If you take vacations for the purpose of relaxing and unplugging, but then find it nearly impossible to stop looking at your phone, the Isle of Man’s “phonebox” concept is right up your alley. In an effort to encourage visitors to be in the moment and enjoy the beautiful natural surroundings, the island is installing “phoneboxes” at rural retreats around the island. These boxes contain a guidebook to the Isle of Man, a film camera, postcards and stamps, a map of the island, bird and plant identification books, binoculars and magnifying glasses, a travel journal and notepad, a deck of cards, and a book on how to digital detox your life. All of that in exchange for ditching your cell phone for the day.
The Isle of Man Wants Visitors to Ditch Their Cell Phones and See the Island the Old-Fashioned Way
“We want to encourage our visitors to disconnect,” said Angela Byrne, head of Visit Isle of Man, “switch off and step away from digital distractions in order to dissociate from work and social media and concentrate better on their surroundings.”
Don’t worry, the policy isn’t mandatory. And if you do choose to lock your phone safely inside one of the phoneboxes, your emails will still be there when you retrieve it at the end of the day. 