Revenge of the Unplugged Vacation
Why more travellers are going phone-free
A hotel with no Wi-Fi used to be a deal-breaker. Now, it’s a drawing card.
When the Ratliff family gave up their phones in ‘White Lotus’ it was more than just a Netflix plot twist. It marked a trend.
These days, more and more travellers are checking into retreats, resorts and remote cabins that promise—and sometimes enforce—a total break from technology. No signal, no screens, no scrolling. Just stillness, silence and the sacred art of being present.
Say hello to the rise of the digital detox holiday.
According to the latest Hilton Trends Report, 27% of us plan to use social media less on our next vacation. Cool Places and other travel platforms are adding "no Wi-Fi" filters to their search engines.
The same trend is visible at the top of the market. Plum Guide, a luxury rental platform, reports a 17% spike in searches for 'unplugged' properties. The swish Grand Velas Resorts in Mexico now boast a White Lotus-style “Detox Concierge” who confiscates your devices on arrival.
It's no wonder going dark is the new black. In the modern world, we almost always have a weapon of mass distraction in our pocket – or hand. Phones fill every moment with stimulation: games, videos, music, podcasts, social media, notifications, news updates, endless messaging.
Even on vacation, we are glued to screens, using our phones as maps, cameras, wallets and windows to the world. Instead of logging off, and plugging into the place we're visiting, we answer work emails from beach cafés, doom-scroll by the pool and upload photos of every sunset and salad to Instagram.
This is folly. When you’re always on, you struggle to do all the things you're meant to do on vacation: relax, explore, connect, sleep, reflect, listen, daydream, enjoy the moment. Every minute you spend gazing at a phone is a minute not spent savouring the world around you.
I know this from personal experience. A few years ago, I was gazing at my phone in the back of a taxi heading towards Dubrovnik in southern Croatia. It was only when my battery died that I finally looked up – just in time to see the sun setting behind the towering stone walls of what might be the most beautiful medieval city in the world.
I agree with Martin Dunford, founder and CEO of Cool Places: "The (digital) detox holiday is an inevitable backlash against our hyperconnected world."
Of course, any vacation can be made screen-free. You just have to summon the courage, curiosity and discipline to put your phone in a drawer and leave it there.
But let's be honest: that’s a tall order for many of us. We are so addicted to our phones that the prospect of locking them away brings us out in a cold sweat.
That's where the digital detox holiday comes in: if you can’t trust yourself to put your phone down, you go somewhere that does it for you. Somewhere with no Wi-Fi password fixed to the bedside lamp. With more bird calls than Zoom calls. Somewhere that literally pries your phone from your cold, dead hands (while you’re still alive, obviously).
Research suggests that most travellers on tech-free vacations follow a similar pattern. You start off a little stir crazy, reaching for a phone that's not there, feeling the itch of FOMO. Then, after a couple of days, you feel calmer and more present. By the end, you're loving the peace.
I have stayed in unplugged and slow cabins in both England and Ireland, and loved every minute of it.
Without my phone, I felt free. From distraction. From the news cycle. From the duty to interact. From the temptation to record everything. From worrying about whether someone somewhere was having a better time than I was.
What I gained was peace and presence. With no phone in my pocket, I was more alive to the moment. At the end of each day I slipped into the deepest, sweetest sleep.
Sure, I sometimes missed not being able to take a photo. But even that came with a silver lining. Unable to record the moment quickly, I savoured it slowly. I lingered and let my mind wander. I felt all five senses coming into play. I made my own memories.
My favourite moment came while reading a novel on a deckchair beside a slow cabin in a field. As the warm, summer day drew to a close, the light turned soft and amber. A gentle breeze riffled the trees. Birds sang nearby. A hint of wildflowers scented the air.
I thought to myself: Life doesn't get much slower (or better!) than this.
And that’s the deeper truth here: Unplugging allows you to slow down and live life instead of rushing through it – at home or on vacation.
So, next time you book a break, remember: When it comes to phones, less is often more.
I love the phone-free getaways/vacations. When we grew up, or when still in our 20s, we traveled happily, safely, and uncomplicatedly without a phone. Of course, the smartphone is a tremendous help in today's travel world.
But once settled down, we forget how to enjoy where we are, how to interact with others, how to be with ourselves, and how to absorb the wonder and awe around us.
It's weird and great at the same time that such options of wifi-free vacationing become a thing. It should be normal. We might get back to some "normal".
Sounds like bliss. Plus this must mean lower accommodation prices as the hoteliers won't have to splash the cash getting their spaces WiFi connected. That is right...isn't it?