Travel Fitness: Far-Flung Digital Detoxes
Photo courtesy of The Singular Patagonia
As results of the 2016 presidential election poured in last November, my Twitter feed was clean. I didn’t see any hint of who was ahead, and I didn’t know who would be the next U.S. president until much later the following day. As I walked into the dining room on board Hurtigruten’s expedition liner, Fram, all I could see were pale blue icebergs flanking either side of the ship. We were slowly nearing Antarctica, making our way through Iceberg Alley, the gateway to the lower latitudes. The ship had Wi-Fi, but part of the reason we were on board was to get away from technology, especially during the election. Someone finally braved the explosion of reactions on social media to check the results of the election, and then quickly shut off their phone right after. News of Trump’s triumph slowly made its way around the dining room the old fashioned way: word of mouth.
Pew Research Center estimates that 84 percent of adults in the U.S. are connected to the Internet and 68 percent are constantly attached to their cell phone, making the concept of a digital detox so popular—and necessary—these days that January has been dubbed “Digital Wellness Month.” The Spa at Mandarin Oriental, Miami even payed tribute to the concept with a new digital wellness program with day-long retreats designed to “disconnect and re-evaluate your relationship with technology.” The idea is to create a routine of digital balance, shutting off from technology and switching your focus to mindfulness exercises like meditation and journaling. Guests can even relieve the stress and strain from all those hours logged at a laptop with spa treatments designed to ease your hands and shoulders of tension from typing.
City escapes like this are one way to switch off, if only for a day, but travelers are now looking to get even further from technology, taking a breather in some of the most remote corners of the globe from the end of the Americas in Torres Del Paine National Park to the lowlands of Vietnam.
As the Vietnamese government has lifted travel restrictions in the northeastern region of Hà Giang, Vietnam, along the border of China, now’s the time to jet off and experience a taste of this time-trapped tribal culture. Ride & Seek has launched a 10-day Vietnam Bike Tour that weaves through the 5,000-square-mile province that’s made up of 22 ethnic minorities, with rides of up to 100 miles per day through terraced rice paddies and villages where you’ll be able to connect with the locals in ways that don’t require an app.
Image: courtesy of Robert Michael Poole