I tried slow travel and here’s what I learnt about the art of doing less

Every 4 to six months, 32-year-old freelance graphic decorator Salvita Rozario shuts her laptop successful Delhi and takes disconnected — not for adventure, but to determination slower than the metropolis allows. “When you freelance, clip tin consciousness elastic,” she says. “Slow question helps maine agelong it with intention.”

Her archetypal existent experimentation with this was Jaipur successful 2022. She stayed for 2 weeks with a assemblage person successful Civil Lines — cycling to cafés similar Curious Life and Tapri Tea House, sketching the peeling façades on MI Road, and wandering done Johri Bazaar connected languid afternoons. “Jaipur taught maine that slowing down doesn’t mean being idle,” she says. “It means noticing the textures of a place.”

At Aramness Gir successful Gujarat, wherever she spent 4 days successful precocious November past year, she learnt stillness. Mornings began with brushed safaris done dew-drenched scrub; afternoons were for speechmaking by the pool. Evenings ended with a sattvic thali beneath the stars — elemental millets, leafy greens and buttermilk — eaten successful soundlessness nether lantern light, phones near down successful the room. “That quiescent was uncomfortable astatine first,” she admits, “but it’s the benignant that rearranges your thoughts.”

Her astir caller intermission was astatine The Postcard Mandalay Hall successful Fort Kochi successful March. Days slipped by easy — sketching astatine Qissa Café, watching the fishermen astatine the Chinese nets earlier dusk, and catching Kathakali rehearsals astatine Greenix Village. “It’s the in-between moments I question for,” she smiles. “Slow question doesn’t alteration your beingness overnight — it seeps in, quietly, similar tidewater.”

The dilatory life

Salvita is not alone. Many millennials and Gen Z travellers present worth beingness implicit itineraries, preferring to feel a spot alternatively than conquer it. “You shouldn’t travel backmost from a vacation exhausted,” she says.

It is this displacement that platforms similar Mumbai-based question institution TealFeel are tapping into. Founded successful 2023 arsenic an offshoot of TravelK (established successful 2018 by Karen Mulla, Karl Vazifdar and Mallika Sheth), TealFeel curates journeys that prioritise extent implicit region — from community-run lodges to creator residencies and quality retreats. The marque encourages travellers to linger, interact with section communities, and question with a lighter footprint.

Unlike emblematic booking sites, TealFeel focuses connected intentional discovery: unhurried itineraries, dilatory meals, practice stays and originative exchanges. “The thought is to crook question into restoration alternatively than consumption,” says co-founder Mallika Sheth. “People whitethorn not usage the word dilatory travel, but that’s what they privation — less stops, much meaning, and the state to simply breathe.”

Mallika explains that TealFeel present guides clients to dispersed things retired and debar crowds. “We precocious planned a six-day travel to Bali for a household celebrating a friend’s 50th. We told them — conscionable bash 2 places. Enjoy the property, instrumentality a cycling tour, spell for a stream cruise, research nature, devour well. That’s each you need.”

In India, TealFeel’s itineraries often see visits to trade clusters and section markets — pottery successful Rajasthan, block-printing workshops, oregon textile trails successful Tamil Nadu. “The feedback is ever amazement — radical say, ‘I didn’t cognize it was done similar this!’ We adjacent person a radical of women from South Mumbai who question purely for cloth trails. They’ve been to Chettinad aggregate times, gathering weavers and exploring looms. Experiences similar these link travellers to India successful the astir genuine way.”

The roadworthy to discovery

In August, TealFeel crafted a slow-travel itinerary for maine to Six Senses Fort Barwara, adjacent Sawāi Mādhopur successful eastbound Rajasthan. It was not a travel packed with activities, it was designed to marque maine pause.

Housed wrong a restored 14th-century fort, Six Senses Fort Barwara is steeped successful the quiescent rhythms of the region. Around 85 percent of its ingredients are sourced locally, wrong a 50-kilometre radius — from farms that turn hardy godforsaken nutrient specified arsenic kair (wild berries), sangri (bean pods) and kachri (wild melon), to adjacent gardens filled with basal vegetables, edible flowers and herbs successful winter. Meals are cooked the aged mode — implicit gentle flames successful clay and copper vessels — and eaten slowly, sometimes outdoors, wherever the scent of woodsmoke mingles with turmeric and ghee.

But what I learned went beyond food. Six Senses operates nether a planetary sustainability mandate, embedded done its Earth Lab programme and Sustainability Fund, which reinvests successful conservation and assemblage projects astatine each property. Fort Barwara’s restoration drew connected accepted Rajasthani craftsmanship and introduced star vigor and rain-water harvesting systems to prolong the surrounding Barwara village.

“Many of the unit are not primitively from Rajasthan but are encouraged to larn astir the land, its ecology and its crafts. When they pb guests connected walks done the village, the transportation feels lived-in,” Mallika informs me. One afternoon, a usher pointed retired a century-old tannery inactive making hand-tooled leather shoes; different time we watched artisans manner lac bangles, their hands moving with the practised grace of generations. These visits were not astir voyeurism — they were quiescent exchanges of cognition and respect.

Rather than pushing safaris to Ranthambhore oregon packing the time with activities, I was urged to dilatory down — to rotation the fort’s courtyards, linger successful its garden, and instrumentality often to stillness. Even the colony excursions were kept short, truthful that curiosity ne'er tipped into intrusion.

The resort’s ethos of mindful luxury has not gone unnoticed. In 2025, Six Senses Fort Barwara was awarded Two MICHELIN Keys, a caller favoritism recognising hotels that show exceptional character, work and sustainability. The honour places it among India’s astir thoughtfully tally properties.

What struck maine astir was the standard and sincerity of intent. Six Senses does not dainty sustainability arsenic a selling slogan — it is audited, measurable and ingrained. At Fort Barwara, it translates into seasonal eating, respectful colony engagement, and a benignant of restoration that honours the past portion sustaining the present.

I near Barwara with the consciousness that slowness isn’t astir doing less, it is astir doing things with care. About knowing wherever your nutrient grows, who makes your meal, and however each intermission adds thing backmost to the spot you’re privileged to visit.

The writer travelled to Six Senses Fort Barwara astatine the invitation of TealFeel.