The Two Base Rule: Why Slow Travel Beats Coverage
There is one change that improves most holidays, costs nothing and takes ten minutes to make. Reduce the number of places you sleep. Two bases for a week, three for a fortnight, day trips from each.
6 min read
The hidden cost of moving
Every change of accommodation costs roughly half a day: packing, checking out, storing bags, travelling, checking in, and then working out where the nearest coffee is. On a seven day trip, three moves consume a day and a half.
It also costs money. Extra intercity tickets, taxis to and from stations, and the occasional forced expensive meal because you arrived somewhere unfamiliar and hungry.
What you get in exchange
Day trips instead. From a single base in Lisbon you can reach Sintra, Cascais, Setubal and Evora. From Bologna you can reach Parma, Modena, Ferrara and Ravenna, all in under 90 minutes.
You also get a routine, which sounds like the opposite of travel and is actually where the good memories come from. The same cafe three mornings running is how a place stops being a list of sights.
- Lisbon base: Sintra, Cascais, Setubal, Evora
- Bologna base: Parma, Modena, Ferrara, Ravenna
- Seville base: Cordoba, Cadiz, Jerez, Carmona
- Kyoto base: Nara, Uji, Osaka, Himeji
How to pick a base
Three tests. Is there a station with frequent regional services? Is the place pleasant in the evening once the day visitors leave? Can you buy food nearby without a special trip?
A base that fails the third test will quietly annoy you every single day, which is why a beautiful but isolated countryside hotel sometimes works less well than an ordinary town.
When coverage is the right call
Slow travel is not a moral position. A first trip to a large country, a rail trip that is itself the point, or a three week journey where distance is unavoidable can all justify frequent moves.
The mistake is defaulting to coverage without asking. Most people who try two bases once do not go back.
