Can you really UNPLUG when you take a vacation?

When we posted a question to My Vacation Lady‘s Facebook followers a while back, and asked “what could you NOT travel without while on a vacation?”, the top answers were:

  • phone
  • Ipad or tablet
  • E-reader
  • sunscreen

It’s  getting harder and harder to really take a vacation and escape from work and social media when when we won’t disconnect our phones and get off  Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.   It’s difficult to recharge our own batteries when we’re  constantly online.  Can you take a digital detox on your vacation or honeymoon?

Jillian and Sebastian in their private plunge pool

Can you really unplug?   Can you tell all your friends and the boss that you’re not going to be checking email?  Can you really stay off social media for the entire time?

Can you put the phone away completely?  Try this— when you check into your hotel, put your phone and tablet in the safe and leave it there for the entire vacation.  Realize that on a tropical vacation, it’s hard to carry a phone in a swim suit :).  Use your tablet for reading but turn off the WiFi so that you won’t get those annoying bings every time a new tweet, Facebook message or Instagram post comes through.

Do you really need to post on social media?  Do you really need to take a picture of every meal you eat, very sunset or all of the sites that you are seeing?

Do you need the news? – If you want to catch up on news, CNN is likely on the TV or most hotels do have newspapers but why depress yourself with the news when you’re on vacation.

Bring a book and E-reader without internet access – Do we even remember those— books— with pages that you can turn?  Get some paperbacks and after you read them, donate them to the hotel or cruise ship’s library.  Bring magazines and when you’re done, toss them.  Bring a Kindle without internet access and read for enjoyment!

With views like the one that Jillian and Sebastian enjoyed from their in room plunge pool— do you really need to be online when you can see this in person?

We read an interesting post about how to accidentally disconnect while on vacation—- just by refusing to pay the outrageous internet access fees at a hotel.

Once you’ve made the decision to digitally disconnect, let us know. My Vacation Lady can find you plenty of places around the world that will make it easy for you to leave your phone in the room safe.