Photo credit: Leah Newhouse
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Writer Natalie Gale discusses quiet travel on The Good Trade, a Los Angeles-based independent lifestyle publication providing readers with editorials on sustainability, slow living and self-care.
I had never heard of the concept of quiet travel until I read this article. Gale writes, “Traveling quietly means escaping the noise of everyday life — whether that’s noise from content, work, other people or even your own thoughts. Quiet travel involves heading to more rural, secluded locations rather than bustling cities. And it typically means a calmer itinerary and a connection to nature.”
Gale writes about the benefits of quiet travel, and how to do it. She notes that searches for terms like “quiet travel” and “quiet places” have increased. I would add that quiet travel means just that, heading to locations that are quiet as measured by a sound meter. Most large cities are noisy, like New York, London, Mumbai, Bangkok. So any travel outside the world’s cities to rural areas, national parks, country homes run by the United Kingdom’s English Heritage nonprofit, chateaus in France or similar places around the world will be quieter than remaining in the city.
The exhortations to “make some noise.” whether to greet the newlyweds at a wedding party or to exhort a player or team at a sports event may be fun to some, but they are bothersome to those of us with tinnitus or hyperacusis.
Quiet travel sounds like a nice antidote to the hustle and bustle and yes, the actual noise, of daily life in our modern world.
