5 ‘silent tourism’ retreats to visit, from digital detoxing at a monastery in Canada to meditation and yoga on ice in Sweden
‘Quiet travel’ destinations such as Ecuador’s Zabalo Village Quiet Stay and Sweden’s Peace & Quiet Hotel offer serenity, beautiful nature and mental clarity
Peace and quiet have become major casualties of a modern world that moves at an ever more frenetic pace, with its myriad distractions.
In Silence: In the Age of Noise (2016), Norwegian adventurer and polymath Erling Kagge writes that “an abundance of activities leaves us with a feeling of experiential poverty”.
Studies have linked noise to stress and a range of health problems, including depression and cardiovascular disease. Research also shows that spending time in quiet natural surroundings reduces stress, anxiety, depression and repetitive thoughts, and restores the ability to pay attention.
Perhaps that’s why, in an era marked by conflict and climate anxiety, the quest for serene nature hideaways, meditation retreats and silent walks is growing.
“Travellers are now seeking out peaceful, quiet experiences, particularly in nature, to reconnect with themselves, to find mental clarity, to breathe, let go and just be,” says Vikram Chauhan, co-founder and president of Quiet Parks International (QPI), a non-profit organisation committed to saving quietness for the benefit of all life.
Kagge, who calls silence a “new luxury”, writes that shutting out the world is not about turning your back on your surroundings, but the opposite: “it is seeing the world more clearly, maintaining your direction and taking a stab at loving your life”.
Here are five destinations that meet those imperatives.
