Travel Solo for a Digital Detox

Go to Bath for the Roman Baths as seen here as well as the modern spa, the shopping and other historic sites.

I’ve had a very busy year. I want to relax. Walk away from my computer. Leave the always online 21st century behind for a bit and just be.

And I want this “being” to be easy. This time I’m not looking for challenges as I travel solo. And I have this romantic notion that I would like to walk. I mean really walk. Lots. For hours on end. And read the same way. Walk and read. For my upcoming trip, I want to walk and read. That’s my ideal.

I recently read a short snippet about a Digital Detox. It was a label I seized. It’s what I need. It’s what I’ll do.

So then I started to think about where I should travel solo for this detox from the digital age and it all fell together. It actually started when I learned that there is a Travel Blogger’s Camp in London on November 10th. That put me in the UK. My Twitter friends @VelvetEscape and @QuirkyTraveller then got me to Cumbria, the Lake District for the walking / reading / detox part of the trip. I have a close friend in Cambridge so I built that in at the front end. And in the “Travel Alone and Love it!” eBook, Julie shared her story about Bath. Well it had to be on the agenda too for its romantic window into 19th century.

Travel solo and relax.

So I booked a four day BritRail pass to get me around the country and, in broad strokes, here’s my travel solo itinerary of the UK:

• Fly into London. My friend will pick me up and take me to Cambridge where we’ll relax, wander and take in Halloween in that historical city.
• Then on the Sunday, I’m off to the Lake District via BritRail for my 5 day digital detox. My deal with myself is that, once I step off the train in Cumbria, my computer, cell phone, ipod… are not to be touched. (I’m working up a series of posts to be published in my absence.)
• After 5 days without technology, I’ll hop back onto BritRail and go to Bath where I’ll spend the weekend trying to access Austen-like simpler times. That’s actually a bit simplistic. With a MA in history, I’m looking forward to Bath for many more reasons. I can’t wait to experience the Roman Baths as well as the Pulteney Bridge, one of only four in the world with shops along the full span on both sides. Of course, there’s also the Bath Abbey. I’ll cover a lot of ground quickly by joining one of the Mayor’s Greeters free walking tours.
• Finally, I’ll return to London for a few days where I”ll play tourist and attend the World Travel Market looking for opportunities for all of us who travel solo. On my last evening I’ll attend the Travel Bloggers Camp and meet with a number of Twitter/Blogger friends.

There are a lot of details to be filled.  I’m sure that many readers will have suggestions of things that I simply must do. Please, bring them forth. I welcome your suggestions and will do as many as possible.

Thank you to BritRail, Cumbria Tourism and Bath Tourism Plus for their support with this trip.

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