I Created Something to Help You Slow Down While Travelling
This month’s Close Circle gift is a reflective travel companion for slower, more meaningful trips through Europe
One of the first things I do when I arrive somewhere is leave my suitcase unopened and step out for a little while. I find a table somewhere close by, order a glass of wine, something small to eat, and I sit.
I let the city move around me instead of immediately trying to move through it.
I’ve always travelled this way.
Not because I’m against seeing things. I love museums, neighbourhoods, architecture, and long wandering days. But over the years, I’ve noticed that the trips I remember most deeply are rarely the ones where I tried to see the most.
That slower way of travelling sits at the centre of almost everything I create here.
Last month, I shared The Unrushed Itinerary Method with Close Circle members. A values-based planning philosophy designed to help travellers plan their trips with more space, more intention, and more room for meaningful moments to happen naturally.
But while working on it, I kept thinking about something else too.
How do we actually stay connected to a place once we arrive?
How do we slow our internal pace enough to notice what’s happening around us while we’re there?
That’s what led me to create this month’s gift for the paid membership side of Dream Plan Experience, where I share monthly gifts for my Close Circle.
Introducing The Unrushed Notebook
The Unrushed Notebook is a reflective travel companion designed for the memorable parts of a trip.
Arrival days. Wandering days. The pauses in between everything you planned to see. And the small ways a trip stays with us once we return home.
Inside, you’ll find notebook invitations designed to help you notice more deeply while travelling and remember your trips in a way that stays with you afterward.
Prompts you may use while sitting at a café table with tired feet and nowhere else to be. Not something you need to “keep up with” while away, more like something you carry alongside you throughout a trip.
It’s a gift for my annual paid subscribers.
A heartfelt thank you for being part of the Close Circle.
The older I get, the less interested I become in collecting destinations and the more interested I become in fully experiencing where I already am.
The bakery you recognize before you reach the corner. The bench you instinctively return to. The feeling of a neighbourhood slowly becoming familiar over the course of a few days.
Those are usually the things I remember most after a trip.
Creating these monthly gifts for the Close Circle is becoming one of my favourite parts of this space.
Members of the Close Circle can look forward to more guides, planning tools, resources, and thoughtful extras designed to support this kind of travel experience. Some practical. Some reflective. All created for travellers who care as much about how a trip feels as where it goes.
If you’re already part of the Close Circle, you can download The Unrushed Notebook below.
And if you’ve been reading here for a while but haven’t joined yet, I’d truly love to have you with us.
For less than the cost of a buttery croissant ($5/month billed annually), you’ll receive access to the growing Close Circle library, monthly gifts like this one, and the more personal side of Dream Plan Experience.
I hope it keeps you company somewhere beautiful one day.