I spent two weeks traveling in Croatia and Turkey without a phone. It was a fun experience. I got a few paper guidebooks to prepare. Before I left, I set up a Siri Shortcut to automatically respond to texts on my behalf. All texts would receive the message:

Hey I'm away from my phone and on vacation until 9/19. I'll reply to your message when I return. For urgent matters, respond BREAKTHROUGH.

Sending “BREAKTHROUGH” would yield this message:

I'm traveling with Sofia. Her phone number is +1 (XXX) XXX-XXXX. She can be reached on WhatsApp or iMessage and can relay messages to me.

Everything I brought:

Rite in the rain notepad+pen, wallet, passport, loop earplugs, and sunglasses. And no phone!

My thoughts:

• The vacation felt like it started the moment I put away my phone and got in the yellow cab.
• The Siri Shortcut vacation responder was cool, but an automatic update interrupted it midway through my trip.
• Zero people chose to break through.
• When hotels or flights were disrupted on this trip, my travel companion and I both ended relying on their phone.
• It was nice having one person use a phone to navigate “head down” and the other person to navigate without a phone “heads up” as we wound our way through these cities.
• The recommendations from the guide books were generally excellent and low stress. I loved the way information was presented, compared to cell phone apps. There were recommendations for sights, restaurants, and dishes off the beaten path that we would not have tried otherwise. Slight nod to the Rough Guides over Rick Steves on this trip.
• I would go phone free again for a domestic trip, but not an international trip.