohydrates. Most of the fat and protein are animal sourced from fish, butter, cheese, chicken (skin on), pork, beef, and eggs. Major exceptions are fat from olive oil and avocados. Carbohydrates are mostly fiber from non-starchy and non-sugary plants like broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, cabbage, peppers, avocados and some types of nuts.
I prepare nearly every meal and rarely eat out because I am a far better cook than most restaurants whose food is universally unhealthy and expensive. My cooking ingredients are sourced from Keto Friendly Markets that I define as having abundant varieties of high quality animal products, olive oil and non-starchy vegetables. I always book slow travel accommodations with adequate cooking facilities that are within easy walking distance of Keto Friendly Markets.
My OMAD keto diet sourced from Keto Friendly Markets is a vital part of a slow travel lifestyle that works well for me in my late seventies. I am confident it will continue working well into the future.
In other posts, I present in-depth explanations of the other six categories on my Destination Checklist.
Please submit questions, comments and suggestions about slow travel and nomad living beyond 70.
This post is about a quick and easy way to calculate and compare values of slow travel destinations. Value is the last category on my Destination Checklist.
This post is about evaluation of slow travel Destination Value which is one of seven categories on my Destination Checklist.
Let’s agree that:
Destination Value = Quality ➗ Cost
The quality part of the equation is a subjective summation of all Destination Checklist categories except Value. Only destinations of similar high quality are considered for slow travel.
Therefore: Destination Value ≈ Cost
The only cost data needed are high-season monthly rental rates because they are by far the largest expense for slow travelers.
Therefore: Destination Value ≈ Monthly Rent
High-season rental rates are easy to find and compare at online rental aggregators like Airbnb and Booking.com. For example, I reserved a high-season rental in Costa Rica that scored high on all categories of my Destination Checklist. I compared this to available rentals for a similar high-season period in Honolulu, HI. There were acceptable accommodations in Honolulu but they started at 2.5 times the Costa Rican rental rate. Costa Rica’s lower rent makes it a better Value than Honolulu for a slow travel destination.
Rental rates overshadow all other slow travel costs like airfare and food. High-season monthly rental rates are the only data necessary to determine Destination Value. I am unaware of any destination in United States with high enough Value for me to slow travel to. There are many places outside of the United States that score high in all Checklist categories including Value.
Plan Ahead
Locations with high Destination Checklist scores are very desirable during Ideal Weather windows that span high tourist seasons and shoulder months immediately before and after. Comparing rents and making reservations must be done well in advance of high-season to insure there are lots of vacancies to choose from. I compare rents and book accommodations at least six months in advance of anticipated arrival dates. Booking late or after arrival does not work well for me.
Choosing high Value destinations is a vital part of a slow-travel lifestyle that works well for me in my late seventies. I am confident it will continue working well into the future.
See my other posts for in-depth explanations of the all seven categories on my Destination Checklist.
Please submit questions, comments and suggestions about slow travel and nomad living beyond 70.
