Why are more Singaporeans craving slower holidays these days

When was the last time you came back from a trip actually rested?

If you had to think about it for a second, you’re not alone. I’ve been trying to remember mine, and I keep coming up empty.

For someone who loves to travel, I also make a habit of squeezing every last drop out of every trip. I get up really early, come back late, all because coming home having “made the most of it” has always felt like the whole point. Except while I was on one of my most recent trips to Vietnam, I noticed the pattern: 9 times out of 10, I land back in Singapore not recharged, but drained. Which is, if you think about it, a fairly ironic way to spend a holiday.

Turns out I’m not the only one. More travellers are quietly admitting the same thing and it might explain why so many people are planning their next holiday completely differently this year.

Slow travel

Slow travel isn’t really about speed. It’s about ratio. More specifically, how much of a trip is spent moving versus staying, seeing versus feeling. Where a conventional itinerary might hop three cities in a week, slow travel, on the other had, asks you to pick one place and stay long enough to learn its rhythms. For instance, which cafe closes early, which spots are the perfect ones to watch the sun set, what the market sounds like before it gets busy, and more.

With costs climbing and Singaporeans growing more selective about where their travel dollars go this year, longer stays in fewer places are proving both more affordable and more satisfying than hopping from one city to another.

Why the exhaustion crept in

Some of this makes sense in hindsight. After years of not travelling due to the pandemic, everyone wanted to make up for lost time. We were cramming in as much as possible, and at times, it felt less like a choice and more like compensation. But it’s been a while since those restrictions lifted, and the exhaustion hasn’t. If anything, it should be the other way around by now.

And really, it starts long before the trip. The planning alone can wear you out. You find yourself juggling itineraries, researching what to see, mapping out logistics, before you’ve even packed your bag. Then you arrive, and instead of settling into a place, you’re chasing the next thing on the list. And once that’s all done, you come home with a camera roll full of photos you’ll probably never look at again, and a body that needs two or three days just to recover from your holiday.

But looking back, perhaps it’s also the destinations that drive us to chase after such chaotic schedules.

More recently, I’ve come across two destinations that more Singaporeans are visiting for slow travel. Namely, Bhutan, which was arguably built for this kind of travel from the start, and Japan, which wasn’t and that’s exactly what makes its slow-travel moment so interesting.

Bhutan

I have not heard much about Bhutan until recently. But lately, it’s been showing up everywhere on my feed. Friends and strangers alike, all posting the same kind of photo.

As direct flight options from Singapore have gradually expanded this year, more travellers are willing to make the trip. A country that resists convenience is, by definition, a country that hasn’t been optimised for speed.

It’s the only country to measure its progress by Gross National Happiness rather than GDP, and that ethos shows up in how a visit unfolds. No rush, guides who walk rather than steer you through, life is pretty much slower than that in countries like Singapore.

There’s also something quietly moving in how the country invites you to sit with your own thoughts rather than just its scenery — whether that’s the climb up to Tiger’s Nest Monastery, or the old custom of a hot stone bath, where it’s been said to treat ailments like arthritis, hypertension, joint pain, stomach disorders.

Japan’s other side

Japan’s slow-travel moment is the more surprising one. Over the years, we’ve been under the impression that Japan is one of the more fast-paced countries with bullet trains, blinking crosswalks, and basically a country that seems to move faster than the rest of the world.

I understand the pull. I’ve been to Japan more times than I can count, and my itinerary is always packed. I could go shopping one day, snowboarding the next, and there’s barely a gap in between. It’s a country so full of life that slowing down has never really occurred to me. And yet I still come home tired. Every. Single. Time.

But scratch beneath Tokyo and Osaka and you find a country that has always had a slower register running underneath. What’s changed is that repeat visitors — the growing number of Singaporeans who’ve already done their Tokyo-Kyoto circuit — are now the ones actively seeking out what lies beyond it: mountain ryokan, rural rail lines that trade speed for scenery, small towns where a farmer might hand you a basket and ask you to help with the harvest before dinner. It’s less “escape the cities” and more “go deeper into the country you thought you already knew.”

What people are actually chasing

Ask people why they want this kind of trip and the answers rarely mention landmarks. Nowadays, they talk about wanting to feel different when they get home. About wanting a holiday that doesn’t just end when the plane lands, but keeps quietly working on them for weeks afterward.

It’s not lost on me that I’ve spent this whole piece describing a way of travelling I’ve never actually let myself do. So when I came across Chan Brothers Travel’s new Journey Within series, it felt oddly well-timed. I’ve been familiar with the brand for many years growing up. It was my family’s go-to when we were planning trips together. While some of us prefer to plan our trips on our own, there’s just something about having it all sorted out by someone and you can just go on a trip and without having to think about where to go next, which takes off the mental load of preparing the itinerary for the trip.

So when I heard they just released its new Journey from WIthin package, I really thought it was timely and as if someone had finally built the itinerary for the trip I keep meaning to take but never do. There’s an 8-day Japan Alpine Route and a 7-day Bhutan journey, both shaped around the same idea: not more to see, but more to feel, in landscapes and encounters unhurried enough to actually let you reconnect with yourself, in a world that rarely gives you the chance to pause.

Maybe that’s the real test of whether any of this sticks — not whether I can describe slow travel convincingly, but whether I can actually sit still long enough to try it. I think I’m finally ready to find out.