Last Updated on June 28, 2025
What does it mean to deep travel, and how do you deep travel?
My mom likes to joke with me that travel isn’t quite the same as a vacation. She says that a vacation is for relaxing somewhere beautiful without a care in the world. Travel is about relaxing too – but it’s also about discovering new things and learning about culture, people, and more.
I recently started thinking about this distinction between travel and vacation when I heard the term “deep travel.” There’s no official definition of deep travel, but it seems to generally be described as traveling with the goal of learning, and the goal of having a positive impact.
With deep travel, you want to foster a deeper connection to the places you visit.
If you’ve read my blogs on responsible travel and sustainable tourism then you know, I love discussing ways that travel can be used for good. So below, I’m going to share the basic ideas behind deep travel!
Unpacking Travel Versus Vacation
I’ve done both vacation and travel.
I once spent several days in a resort in Cuba, where I spent my afternoons napping next to the pool. It was a much needed break from work and life at home, and I felt truly relaxed for those few days. Let’s be honest. We all need a vacation now and then for our mental health.
But somehow, that resort trip isn’t as memorable as when I’ve opted to go for travel rather than vacation. When I think about my visit to Cuba, I think more about the several weeks I spent after the resort, backpacking around the island.
While that resort experience was nice, travel for me more often means exactly what my mom describes: discovering a new place, new people, new culture, new food, and learning new things. I think the simple fact that when we travel there is so much new is exactly what makes it memorable.
I’ve actually found I like to combine vacation and travel. That’s what I did in Cuba, and I’ve done it elsewhere too. For example, when my partner and I traveled through Guatemala we booked several days at a resort-style hotel.
Those few days were our break – all we did was lounge around, read, and enjoy the sunshine. The rest of our trip? It was spent staying in hostels, hiking volcanoes and visiting Mayan deities!
There is nothing wrong with taking a vacation – we all deserve and need vacations. The distinction between vacation and travel is worth talking about though, because it shows how there are different approaches to world travel. These different approaches accomplish different things. And here’s where deep travel comes in!
What is Deep Travel?
There are many definitions of deep travel floating around the internet. According to former New Yorker staff writer Tony Hiss, deep travel is a “feeling of interconnectedness and heightened experience.”
It’s “an exhilarating state of mind that travel can evoke, when everything seems suddenly fresh, vivid, intensely interesting, and memorable.”
Tony Hiss focuses on how deep travel is a feeling that travel evokes. Other definitions focus more on deep travel as an approach rather than a feeling. It means, literally, to explore a place deeply.
Rather than ticking things off the “top ten attractions” list, deep travel means putting effort into getting to know the people, the history, the food, and the culture of a place in depth. Some definitions also emphasize that deep travel is about accessing the authenticity of a place.
There’s a lot of value in approaching travel this way. I think it helps us to foster understanding of cultures that are different from our own, and it frames travel as an opportunity for learning.
And in many ways, the deep travel mindset supports responsible tourism and sustainability. I like the idea of using travel to really connect with the places we visit, and I do think that’s what deep travel is getting at.
There’s just one aspect of the idea of traveling deeply, based on these common definitions, that I think is worth questioning: authenticity.
Authentic Travel Experiences: What Are They?
All of us want to feel like we’ve experienced a bit of what local life is like when we visit a new country or city. But I sometimes wonder how “authentic” those experiences can be when in reality, we are humble visitors, there for just a few days or weeks. This is why I would argue that “authentic travel” is a loaded term.
Authenticity is very much based on perceptions about a culture, country, or way of life. And since culture is fluid – it’s constantly evolving – it’s difficult to pinpoint any one part of it as authentic.
When I think about my life in Canada, it’s hard for me to describe what “authentic Canadian life” would be. And that’s because there is so much diversity in Canada.
Across Canada, there are many different identities, lifestyles, traditions, and languages.
For example, the way I live in Toronto, Canada is different from how Indigenous communities live in northern Ontario. If I’m not able to define what authentic modern Canadian life is, then how would a tourist be able to experience authentic Canada?
While I’m not sure any traveler can have a truly authentic experience, I do think that it is possible to experience aspects of local life and tradition in the places we visit. That’s what I think deep travel is largely about, because experiencing local aspects helps foster connection with new places.
6 Tips for Deep Travel
Deep travel is about fostering connection with the places we visit, and so the main thing to remember is to focus on experiences while traveling. Experiences can range! You might take a cooking class, or go on a tour with a local guide. Or, simply wander through a local shop in a random neighborhood.
