ESSAYS
Seven days is enough
One city, seven mornings, the argument against the two-week, five-country sprint.
The long trip is a fantasy of thoroughness. A week, spent well, changes more.
The instinct is to see everything, so we go everywhere, and remember almost none of it. Five countries in fourteen days is a slideshow, not a journey.
Stay a week in one place and something else happens. The café learns your order. You stop navigating and start noticing. The second time you walk a street you see what you missed the first.
Depth is a decision
Choose one base. Take day trips, not a new hotel every night. Leave a morning empty on purpose. The empty morning is usually where the trip actually happens.
You cannot collect a place. You can only give it enough time to change you.
Been somewhere that changed how you travel? Tell us about it.