Slow Travel

The Slow movement is a cultural shift towards slowing down life's pace, it began as the movement slow food against fast food restaurants and bussiness, but now it is reaching every aspect of life: slow food, slow cities, slow money... and SLOW TRAVEL. The Slow movement is increasing its force, with more and more people around the world finding ways to put on the brakes and looking for a new approach to time and pace.

Today in the world there have been created more than 80 Slow Cities, with the objective to preserve the original characteristics of the place, to appreciate and value the cultural heritage and to promote the use of natural products, having an ecologic consciousness, among other issues. The first slow city of South America is Mar de Las Pampas, declared in the argentine summer of 2006.

One of the emphasis of the Slow movement, is valuing the cultural heritage. To do this it is important to have a deep conection with the place, the people, the culture, the food, their regional products, etc. And this certainly cannot be achieved when travelling fast in hectic holliday tours that make you jump from one city to another, so you can tell you have visited so many places.

To know a city you must live it. One of the defining elements of slow travel is the opportunity to become part of local life and to connect to a place and its people. To do this you must stay at least one week in one place, buy your groceries where local people do, go to eat to local restaurants, join in local happenings. Live your destination, not just stay there. Experience the place and the culture. Give yourself the opportunity of being a traveller, not a tourist. Explore every neighbourhood or spot of where you are staying not only the “must see” tourist places.

Argentina

is a great country to slow down your journey. It is affordable and you can rent an apartment for a week or more in Buenos Aires. Go beyond Recoleta, San Telmo and La Boca, explore neighbourhoods as Almagro, Villa Crespo, Once, Belgrano, Colegiales, Coghland... Go jogging in the morning to Costanera Norte or Los Parques de Palermo. Have your breakfast at a local coffe shop, ask for a “café con leche y medialunas” and read the local newspaper. Look for music concerts, shows, art exhibitions that any local would go. Take a train at Retiro Station, explore the suburbs: Vicente López, Olivos, Martinez, Acassusso, San Isidro... Take a bus to La Plata. For lunch ask for empanadas or a bife de chorizo con fritas o ensaladamixta at any restaurante. Have an ice cream at an heladería, ask for “dulce de leche con dulce de leche and frambuesa”.... Join in for a round of mate with bizcochitos... Take local buses (colectivos) or just walk when going from one place to the other.

If you have time, we suggest to spend another week in other locations, in the argentine coast, go to Mar de Las Pampas. Or you can go to a small town in Cordoba, in February go to the Carnival in Gualeguaychú or in Corrientes province. Take some days off at an Estancia, and help the gauchos with farming daily activities. And much, much, much more...

Maneras Argentinas fully agree on Slow Travel principles, and have created the company taking into consideration slow travellers.

MANERAS ARGENTINAS is a company that was created to give an insider's look at the Argentine's lifestyle. We combine education and culture through the development of culturally entertaining activities for those wishing to engage the genuine spirit of the Argentine lifestyle, experiencing Argentina through language and the culture of its people, getting to know their music, sports, places... Our aim is to awaken the enthusiasm of foreign tourists and/or residents for the Argentine cultural quality in the country. Through Maneras Argentinas we want travellers to learn how to thoroughly enjoy our diverse and impressive landscapes by experimenting on the uniqueness of each place, providing them with the assurance of experienced, local professionals to deal with the details which will give them added comfort and security.