If you could travel anywhere right now, where would you go? I’d really love to go to Scandinavia to see the fjords out there, like the mountains with the rivers and stuff in between. I think that’s definitely a bucket list place for me to go, so I would choose there.

As a child, Red Sox relief pitcher Justin Slaten loved going to Disney World, where he played in baseball tournaments and enjoyed the theme park attractions. But while the 27-year-old Longview, Texas, native said he is still a “big time” roller coaster aficionado, his greatest travel pleasures these days aren’t amusement parks, but rather Europe. “I’ve always been super fascinated by the history of things like churches and castles, and how they were built such a long time ago,” he said during a break from spring training in Fort Meyers, Fla., in March. “I’m especially fascinated by Copenhagen. In the offseason [fall 2024], I went with some friends to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Madrid. All were great, but Copenhagen was my favorite. It was just this beautiful, amazing city; the architecture, culture … so different from what you see in the United States.” Now well into the season, this self-described “small-town East Texas kid,” is enjoying living in Boston — just steps from Fenway Park — and exploring the city on foot. “I walk everywhere,” he said, adding that Newbury Street and the Public Garden are two of his go-to spots, as well as his favorite bakery, Tatte. We caught up with Slaten to talk about all things travel.

Do you prefer booking trips through a travel agent or on your own? Definitely a travel agent. I feel like they take out all the hassle, and it’s easy to tell them, “Hey, this is where I want to go, and this is when I want to go there.” Then you just receive a document from them saying, “OK, here’s what we have planned.”

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Thoughts on an “unplugged” vacation? Has to be. That’s the best way to do it — especially if you’re going to go to another country. It’s like, you’re only going to get that opportunity once, maybe twice. If you’re lucky, more than that. Just go experience it and enjoy. Enjoy the moment.

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What has been your worst vacation experience? I can’t say that I really ever had one, to be honest. All of my vacations have been pretty good. A lot of my vacations revolved around baseball when I was a kid. Wherever we were going, we tried to make a vacation out of it. But truthfully, I’ve never had a bad vacation experience.

What is your favorite childhood travel memory? It would probably be whenever my baseball team played in [tournaments] at Disney World. We got to go down for vacation for that right before. It was really fun getting to play baseball there and, in between playing baseball, doing all of the Disney things.

Do you vacation to relax, to learn, or for the adventure of it all? I would say a little bit of all three. I think the best vacations are places where you can go have fun, enjoy yourself in the evenings, but during the day have stuff to do, like being able to see cool stuff, like historical [sites]. That’s really cool to me.

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What book do you plan on bringing with you to read on your next vacation? Not one. I’m not a huge reader. I think when I’m on vacation I try to be out and about as much as I can. You’re only going to be there for so many days, so I try to fit into those days as much as I can.

If you could travel with one famous person/celebrity, who would it be? Probably Shane Gillis for comedic relief. Having someone like that next to you the whole time would make it a lot more fun.

What is the best gift to give a traveler? A digital camera. I went on vacation this [past] offseason with three friends and when we got to Amsterdam, we went to a camera shop the first day and, on the recommendation of one of my friends, bought a digital camera. I didn’t know it at the time, but it turned out to be the best decision we made. Having that and getting cool pictures in the moment — without the distraction of a phone — was great. When you take pictures with your phone, you’re like oh, let me text this person or check this or check that. To me, having a digital camera is a great way to capture the memories while still staying disconnected.

What is your go-to snack for a flight or a road trip? On an airplane, peanut M&Ms would be my favorite. On a road trip, I like beef jerky, so probably those two.

What is the coolest souvenir you’ve picked up on a vacation? On a Disney World vacation when I was 12, we went to the Star Wars [theme section] and got to build our own lightsabers, so that was pretty cool.

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What is your favorite app/website for travel? Yelp. Going on Yelp and finding really good restaurants or places that you don’t see on the mainstream sites. It helps you to find really good local spots and stuff like that.

What has travel taught you? Travel has taught me a lot about appreciating really cool stuff that we don’t get to see. I think being in the United States, where most [historic sites] were built a couple hundred years ago, but going to Europe and getting to see things from the 1300s and 1400s, and really appreciating what you’re seeing and the grand majesty of it all … that is super cool to me.

What is your best travel tip? Don’t make your vacation too long or too short. On our trip to Europe last fall, we went for 12 days, and that was a little bit too much. By the end of it, we didn’t really get to fully enjoy the last place we were at because we were all kind of tired. So, finding the perfect number of days that you can just go all out for is probably the best thing you can do.

Juliet Pennington can be reached at writeonjuliet@comcast.net.