With no roads, no mobile signal and no electricity, Scotland’s Skiary is the ultimate destination for getting away from everything. The remote cottage, which accommodates just six guests at a time, is located on the shores of Loch Hourn in the northwest Scottish Highlands and is considered one of the most remote places to stay in Britain.
Skiary is only accessible by foot or by boat (don’t worry, your hosts will meet you where the road ends) and is completely disconnected from the stresses of the modern world. Your days are left free to explore the surrounds, unleash your creativity or clear your mind.
Pursue all those activities you’ve ever wanted to try, without technology and the frenzy of life to get in the way. Shoot some nature photography, fish in the loch or observe the wildlife. Local red deer visit at dusk and seals often perch on the rocks nearby.
As for accommodation, think warm, cosy fireplace with gourmet home-cooked meals. Although Skiary may be a digital detox, it’s surely an indulgence of simple pleasures.
Feel like a kid again – or re-create scenes from some of your favourite movies – at these summer camps for adults. With the slogan ‘disconnect to reconnect’, Camp Grounded is the ultimate gadget-free getaway for tech addicts who want to get off the grid. Hand in your smartphone, laptop and assorted devices because here face time honours the true definition of the term, and the only posting you might do involves a mallet and dirt.
This is the perfect environment for grown-ups to tap into more wholesome childhood pastimes. For four days you can roast marshmallows during a campfire singalong, stargaze, learn to play a ukulele, take part in creative workshops, hike, bake, swim in the lake and shoot arrows. Hold your own in a laughing contest and be on guard for one hell of a pillow fight. You’ll have so much fun, you won’t want your gizmos back.
There are camps in New York, Texas and North Carolina, but our favourite Camp Grounded is set on 800 hectares on the edge of Jackson State Forest in California. It’s a renovated 1930s camp, surrounded by old-growth coastal redwoods. Trek into the forest to find secret forts and bands playing late into the night, or take a dip in the River Noyo, which runs through the property.
Picture a holiday in India and you usually envisage crowded streets, incredible forts and the bustle of daily life, but at the Ashram Surf Retreat near Mangalore, on India’s south-west coast, you’ll find an experience far removed from the madding crowd. Take to the water and make the only barrel in your life the one you ride, rather than the one clinging to your waistline.
Choose your fitness weapon – surfboard, bodyboard, wakeboard or stand- up paddle board – and reinvigorate your body in the sun and surf. If you’re a novice, join the surf school and learn to master the swell, or opt for a sea kayaking adventure, snorkelling or meditation and yoga sessions. Delicious vegetarian meals are served twice a day, and you can eat your fill of coconuts and fruit.
Cast away that bottle of Bintang, scrap sun-baking on the beach and get your blood pumping at a Balinese wellness retreat.
Located at the heart of the island at a village outside of Ubud, a restored Balinese bungalow will be your home as you spend a week working out. You’ll earn that sweat streaming down your back getting active in the ‘jungle gym’, where the trainers utilise coconuts, bags of rice and bamboo apparatus.
Other sessions involve jungle runs, crawling through muddy rice paddies and hauling logs upstream. Rise at 3am to trek Mount Batur by torchlight, summiting its peak as the first rays of light catch a wisp of volcanic smoke. The early start is rewarded by a trip to natural hot springs to soothe those weary muscles. There’s also plenty of down time for massages, reading, napping and shopping in Ubud, and the meals are prepared using the freshest local produce. And, yes, you can have banana pancakes for breakfast.
At Amansala’s Bikini Boot Camp, a hardcore team of trainers will sweat away your insecurities and have you looking the business in no time. And the surrounds couldn’t be more idyllic. Imagine having Mexico’s Riviera Maya as your military camp HQ while you put your body through its paces on glinting white sand with the Caribbean Sea lapping at your toes.
Trade weights for coconuts and the treadmill for twilight jogs on the beach. The camp also serves up a sweat-fest of salsa and tribal dancing, kayaking, volleyball and yoga – whatever your physical fancy. Oh, and bikinis are optional if you would rather work out more modestly attired.
