About us

Nice to meet you! We are Álvaro and Simon.
Join us as we explore cultures, places and stories that inspire a more thoughtful way to travel.
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What is The Gentle Route?

The Gentle Route is a curated travel journal created by Álvaro and Simon, two travellers who share a love for culture, geography and photography. Our aim is simple: to inspire meaningful travel through stories, images and reflections from destinations the world often overlooks.

We explore remote towns, islands and crossroads where culture, history and everyday life meet. Our journeys take us from deserts and mountains to coastlines and hidden capitals, searching for beauty in difference and stories that reveal the character of a place.

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Stories to tell

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Countries together

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Simon's lifecount

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Years on the road

Our Story

We met in 2021, when the world was slowly reopening and travel came with endless tests and restrictions. Yet we decided not to wait. Simon had just retired from a long career in medicine and together we began exploring the world at our own pace.

From our first journey, we realised we shared the same curiosity for culture, a love of quiet places and a fascination with the details most travellers overlook. The Gentle Route grew from that connection — a travel journal dedicated to slow travel, authentic destinations and the stories that make every journey meaningful.

Álvaro is a Spanish lawyer who grew up with atlases instead of toys, memorising capital cities before he could even write them down. His early love of maps and geography soon became a passion for travel and cultural exploration, seeking out authentic destinations and overlooked places around the world.

So far, he has travelled to more than seventy countries, with a goal to reach one hundred before turning thirty. Along the way, Álvaro has developed a deep interest in travel photography, capturing not just landscapes but the details and moments that define deep, meaningful travel.
Álvaro
Simon ia a British doctor who has been a traveller for as long as he can remember. His parents took him across continents as a child — journeys through Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean and North America — sparking a lifelong curiosity about the world.

Throughout a distinguished career in medicine, research and teaching, he visited more than 140 countries, combining work with discovery. Today, Simon continues to embrace slow travel with the same calm curiosity and thoughtful observation that have defined his journeys — always eager to learn from the people, cultures and landscapes that make each destination unique.
Simon
We travel differently.
We explore gently.
Álvaro & Simon