Welcome to SLOWTRAVEL experience"Traveller, there is no path, the path is made by walking."(Antonio Machado)SLOWTRAVEL experience – discovering the presentTravelling slowly and consciously is the art of finding openness to the present moment, in which life reveals itself in all its fullness. Whether through unexpected encounters along the way, touching experiences in nature, or surprising discoveries in unfamiliar surroundings. SLOW TRAVEL offers the Way of St. James in Spain, Portugal and France as well as selected sailing ship, cargo ship, and mail ship trips for this type of slow and conscious way of travelling.When designing our travel products, we consider environmental and social aspects and provide transparent information about the measures we take. Our approach is to avoid and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions wherever possible before taking any additional climate action. For every trip, SLOWTRAVEL makes a climate protection contribution to atmosfairin accordance with the CDM Gold Standard, to the extent specified in each case. 15 years of SLOWTRAVEL – a milestone birthday and a proud age On 1 October 2010, more than 15 years ago now, SLOWTRAVEL was founded with the aim of enabling long-distance and long-term travel in a conscious, sustainable way and supporting travellers in experiencing these journeys as a journey to themselves. ‘The journey is the destination’ was the overriding premise.Cargo ship voyages worldwide on all seas, sailing trips across the Atlantic, expeditions to the polar seas and the Trans-Siberian Railway were the perfect forms of travel for this objective. Through all the years, we have accompanied countless customers on a wide variety of travel projects: from shorter sections on one or two continents to entire world trips with creative combinations of different means of transport. From the outset, SLOWTRAVEL made a mandatory climate contribution through Gold Standard climate protection projects with the help of our partner atmosfair for the emissions stated.However, the coronavirus pandemic also hit SLOWTRAVEL hard and caused profound changes. At the time, most shipping companies decided to stop carrying passengers on their cargo ships. Even after the pandemic, the shipping companies did not return to normal operations.In the meantime, we have nevertheless managed to offer a few routes on cargo ship voyages within Europe and between Europe and South Africa.Added to this was Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, which is why, with a heavy heart, we also had to remove the beloved Trans-Siberian Railway from our programme.But every change – however painful it may sometimes be – brings with it a new opportunity. When one door closes, another always opens.We discovered the special power of the Caminos in France, Spain and Portugal and introduced pilgrimages in 2021. Today, we are particularly proud that this special form of spiritual travel is the largest type of trip in the SLOWTRAVEL portfolio.While at the beginning of SLOWTRAVEL's history the focus was on travelling to distant countries in a sustainable way, today it is – if you will – journeys into the traveller's inner self. Because that is what is so special about our pilgrimages on the Way of St James: it is not necessary to travel far away to have profound experiences.