Mild oxygen deprivation is all the rage in the elite sporting world, so head to the hills to train as the champions do. Boost your red blood cell count and pump up your haemoglobins as you tackle high-altitude training in Spain’s Sierra Nevada mountain range. Take advantage of a preparation program at Australia’s Bodyology Altitude Training Centre before jetting to Andalusia, where tuition is tough and the air is lean.
Perched at 2320 metres above sea level, the Centro de Alto Rendimiento (CAR Centre) boasts Olympic-sized everything, including multiple gymnasiums and a cycling track, swimming pool and soccer pitch.
Favoured by cycling king Cadel Evans and national swimming squads, it’s one of the world’s most acclaimed altitude training centres. Fly with the gods as you pelt around the outdoor athletics track, nestled between snowy mountains, and push your limit as you cycle, run and hike to 3395 metres.
The three-stage program alternates high and low living and training. After two intense weeks oxygen will feel so passé.
Learn how to bend an iron bar and smash bricks with a single fist studying the ancient ways of the Shaolin kung-fu masters.
Always wanted to master the martial arts? The Maling Shaolin Kung Fu Academy in China exposes students to the 1500-year-old traditions of kung-fu with an intense training regimen that subscribes to the ‘no pain, no gain’ principle.
Whether you’re an experienced martial artist or just opening up to the challenge, the academy will help you realise your dreams of becoming a great kung-fu master.
The humble ways of the Shaolin are entrenched in the experience, which is based on ancient Chinese tradition. After months of training, students learn the Mandarin language and graduate to other types of martial arts, including weapons training and sanda (Chinese kickboxing).
Sometimes life needs a spark. What better way to breathe fire into your life than learning to walk across hot coals in your bare feet. Learning to master firewalking can work for your self-development, confidence and team-building skills. Who knew?
Generations of civilisations have taken part in this timeless tradition, including the Vikings, Cretans and Samoans. It’s a case of mind over matter as you delicately pad through searing coals packing a temperature of up to 800ºC.
By the end of a Napkapu Firewalking Retreat you’ll feel as if you can achieve anything. And in that spirit, you may also like to try the retreat’s other offerings, such as glass walking, breaking arrows with your throat or putting needles through your hand. Go on, we know you want to.
When modern-day life is getting you down, it’s time to retreat. At Kamalaya Koh Samui, a luxury spa retreat on the popular Thai island, take a step back, indulge in holistic healing treatments and come out the other side feeling like a new you.
Kamalaya has a number of programs designed to help overcome stress and burnout, but we love the sound of Asian Bliss – when in Rome, after all. For between five and 10 nights, turn off your gadgets then exercise, eat well and be nurtured by treatments taking in Chinese Traditional Medicine, Ayurvedic practice and traditional Thai therapies.
Each day there’s a schedule of complimentary yoga, pilates and tai chi classes, plus there’s a fitness centre, swimming pool and steam cavern if you want to stretch out on your own.
Feel like you’ve got stress levels under control? There’s a whole raft of wellness programs including detox, weight-loss, exercise and yoga programs. As far as the resort goes, the entry-level rooms are cosy and chic and surrounded by trees; others overlook the ocean, some have private plunge pools or there’s the opportunity to book a beachfront villa. Just those views are likely to make knotted muscles unwind.
If a snow-change is your answer to the suffocation of the city, then breathe in the fresh alpine air at Alpina Dolomites, considered one of the most luxurious ski resorts in Europe, and be rejuvenated from the inside out.
Perched atop Europe’s largest high-altitude plateau in the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Dolomites, this is the perfect place for intrepid skiers, mountain adventurers and snow–bunnies alike. The scenery – and the altitude – will leave you breathless, and that’s before you even tackle the activities beckoning in the great outdoors.
Adventure seekers can take to the slopes for snowboarding and cross- country skiing. Winter warmers can soak up the stunning panoramic views from the outdoor pool, then sweat it out at the Alpina spa in either the Finnish sauna or the aromatic steam baths.
A visit in summer will see the ice melt away to reveal a stunning alpine meadow ripe for hiking and horse riding. Plus, singing in high-altitude mountain air will do wonders for your lungs.
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