The first step is admitting you’re a junkie. Just look at you, staring at this computer (or phone or tablet) screen. It’s time you avert your gaze (after reading this, of course) and pay more attention to your surroundings: the people, the nature, the pole you’re about to walk into. Sometimes, it’s hard to disconnect from the electronics that tie you to your kids and your boss, but an up-and-coming crop of retreats specifically tailored to separating you from your addiction promises to do just that. Forced to check all gadgets at the door, visitors at these relaxing oases can enjoy a digital detox (now an Oxford Dictionary-approved word), including indulgent spa treatments, cathartic tree-filled hikes, and poolside relaxation. It’s like an intervention, but a luxurious one of your own choosing. Enjoy the break.
Echo Valley Ranch & Spa; David Denoma/Reuters; Scott Sporleder/Digital Detox; Lake Placid Lodge
Lake Placid, New York
Book the “Check-In to Check-Out Package” and spend two nights electronics-free, lounging in front of a fireplace. The Adirondack retreat, which sidles up to the serene Lake Placid, offers hiking, boating, fishing, and yoga to get you out of your room or cabin. Add in outdoor fire pits, shore lounging, a cooking class, and a selection of “current New York Times Bestseller (hard copy) books,” and you’ll be struggling to remember how to turn your iPhone back on at the end of your stay.
Lake Placid Lodge
Caribbean
Why detox at one resort when you could have an entire string of 32 islands to use as your personal electronics rehab? The Caribbean’s St. Vincent and the Grenadines encourages visitors to “de-tech” at the front desk of their hotels, many of which have removed televisions from all guest rooms. The tourism office even compiled a guide to digital detoxing and offers a life coach named Louise to help with gadget withdrawal. In a bit of mixed messaging, however, the website does encourage visitors to “download our mobile app” before arriving.
Elite Island Resorts
Jesmond, Canada
For a less stringent electronic-free experience, Echo Valley stresses its activity offerings will keep you so busy you won’t even be tempted to check your email (but if you really want to, it’s allowed). In the “Digital Detox Package,” this Canadian getaway near Vancouver offers horseback riding, daily yoga, fishing, and a full-range of spa treatments. Add on a bundle of books and magazines and an iPhone application that disables smartphones for a set time, and relaxation is unavoidable.
Echo Valley Ranch & Spa
Various Locations
Well the name doesn’t beat around the bush. Every month, a retreat called Digital Detox organizes three days at a ranch in northern California to wean electronic addicts off their devices with the lure of redwoods, meditation, art classes, and healthy meals. One evening event is titled “Fear Burning,” so be ready for that. “[C]onnections won’t be based on our career choices or media, or on a facebook post we liked or tweeted, but on a shared experience...” the website describes. The company also organizes three sessions of adult summer camps, company retreats, and parties, all with the overarching goal of prying that BlackBerry out of your death grip.
Scott Sporleder/Digital Detox
Dublin, Ireland
It used to be that a trip overseas meant being nearly unreachable. While that level of off-the-grid vacationing is no longer the norm, it’s still possible to avoid your problems back home with a true getaway. In Dublin, the luxurious Westin Hotel offers a “Digital Detox” package that liberates visitors by locking their electronics in a safe, “replacing all that digital clutter with relaxation, renewal and a few thoughtful touches.” These come in the form of an in-room massage, breakfast in bed, and a “Detox Survival Kit,” packed with Dublin information, a newspaper, a board game, and, because why not, a tree planting kit.
Getty
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Too much staring at a screen in Costa Rica and you’ll wind up alone in the jungle, surrounded by a gang of vicious monkeys. To avoid this, the Four Seasons offers a complimentary “Disconnect to Reconnect” service, in which guests surrender their iPhones for 24 hours, and start checking off a list of 24 technology-free activities—from paddle-boarding and golf to a coffee treatment at the spa and lounging in the butterfly garden. Returned phones are outfitted with shiny new Costa Rica-themed cases so guests can always remember their day without texting.
Colin D. Young/Shutterstock
Pittsburgh, PA
Lauded as “one of our most popular Pittsburgh hotel deals,” the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel offers to confiscate the entire family’s stockpile of laptops, cell phones, and other devices at the front desk, to be handed back at check-out. To promote optimum bonding with those preteens who rarely make eye contact, hotel staffers clear the room of all sin-inducing distractions, replacing the TV, music dock, and room phone with board games and playing cards.
David Denoma/Reuters
