We’ve all seen it: the person at the airport gate loudly telling their boss their Wi-Fi isn’t strong enough for video calls, clearly pretending to be stuck at home. Or that friend who, between bottomless mimosas at brunch, is furiously tapping out Slack messages.
Welcome to the modern vacation: gate-checked by remote work.
Thanks to flexible schedules and “work-from-anywhere” policies, we technically can work from anywhere — even while on vacation. And yet that freedom has become a trap. Why bother using PTO when you can save it and fire off emails from a New York hotel room or an Airbnb on a bachelorette weekend?
The result: We’re traveling more than ever, but actually vacationing less than before.
AleksandarNakic via Getty Images
Opting to travel and not be highly accessible to work is growing in popularity.
Between lagging Wi-Fi, comped breakfast buffets with unanswered Slack threads, and the ever-present fear of looking unproductive, we’re realizing that something has to change. Welcome to 2026, the year we all start “deadzoning.”
What is ‘deadzoning’?
Despite catching flights, not feelings, we’re all exhausted, because we’re blending business and pleasure a little too seamlessly. We’re permanently switched on: curating the perfect Instagram carousel, tracking breaking news alerts, fielding a relentless stream of group chat messages. “Deadzoning” is the antidote, the art of switching off and traveling in intentional silence.
“Deadzoning reflects a broader cultural shift away from constant connectivity and burnout,” Christina Bennett, a consumer travel trends expert at Priceline, told HuffPost. “After years of being ‘always on,’ travelers are actively seeking vacations that allow them to fully disconnect — mentally and digitally.”
“It’s especially resonating with Gen Z and millennials, who are increasingly prioritizing mental health and presence over productivity,” she continues. “In fact, more than a third say they wish devices could be banned entirely while on vacation. At its core, deadzoning is about reclaiming time, focus, and real rest by choosing trips to destinations that force you to unplug and reset.”
How can we start ‘deadzoning’?
As always, it’s easier said than done. We all want to put our phones away… and yet somehow end up clocking 14 hours of screen time a day. Are we even awake for that long in a day?
My first real experience of “deadzoning” came post-breakup, as most breakthroughs do. I got dumped over text by someone who had recently told me he loved me (bold), and I felt the familiar urge to download every dating app going just to reaffirm my value. Instead, I booked a tiny cabin, borrowed my sister’s dog and disappeared off-grid.
I didn’t switch my phone off entirely — I was a single woman traveling alone, and my family was already convinced I was spiraling — but I did turn off the internet. The only thing I allowed myself was one daily text to my sister, confirming that her dog and I were very much alive. It was glorious. Within hours, the phantom urge to check my phone evaporated. No refreshing inboxes. No stalking his Instagram followers. Just trees, silence and a dog who couldn’t care less about my attachment issues.
“Travelers can set better work-life boundaries by being intentional before the trip starts,” Bennett said. “That includes setting a clear out-of-office message, delegating responsibilities in advance, and being upfront about limited availability. Destination choice matters, too — places like mountain towns, national park gateways, and quiet coastal escapes make it easier to step away from screens.”
Which trips are best for ‘deadzoning’?
Now, you don’t have to disappear to a tiny cabin with only a dog for company — though I highly recommend it. Entire businesses have been built around the art of switching off. One such brand is Unplugged, which specializes in off-grid cabin stays designed specifically for digital detoxing.
“Unplugged cabins are entirely off-grid and have no phones, Wi-Fi, or technology, and they provide all the offline essentials such as a phone lockbox, books, a physical map and an instant camera,” Unplugged co-founder Hector Hughes told HuffPost. “It’s much easier to be without your phone and laptop when the space is intentionally built for that purpose.”
In other words: If temptation isn’t there, you can’t give in to it.
“Booking a remote location in nature where the signal is naturally low is also a great choice,” Hughes continues. “There is no Wi-Fi or 5G in the mountains, so you are physically unable to check your phone.”
And it’s not just about going off-grid, it’s about choosing the right kind of environment. Alex Oldfield, co-founder of Curated Spaces — the world’s first booking platform powered by tastemakers — also shared a few guiding principles for planning the ultimate “deadzoning” escape:
Places with permission to slow down.
Rural farm stays, remote cottages, coastal hideaways, cabins in the woods. Anywhere the pace of life is naturally gentle.Design-led spaces that encourage presence.
Homes with big windows, long communal tables, outdoor baths, and crackling fireplaces. When a space feels good to inhabit, you stop reaching for distraction.Experiential rather than itinerary-heavy trips.
The best “deadzoning” trips revolve around simple, tactile pleasures: swimming in the sea before breakfast, foraging walks, garden grazing, star-filled evenings, meals that stretch lazily into the afternoon.Somewhere slightly out of reach.
A winding country road, a ferry crossing, a slow train journey — just enough distance to create a psychological gap between everyday life and vacation time.
Because ultimately, deadzoning isn’t about punishment or proving you can survive without your phone. It’s about engineering a break that feels genuinely different from your normal life, one where the silence isn’t awkward, it’s restorative.
What are some tips for ‘deadzoning’ on your next trip?
My personal recommendation? Get dumped over text by a man who once said he loved you and borrow — or gently steal — someone’s dog for a few nights. Highly effective. Questionable scalability.
For those seeking something slightly less niche, here are expert-backed ways to engineer the perfect “deadzoning” vacation:
Lock away your phone
“If you can, lock your phone away so distraction is not an option,” recommends Hector Hughes.
You can even take a more inexpensive, less-addictive “replacement dumb-phone out with you” for emergencies, he suggested.
Airplane mode is your friend
Many of us can’t go fully off-grid. Safety, family, work — life still exists.
Hughes acknowledged this: “If you can’t lock your phone away, turn off all email and social media notifications or put your phone on Do Not Disturb or airplane mode. Put it in your bag (not your pocket) so you don’t feel the urge to pick it up out of habit.”
Go in with a plan
“Leave a rock-solid handover so nothing’s hanging over you, and tell people you’ll be offline (bonus points if your destination truly has no signal),” Oldfield said. “Don’t do the ‘feel free to ping me if anything comes up’ line — we’ve all said it, and we all regret it. Boundaries are completely fine, as long as you’re clear upfront and leave no room for confusion.”
Think of it like telling your partner you’re going to that 6 a.m. spin class. The second someone knows about it, you’re suddenly far more committed to following through.
Pick the right setting
“Switching off is way easier when the place itself helps you shake off your usual rhythm,” Oldfield said. “Maybe it’s a cabin surrounded by fields with no signal, a coastal cottage where you can live the fisherman aesthetic IRL, or a hotel where you can disappear into the spa and order room service after. It starts with choosing somewhere that makes slowing down feel natural.”
Environment is everything: You are far less likely to check Slack while staring at sheep.
Go analog
“Bring that book you’ve been meaning to read,” Oldfield suggested. “Cook something from an old recipe book, go for a long hike, play cards by the fire. Go for a mooch in the local town, get a little lost and ask for directions, shriek your way into a cold wild swim, write a letter. If you feel like you’re in a Jane Austen novel, you’re doing it right.”
Because at its core, deadzoning isn’t about rejecting modern life. It’s about remembering that we’re allowed to step away from it, even briefly, without the world collapsing in our absence.
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