Everyday we use social media and instant messages: staying in touch and finding out what our friends are up to has never been easier. In all my trips before the pandemic, I would share my stories and posts as soon as I had Wifi. I would take all the pictures from the day and create a beautiful story or edited post by night. I consider myself a slow traveler, meaning that I seek to find a connection to local people, the culture, the food, and nature in my travels.
A trip should educate and have an emotional impact while remaining sustainable for local communities and the environment.
However, Covid-19 allowed me to see that I was too busy taking selfies to find the connection that slow travel strives for.
How to prepare to slow travel offline?
With Covid-19, everything became even more digital and overwhelming. While many enjoyed Tik-Tok, I found it hard to be online every day for work and personal life. The pandemic and constant online world drew me to go offline first and then, travel offline.
However, it is not easy; I would recommend first asking yourself which social media channels you want to keep. Stick to a social media platform that fits your purpose. Then, turn off all notifications; it will allow you to check the phone less often. Try it out for a day, then three days, and then a week.
That is how I started! So after managing two months without Facebook, Twitter, and less Instagram and Whatsapp, I decided to embark on my first offline trip: one week in Holbox, an island in the Riviera Maya with white sand beaches and poor internet.
I will not lie; I took pictures with my phone but did not feel the need to post everything right away. It felt peaceful to sit on the beach with a good book and focus my attention on the feeling of the water on my feet. It was breath-taking to see a sky full of stars with the sound of the waves, a moment that not even the best camera could capture. I had never seen so many stars in my life, not even during the clearest nights in Germany. I did not even feel the need to take a picture. That moment, I knew I was finally slow traveling: I was living that moment through my eyes, through the smell of the ocean and the touch of the sand on my feet. I was being mindful. It was a feeling that my Instagram story could never capture.
I ate the famous lobster pizza and got sick, so I spent a day at my lovely hotel: Soho Boutique Hotel. Instead of checking my phone, I decided to sleep and enjoy the view from the room's terrace with my book. As I felt better, I decided to go for lunch at the Mystique Hotel where I enjoyed a "catch of the day". A family caught my attention: the man was dancing with a cocktail in his left hand while his son recorded a boomerang for him.
"Is this okay?", asked the son.
"Yeah, that will do", replied his father. His wife, I suppose, was taking sexy photos of her pink bikini, adding a filter to Instagram and a hashtag: #enjoyeverymoment.
I love photography, but it cannot capture the sounds or smells of the places we visit. And if we are busy staying sharing pictures or sending messages, we might miss these tiny details of the travel experience. Some hotels in Holbox call for you to escape the hustle and noise, but some people still find it hard to disconnect. Maybe the slow, offline mindful travel is not for everyone, and not even Holbox can help. It all begins with one's own decision.