Phone-Free Trips

Remember, we’re not confiscating phones so if there is a true emergency, you can turn on your phone and use it to contact whomever you need.

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Your Trip Leader will also have a cell phone on them and you will have their phone number on a card we provide. In addition to the Trip Leader’s number, the card will include phone numbers and addresses for all the hotels you will stay at, as well as local emergency numbers for police, fire, and ambulance.

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Before your departure, we will provide a shareable document with all hotel contact numbers and dates of stay in each city, as well as the Trip Leader’s phone number for use in an emergency. You can pass this sheet on to loved ones who may need to reach you while you’re traveling.

The idea is to disconnect—even if that means getting some distance from your friends and family. That said, if you must call home, you can do that from the hotel.

We’re not banning all electronic devices on trips - just phones.

If taking photos is important to you, we recommend bringing a digital camera. Or even better, bring a disposable and only look at the photos when you get the film developed.

Hotels, restaurants, and cafés should be willing to help you call a taxi. Trip Leaders will also provide instructions on how/whether taxis can be hailed on the street and/or how to find a taxi stand while you’re out and about.

Pro level: ask a stranger to borrow their cell phone to call a cab 🙂

We will provide you with local maps and plenty of suggestions for places to go during your free time.

If you need help finding an address, you can ask at the hotel, in a bar or café, or to someone on the street who looks like they know where they’re going. Have fun with it!

The nature of Phone-Free means that you will spend more time exploring with your travel mates and making plans ahead of time.

Both the structure of the trip and your trip leader will facilitate group engagement and activities outside of the planned itinerary.

Trip leaders will still have cell phones and you will have a printed out card with their information in case you need to get ahold of them.

They will be available in the hotel breakfast area each day to let you know about any updates to the day’s schedule and answer any questions.

While it might be near impossible to travel by yourself without a phone, going with FTLO means we’ve thought of how to make the experience as headache-free as possible.

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For example, in addition to maps and printed itineraries, Trip Leaders will post the following day’s schedule, with any updates or additional details to the printable itinerary, in the hotel lobby.  If any last-minute schedule changes occur, the Trip Leader will call the rooms of all travelers or leave a note under their doors.

The idea is to go the entire trip without using a cell phone, whether that means leaving it at home or turned off in the bottom of your luggage. No google maps for directions, TripAdvisor for recommendations, or iPhone camera for IG shots.

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While Trip Leaders won’t confiscate phones, we hope everyone who signs up for this type of experience embraces the spirit of the trip and their travel mates’ commitment to a phoneless experience. That said, we’re happy for phones to be stored in luggage or hotel safes for emergencies.

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Phone-free won’t be for everyone (and that’s totally okay!). The experience will be part opportunity to disconnect and part challenge of exploring a new place without a smartphone… like travelers used to.

According to a new poll, more than 63% of millennials are interested in returning to their analog roots. As huge fans of spontaneous and adventurous travel, that got us wondering, what would travel without a phone feel like today?

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With that question in mind, we decided to launch a brand-new series of trips aimed at reclaiming the essence of travel so that our crew could have the chance to travel like it used to be, to wander without distraction, and forge genuine connections with the people and places that make travel (and life) more interesting.