🌍 The Slow Travel Toolkit
Design your own life on the move — with clarity, confidence, and a plan you’ll actually use.
Before Nigel and I ever packed a bag, booked a flight, or tried to figure out which European outlet might fry our hairdryer, we asked one very unromantic question at our kitchen table in Houston:
How do you build a slow-travel life that moves without burning out or falling apart?
We didn’t want chaos.
We weren’t chasing spontaneity for spontaneity’s sake.
We wanted freedom — but the kind held up by intention, energy, and a rhythm that wouldn’t leave us overwhelmed halfway across the world.
Somewhere between scribbled lists, half-made spreadsheets, and our first “are we really doing this?” conversation, we realized something important:
Slow travel isn’t about throwing your life into the wind.
It’s about designing a framework that lets you wander without losing yourself.
That’s what this Toolkit is.
Not the glossy version. Not the aspirational version.
The real system we use to plan our life on the move.
And because so many of you keep asking how we choose destinations, follow the seasons, budget realistically, and know whether a place feels like “us,” it finally feels like the right time to share it.
What This Toolkit Helps You Do
This isn’t a list of hacks.
It’s a travel-life design system — a way to make decisions with clarity instead of chaos.
It helps you answer:
• Where should I go first?
• How long should I stay?
• What pace of travel fits my life stage and energy?
• How do I budget sustainably across months or years?
• What season is best for each region?
• How do I choose destinations that match my values — not someone else’s bucket list?
• And the big one: Where do I even begin?
This Toolkit is the bridge between inspiration and action — the part most travel conversations skip.
A Free Preview of What’s Inside
The 5–2 Travel Rhythm
Five months abroad, two months at home.
The simple cycle that keeps us rested, connected, and financially sane — and how to adapt it to your own life.
Includes a high-level look at the Home Base Calculator.
Shoulder-Season Strategy
How we follow the sun (without following the crowds): weather, cost, daylight hours, humidity, and energy rhythms.
The full version includes month-by-month guidance for 50+ destinations.
How We Save 50–70% on Monthly Stays
A teaser of our Airbnb method — the full strategy lives inside the Toolkit.
Experiences > Possessions
The quiet mindset shift that made long-term travel possible — and how it can reshape your version of enough.
If this high-level snapshot helps, the full Toolkit expands this into detailed, month-by-month guidance for 50+ destinations.
🔒 Inside the Full Slow Travel Toolkit (Paid)
If you want the complete system — the exact frameworks, spreadsheets, season grids, and planning templates we use every time we choose a new monthly base — this is where it begins.
Follow-the-Season Destination Grid
A four-season global planning chart organized by weather, crowds, cost of living, monthly rental affordability, and local rhythms.
Delivered as Excel (interactive) + PDF (printable).
The Decision Compass
A 60-second clarity tool that narrows down destinations using belonging factors, pace preferences, energy rhythms, and budget ranges.
Monthly Airbnb Optimization Strategy
The exact filters, timing windows, negotiation messages, hidden-cost checks, and safety red flags we use to save 50–70% on monthly stays.
First Month Abroad Planning Template
A plug-and-play landing plan: medical prep, packing lists, insurance checks, budgeting, communication, and weekly settling-in rhythms.
Our Personal Budget Structure
Not our numbers — our categories, logic, and ranges so you can build a multi-year slow-travel budget that actually works.
The Emotional Side of Long-Term Travel
Belonging cycles, mid-month slumps, fatigue patterns, and how to create a sense of home wherever you land.
Bonus: Packing the Slow Travel Way
Unglamorous, sanity-saving systems that make moving monthly feel easy.
Why I Made This
Long-term travel isn’t about luck or fearlessness.
It’s about design.
It’s about intention.
It’s about clarity.
If you’re dreaming about your own version of a life on the move — for a month, a season, or a full year — you deserve tools that make the path feel possible instead of overwhelming.
💛 Kelly
🌍 Coming This Week: The Toolkit Begins Rolling Out
Inside the Toolkit, you’ll find:
• how we choose destinations
• how long we stay (and why)
• the 5–2 rhythm that keeps us grounded
• our shoulder-season strategy
• how we save 50–70 percent on monthly stays
• the belonging factors we use to evaluate fit
• the emotional side of long-term travel no one talks about
Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss each module.
About Us
We’re Kelly and Nigel — two early retirees slow-traveling one month at a time.
Five months abroad, two months in Houston, and the rest spent figuring out why every place we visit suddenly feels like somewhere we could live.
If you’re into belonging, curiosity, reverse-legacy thinking, or light chaos, welcome.
💛 Kelly
If you’re new here, start with these reader favorites:
👉 The Best Place to Live Abroad Doesn’t Exist
👉 The Art of Wandering
Want the Full Toolkit?
Paid subscribers receive each Toolkit module as it rolls out, plus access to all spreadsheets, templates, and planning tools — and a private space where we talk through the questions that don’t always make it into the essays.
You can explore the free walkthrough anytime, and upgrade only if it feels useful.
No rush. No pressure. Just a clearer path forward.
💛 Kelly
A ❤️, a share, or a quick comment genuinely helps this little community grow.
looks terrific. Can’t wait to see what you have in the tool kit.
Perfect offering for a paid sub! Looking forward to this