Yeeesss! Mobile-free holidays

Other than North Korea, is there anywhere left in the world that is free from the mobile phone asks Rosemary Behan seeking the sound of silence in The UK’s Daily Telegraph.

‘Only connect” wrote EM Forster in Howard’s End – but he was talking about connecting “the prose and the passion”, not someone’s Nokia going off deep in the English countryside, on a mountain in Peru or a beach in the Maldives.

With mobile telecommunications networks spreading throughout the world, finding places where one can be properly disconnected is becoming increasingly difficult.

Earlier this year a British man, Rod Baber, became the first to make a call on his mobile from the top of Everest. “Everest symbolises the greatest challenge to any climber, and making that call from the mountain was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said.

According to Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University, the first step to a mobile-free holiday is learning to relax without one. “We all now feel that we need to be connected everywhere we go,” he says. “There is more job insecurity than ever before and mobiles make us feel important and wanted but with Britons working the longest hours in the developed world, people need to take holidays and have a break.”

As Cooper points out, the intrusive presence of the mobile can wreck trips and spoil relationships. “Hearing a phone go off interrupts the flow of your peace.” “If you answer, it is telling your family that work is much more important than they are.” “And if someone calls with a problem and you don’t have your papers with you, it’s even more stressful than being at work.”

He suggests that people who feel they need to take a mobile on holiday should turn it on only once a day to check for any real emergencies. Better still, they should make the most of destinations that offer no phone reception whatsoever. “If people have no choice in the matter they can truly relax.”

Easier said than done, as Amrit Singh, managing director of TransIndus, a London-based tour operator which specialises in holidays to Asia, points out. “Every day in India more mobile phone masts are going up, and there are very few places now that do not have connectivity.”

“Even places such as Ladhakh, the jungles of central India, the interiors of Tamil Nadu and the Nicobar and Andaman Islands now have sporadic mobile phone reception.”

“Mobile technology is making huge strides in the whole of Asia, including remote places such as Bhutan and Tibet.”

Louise Newton, of Somak Holidays, agrees. “You’d think that out in the bush, in somewhere like Kenya, you’d be able to escape, but no, you see adverts everywhere showing Maasai warriors with mobile phones pinned to their ears.”

One country though where you are guaranteed not to be able to use or even hear a mobile is North Korea, where they are banned, with Caroline Phillips, Asia product manager for Explore Worldwide, saying, “We offer a trip that involves taking the overnight train from Beijing to Pyongyang and the tour leader collects up any mobiles passengers have brought with them and deposits them with our ground agent in Beijing for safekeeping.” “If someone tried to take a mobile in it would certainly be confiscated and I doubt they’d get it back.”

But there are still some parts of the world and indeed the UK, where the office won’t be able to reach you.

The following holidays are all in mobile-phone blackspots.

Antarctica

An 11-day/10-night cruise to Antarctica with Audley Travel (01993 838615; http://www.audleytravel.com/) costs from £5,400 per person, including accommodation and international and connecting flights.

Australia

Every comfort apart from mobile reception is available at the Bungle Bungle Wilderness Lodge in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

A six-day tour, including two nights at the Bungle Bungle wilderness lodge, costs from £735 per person, including accommodation, a driver and guide and a scenic flight through Australian Pacific Touring (020 8879 7444; http://www.aptouring.co.uk/).

Chile

Savour the silence of the Atacama desert in northern Chile with Journey Latin America ( 020 8747 8315; http://www.journeylatinamerica.co.uk/).

A 10-night tour of Bolivia and Chile costs from £4,071 per person, including flights, accommodation, guides and meals.

Nepal

Trek to the Kanchenjunga North and South Base Camps in Nepal with Himalayan Kingdoms (01453 844400; http://www.himalayankingdoms.com/).

A 29-day tour costs from £2,495, including international and domestic flights, accommodation, meals outside cities, a sherpa and porterage.

North Korea

Explore Worldwide (0870 333 4001; http://www.explore.co.uk/) offers Inside North Korea.

The 12-day trip costs from £2,039 per person including flights, transfers, eight nights’ hotel and two nights’ sleeper-train accommodation, most meals, local payment and the services of an Explore tour leader. Probably best to leave your mobile phone at home.

Tanzania

Somak Holidays (020 8423 3000; http://www.somak.co.uk/) offers accommodation at the Selous Safari Camp in southern Tanzania from £199 per person per night, which includes full board and two game drives per day.

North Wales

The West Arms Hotel (http://www.thewestarms.co.uk/; 01691 600 665), in the Ceiriog Valley in North Wales, offers mobile reception-free double rooms from £43.50 per person per night, including breakfast.

Western Scotland

The Knoydart peninsula in western Scotland is one of the most dramatic and unspoilt parts of the country.

Fjord-like sea lochs flank the area, which is accessible only by boat from Mallaig or Glenelg, or two day’s hike over the mountains where Bonnie Prince Charlie is said to have taken refuge after Culloden.

Stay in the hamlet of Inverie (population 70), at The Pier House (01687 462347; http://www.pierhouseknoydart.co.uk/), which charges £60 per person for dinner, bed and breakfast.

A Report by The Mole, from the UK Daily Telegraph