Tech Free tours?

If I am going on a silent, meditative retreat, where I am not traveling around, then yes I would leave my phone in my room.

But if I am going on a tour, there is no way I am letting someone have total control of my contact with the world. What if you get separated from your group or you are not happy with what is going on? I want the ability to take a cab, get help or just wonder off on my own without worry. And I use my phone for translation. Everything is app driven too.

IMO, there is a difference between being glued to my phone and making sure to have it for my own safety.

Not being able to read this forum alone is enough for me to reject the concept. In addition, I build detailed maps with my sightseeing targets coded by color and nearby food sources flagged. I'm now totally phone-dependent.

I would not do this type of tour. For one thing, I want to choose who I am with especially if there are no distractions. I have no problem with giving up my phone for weeks on end as we have done that with our trips to the Alaskan bush. We go for 2-3 weeks at a time and there is no running water, no electricity, no cell service, no vehicles, nothing but the bush plane and a boat for the river. I am good with that as we are only with family, and we know what we are getting ourselves into;)

As for regular tours without my phone, I would like to have it as a camera if nothing else.

Allan, as a fellow introvert, I understand the need for alone time. But I am not as hooked on tech as many people. I have the phone for emergencies and the unexpected, but I have no problem going for a whole tour without my laptop and keeping the phone off for most of the time. My alone time will be a book (ok, an e-reader) and pondering what I saw during the day, or planning for the next day. And I find wandering around a town with nobody I know around to be just as entertaining.

For a group, I use those advanced introvert observation skills, to figure out quickly who I want to talk to, and those I will avoid. Always, on an RS tour, there are others who feel the same. The person who is sitting on the bus playing candy crush while we're driving through scenery, is probably not the one I want to talk to.

I’m with the majority. I love tech and while I don’t feel I am totally dependent on it, I do love to be able to take photos with my phone while I’m out, to look up some interesting research about a place I’m at, and quite frankly, for directions.

Having said that, I have never been on a tour or so I can’t speak for tours, but I still don’t think I would give up my phone. It’s too much a part of me. I do agree with the poster who mentioned not using it during a meditative retreat. I could see the need for it there. But not while traveling.

A retreat, yes. Traveling, no. And as much as Rick Steves and others like to say “just get lost in the city” I want at some point to be able to find my way back to my hotel :-)

I’m totally with you, Allan. No way I’m giving up my phone. It’s way too useful. Social media — yes, I give that up every trip. (And most of my real life too.)

Perhaps it is a benefit of being retired is not feeling like it is work to be connected. I can ignore news and social media feeds much of the time when we are traveling, but for research and way-finding, as well as making reservations and writing my blog, you'll have to pry it from my (theoretical) death grip. In addition, travel books and recreational reading are all on my iPad, as is inflight entertainment. Even on a tour having that reading material would be important to me.

The OP mentions tours that take you off the grid and I imagine/hope/assume the leaders have access to tech when it is critical. Not having tech can be anything from inconvenient to dangerous. I follow a blogger called The Unplugged Traveler and it seems to me that while some great relationships and unplanned, synchronistic moments happen in her travels, she can get into situations where her phone would have saved miles of hiking or a fruitless search for lodging.

I wasn't able to open the article, so maybe there's something I don't know, but I don't see the point of this.

My phone is my camera, in most cases. I back up my photos every evening by uploading them to Amazon photos. My husband and I like to play games together during our down time. Could I give these things up? I guess so, but to what end?

I have travelled places where service was limited (e.g. on safari), but other than that, I'm not interested in having someone else look after all the logistics. I'm both independent and if I want to do something, I'll usually find a way, often aided by technology. And, I'm also an introvert. All of this makes me not much of a tour person, anyhow.

Nice topic. I can see the appeal and share an example where off grid time would have improved the group tour experience. I was on a RS Tour of the Adriatic. The group was on majestic Lake Bled as passengers on the people powered Plenta boats. Beautifully serene day as our captain is rowing us over to the iconic island church. Then, as folks start taking pictures of each other it starts... I can airdrop the photos I took says one followed by a 8 person cackle of back and forth about who had an apple, who had an android, what's your ID, I didn't get your pictures, mines not working, let me help you with that, maybe we should use Whats App, I cant get cell service, how many bars do you have etc.... In the meantime, those beautiful alps just roll by...so yeah, I can see the appeal.

Interesting article. I love my phone but since I'm retired I'm not on it constantly.

For a tech detox I recommend going to Yellowstone. The cell service is pretty bad even if you have Verizon which is the only carrier where you can get service. Some lodging areas (specifically Roosevelt Lodge) have ZERO service at all and of course no WIFI. This can also be an issue if someone needs to call for help from law enforcement or medical. Someone will have to drive to a point where there is a random bit of service.

I just got back from a Mark Seymour tour of Loire Valley, Brittany and Normandy. I can assure folks that no one was on their phones when we were touring except to take photos. Mark didn't have to take them away from us, lol, as the things we were seeing were so exciting and interesting that our attention was held by them. We also had conversations with each other!

I've done a number of Rick tours too and people were not on their phones while we were touring. Some were on their phones on the bus rides but the last tour wifi was so thready that most couldn't get on anyway.

I think a heavy component of this (not all) is a reaction to the social-media semi to full blown addiction going on now with a lot of people. Many reasons, but the political mess is a big one. Getting away from tech is getting away from that for a lot of people who find it difficult otherwise. Not something I see on this Forum much.

I'd say we are partly "tech free". Generally we do not have cell service in Europe. We have Verizon, and we can pay per 24 hour period should we need to. If I need tech for a nonemergent purpose during the day, I might see if a place with wifi is nearby before paying for cell service. We mostly rely on downloaded maps for offline navigation. We are reachable in the evenings via text or email. We like having a bit of a break from social media, news sources and even family.

I think dootle's story explains why people go on tech-free trips. Some people can be distracted from the present by their phones. All the technology we have now is great, but it can really suck you in. I will admit to spending too much time trying to find a good lunch restaurant on Google when it would have been best to just walk around and stumble across a place.

Throughout my travels, I have seen numerous people take pictures and then post them directly to social media. Instead of focusing on their surroundings, they are tethered away from the present by the need to post. For me, I take my pictures and then put my phone away. I want to absorb what is going on around me. It might also help that I gave up social media years ago ;-)

I would enjoy a RS European tour tech free. I’m a dinosaur, and the only thing that I don’t like about travelling is the tech involved.

Obviously we all use to travel tech free and as someone who is severely compromised when it comes to a sense of direction, I’m so grateful I now have a phone in my hand with google maps. I used to travel with a paper map and I persevered but it wasn’t easy and there was continuous anxiety. There is so much helpful information at your touch when you travel with a connected device, I never want to go back. And then there’s also the convenience of your map, info center and tour book is also your camera!?! It’s a miracle! Tech free? No thanks.

Interesting article which reminded me of a couple of church retreats at beautiful remote locations without cell service. It does take an hour to get used to not using a phone for the various reasons.

”The cabins have a paper map, a Polaroid camera for travelers, and a retro Nokia phone for emergencies.”. This sentence made me laugh! Imagine coming home from a special trip where the main souvenir is always my photos, and that trip, instead, will be a shoebox of grainy Polaroid photos! What??

During my last RS tour, the tour guide said that Rick didn’t want people on the bus looking at their phones instead of the scenery, so the wifi was turned off.