Dear guests and friends of Secret Retreats,
There are places where you stop checking the time.
Places where you forget to take a photograph because you are too busy watching what is happening in front of you. Places where the day unfolds without notifications, appointments or anything that needs your immediate attention.
Not because your phone doesn’t work.
Because, for once, you don’t need it.
Across Asia, some of our Secret Journeys lead far beyond the familiar routes — into remote islands, deep rainforest, highland valleys and landscapes so vast that a screen suddenly feels very small.
Here are a few places where the world outside your phone is simply more interesting.
Myeik, Myanmar — Nowhere You Need to Be
Out in the Myeik Archipelago, time takes on a different pace.
There is the sea, the jungle and long stretches of the day with nowhere you need to be. At Wa Ale resort, the pleasure lies in having very little to hurry towards — perhaps a walk through the forest, time on the water, or simply watching the light change across the Andaman Sea.
The phone can wait.
The island doesn’t ask you to be anywhere else.
West Papua, Indonesia — The World Is Bigger Than the Screen
Deep in Papua’s Baliem Valley, the scale of the landscape changes everything.
Mountains rise around the valley, while encounters with local communities bring you into a world far removed from the familiar. Secret Retreats’ journey into the heart of Papua is as much about encounters and immersion as it is about the landscape.
It is difficult to spend much time looking down at a screen when there is this much world in front of you.
Sri Lanka — Too Much to Notice
Sri Lanka has a way of keeping you looking up.
Wildlife in the jungle, ancient culture around Sigiriya, peaceful days by the eastern coast and the chance to open a different side of yourself through Ayurvedic treatments, yoga and wellness — there is always something happening beyond the screen.
A leopard in the distance. An ancient ruin. Waves along the shore. Time to simply breathe.
There is simply too much to notice to look down at your phone.
Borneo — Better Things to Watch
In the rainforest of Kalimantan, entertainment comes without a screen.
The Borneo Jungle Cruise follows the rivers into Sebangau National Park, where the days are spent looking for orangutans, proboscis monkeys and birds among the forest canopy. At night, the jungle takes over again, with wildlife spotting expeditions in search of creatures that rarely reveal themselves easily.
There is always something moving, calling, flying or disappearing into the trees.
Your phone doesn’t stand much of a chance.
Mongolia — Too Much Sky to Scroll Through
Then there is Mongolia.
The landscape seems to have been designed to make everything on a screen feel very small. Endless steppe stretches towards the horizon, horses move across the grasslands, and nomadic families continue a way of life shaped by the seasons and the land.
In the Gobi Desert and across the Altai Mountains, there are days when the horizon is the only thing filling your view.
Too much sky to scroll through.
Perhaps that is what these places have in common.
They don’t ask you to disconnect.
They simply give you something better to pay attention to.
A river. A rainforest. A conversation with a stranger. A horse disappearing into the steppe. Ancient ruins in the first light. The sound of the sea beyond the shore.
And somewhere along the way, you realise you haven’t looked at your phone for hours.
Maybe that is the real luxury of travel.
Having somewhere better to look.