Read on for more tips on how to deep travel:
1. Frame travel as an opportunity to learn.
It’s easy to make travel a learning opportunity! Dedicate some time to researching your destination’s history, it’s food, it’s traditions, and more. Knowing some history and culture before you travel there can inform your trip, and help you to make sense out of what you encounter there.
During your trip, continue the learning by visiting museums, hiring local guides, talking with locals, and listening to what they have to say. Ask questions!
2. Engage with local spaces.
Getting to know a place really well means exploring beyond the areas that are designated for tourists. Instead, go to places that are “normal.” By that I mean find the spaces that locals frequent on a regular basis.
My personal favourite is the grocery store! I love seeing what fruits and vegetables are sold, and what products are available that I might not find at home. I also often make a point of getting a haircut, and going to a movie whenever I’m in a new country.
Getting a haircut is especially fun, because it gives you an opportunity to hang with a local! Lastly, taking local public transport will save on your budget, and immerse you in an aspect of local daily life.
3. Remember that all destinations have nuance.
To get to know a place, it’s important to drop most of the preconceptions that you have about it. That’s because as a visitor, it’s hard to know and understand the intricacies of a place’s history, politics, language, economics, culture, and more.
There’s a lot of nuance to a place that’s really difficult to grasp when you visit a destination for a few days, or even for a few weeks. While of course, you can gather a sense of a place when you visit, it’s important to remember that that sense is more of a perception or an impression than a true understanding.
4. Avoid “tick-box” tourism and travel slowly.
It’s tempting to pack your travel days full of activities and things to see, but with deep travel you want to prioritize quality over quantity. This means taking a slower approach to your travel days.
Rather than filling every minute of your day with things to see, leave the morning or afternoon open. That way you have time to just do whatever. Chat with someone in a cafe, browse the grocery store, explore a random neighborhood.
A slow travel approach means there’s more time to get to know the culture and people, and you can invest more tourism dollars in that place. And these aren’t the only benefits. Slow tourism also has less of an environmental impact.
5. Leave the tourism centre.
Most places you visit have what’s known as a tourism centre. For example, in my home city of Toronto, the downtown core is the tourism centre. There are tons of hotels, restaurants, tourist sites, museums, and there’s signage meant to guide visitors. The tourist centre tends to be the area of a city or town that’s been designated for tourism infrastructure, and so it makes sense that tourists hang out there. One way to approach deep travel is to make a point of leaving the tourism centre. Venture to a lesser known neighborhood and wander around, see what you come across!
6. Hire local guides, eat local foods.
Support local people and their communities by investing your dollars in them rather than corporate companies. This means skipping the Starbucks and opting for a local cafe instead!
By putting your dollars towards local hotels, guides, restaurants, cafes, and other businesses, you can help ensure that the local community in the place you are visiting is sustainably benefiting from tourism.
And, engagement with local businesses gives you more insight into local culture!
The Benefits of Deep Travel
I really love that deep travel emphasizes connecting with the places we visit. And therefore, I think deep travel can be used as a framework for making travel more meaningful.
Considering deep travel not only encourages us to learn from our travels, but it can help foster cultural appreciation and exchange, and bring other benefits, too.
The concept of deep travel is especially important as the world begins to heal from several years of pandemic lockdowns. The pandemic meant many shut borders, and in general, a pause on tourism.
But in the last few months tourism has been ramping back up. In fact, according to the UNWTO, international tourism in the first half of 2022 had bounced back to 60% of pre-pandemic levels. And the recovery is expected to only continue.
Throughout the pandemic, travel thought leaders shared optimism that when tourism returned, it would return looking a bit different. The hope was that destinations around the world would take the pause in tourism to rethink their approach, and invest in more sustainable tourism infrastructure.
The good news is that yes! Some destinations certainly have. Throughout the pandemic, Iceland invested more money than they ever have into tourism. The goal was to build solutions for overtourism across the country, while tourism was on hold.
Similarly, Kyoto took the pandemic pause to rethink how they could encourage visitors to this historic city to explore it more responsibly.
To me, the growing embrace of the idea of “deep travel” signals an important moment. More and more travelers are starting to consider how they travel, and the impact that their travels have.
Not just on themselves, but on the communities and people that they visit. As tourism ramps back up, we have an opportunity to travel better. Deep travel is one framework for doing that!
If you enjoyed this blog, you’ll love my newsletter, as well as my Facebook group. You’re welcome to join these communities – would love to see you there!
Read more from Pina Travels:
- What is Second City Tourism?
- 10 Ways to Be a More Responsible Tourist
- Responsible Travel: Cultural Appropriation vs. Appreciation
- 12 Tips for Managing Mental Health and Travel
