This 1 Travel Hack Will Help You Have The Most Memorable Vacation Yet

For most people, spending time on social media, checking emails or replying to texts isn’t exactly mood-boosting. If anything, it can feel like wasted time or even a disruption during social events. What’s more, when you’re on a vacation, whether solo, with friends or with family, time spent on your phone is even more of a waste.

In fact, Ulko-Tammio, a Finnish island, announced that it’s a “phone-free island” for the summer months, according to CNN. The move is meant to help people make the most of their vacation.

“We want to urge holidaymakers to switch off their smart devices and to stop and genuinely enjoy the islands,” Mats Selin, an expert in island tourism at Visit Kotka-Hamina, which encompasses the area of the island, said in a June press release published on the Visit Kotka-Hamina website.

Experts say this small island is getting at something that’s actually really important: Our phones have the potential to totally take away from a trip.

“If we’re just completely consumed by our device, then we’re not really being present. We’re somewhere else, you know… we’re having a virtual conversation with our friends, and we’re back in that drama, or, we’re just constantly being pulled back with work email,” Hilda Burke a psychotherapist based in London and author of “The Phone Addiction Workbook,” told HuffPost.

“We’re not getting that really vital change of scene and different stimuli that I think is really the whole purpose of a holiday,” Burke said.

You’re also not getting the part of a vacation that makes it refreshing, exciting and rejuvenating. “The whole purpose of changing our environment is to be exposed to something new, something different and to have those different neural pathways engaged,” she added.

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