Slow Travel

BY EVERETT POTTER

“Slow Down to See the World” is what George Butterfield suggested more than 50 years ago, when he was encouraging people to walk or bike when they travelled. It not only became the motto for Butterfield & Robinson, it’s advice that seems timelier than ever now that most of us are moving all too quickly and often frantically through our daily lives.

George may well have been reacting to the “If It’s Tuesday, This Must be Belgium” kind of tourism that was then in vogue, when travellers were more inclined to visit seven cities in as many days, packed into a trip that was like an overweight suitcase.

His genius was counterintuitive, suggesting that instead, the best way to experience Europe was to spend a week in Bordeaux or Tuscany, but not racing from church to museum to monument. The days would be measured by walking or biking and experiencing the outdoors of a country that was foreign to us. It turned out to be a menu for savouring each day, enjoying each meal, treasuring each sip of wine, in the company of young and smart guides and some like-minded travellers.

Those were radical suggestions back then. While they’ve been copied by others over the ensuing years, they’ve rarely been bettered and they remain groundbreaking today. This is travel as a two-part formula. First, Slow Down. It sounds easy, but this may be the toughest suggestion of all. Most of us are not programmed to do that. Everywhere we turn, we’re encouraged to do things faster, quicker and then move on to the next thing. That’s the very antithesis of B&R, which has always advocated two’s: two wheels or two feet. Neither is especially fast. You will, however, slow down as a result.

Everett Potter is the editor of Everett Potter’s Travel Report, a contributor to Forbes, and an expert for National Geographic Expeditions. He focuses on adventure travel, luxury travel, and off-thebeaten-path destinations. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Town & Country, Conde Nast Traveler, Martha Stewart Living and The Robb Report.

The second part of that equation is See the World. You can’t help but see the world if you’re moving slowly, on two wheels or two feet. You will find your day elevated by the sight of wildflowers in a French meadow, or observing the morning sun over a village in Andalucía, or marvelling at a double rainbow in the west of Ireland. When was the last time you spoke with an Italian winemaker, watched a chef create an amazing dish, or enjoyed a private tour of Vienna’s Spanish Riding School?

If we have learned anything these past two years, it’s the virtue of slowing down and smelling the roses. Life passes all too quickly, and too often in a blur. The concept of slowing down has morphed, and now we can do so aided by E-Bikes, or with a focus on wellness, on culture, or our extended families. Many B&R trips now take it a step further and base themselves in one place for a week, albeit a special, luxury-forward, comfortable place. Unpack once and stay longer.

On a B&R trip through Burgundy years ago, I don’t remember my mileage or even the name of the hotels I stayed in. I do recall a long, memorable lunch with George at winemaker Olivier LeFlaive’s landmark restaurant and the crisp, echoing sound of my footsteps on the gravel of a chateau’s cave in Savigny-lès-Beaune. I also remember pausing while walking on a narrow vineyard road to watch the exceptionally slow march of a battalion of Burgundian snails. That was Burgundy for me, and frankly, you can’t get any slower than that.