Visiting a place like Costa Rica is a completely different thing than experiencing it. The best way to experience a country is to take the time to immerse yourself in it. If you really want to know Costa Rica, you have to spend time there rubbing elbows with locals and experiencing the ebb and flow of daily life.
Travel is so much more than a bucket list—it’s a way to understand different places, cultures and people, to soak up the atmosphere of where you are. Many people have begun to practice the philosophy of slow travel, spending a month, three months, a year or more, living in a country like Costa Rica.
Here we share the top five benefits of slow travel.
1. You experience more. Pura vida isn’t a great two weeks at the beach; it’s the pace of daily life in some of the world’s most extraordinary and diverse biospheres. As small a country as it is, Costa Rica is incredibly diverse geologically, biologically and culturally. It’s worth the time it takes to explore it more thoroughly.
2. It’s about pacing. Instead of hopping off one tour bus onto another or packing each day with back-to-back activities, you’ll have more time at each place you do visit—a week for two in Los Sueños Resort can really give you the opportunity to explore your surroundings. With slow travel, you can get a late start, come home when you’re ready or wait for another day.
3. The rush gets left behind with rush hour. Hasty travel can be akin to the fast pace of life back home, which is invariably one of the primary reasons we vacation. Whirlwind vacations defeat the purpose of rest and relaxation, and can be equally as stressful as the daily 9 to 5; paradise is meant to be savored.
4. Slow travel can be much easier on the environment than other types of travel. Rushing from destination to destination on your travels can be a major contributor to global warming and environmental damage; when staying in a place like Los Sueños, you can take advantage of the use of golf carts and your own two feet to get around. Even traveling by car becomes less damaging to the environment when you’re only driving short distances. I don’t know about you, but my own spirit always benefits from doing my part to care for our planet.
5. You broaden your horizons. As you get to know your neighbors, the clerk at the grocery store or the kids down the street, you’ll see different ways of looking at life and resolving life’s little problems. While the pace of slow travel may be leisurely and laid-back, getting up close and personal with a new culture is much more challenging than just breezing through the major tourist sites. Part of the reward of slow travel is overcoming language barriers, differences in customs and other potential stumbling blocks to make connections with the new people you meet.
Instead of settling for two jam-packed weeks skimming the surface of all that Costa Rica has to offer, book a vacation rental and give yourself a month or two or more actually living la pura vida.