'It was too much to handle': What happens when remote travel goes wrong

The idea of being a castaway on a desert island has an irresistibly romantic appeal: sun, sea and a whole ocean between you and your desk-bound life. What could possibly go wrong?

For a group signed up to a Desert Island Survival holiday, the answer was: everything. While they had willingly agreed – and paid – to be marooned for a week on an uninhabited tropical island with little more than a knife, a fishing line and a small group of companions,  the group wrote SOS in the sand and asked to be rescued after just 24 hours.

But you do not have to sign up for a survival challenge to find yourself overwhelmed by a long-anticipated holiday to a faraway destination. Kelly Forbes, CEO of UK-based responsible luxury travel agency A'Aru Collective, says some guests in remote settings are finding even mild forms of immersion unexpectedly difficult. 

"One guest in the Seychelles was unhappy that they were woken by birds in the morning," she said. "Another found their over-water bungalow in the Maldives was too close to the ocean – the sound of the waves kept them up all night. Then there was the guest staying in a tented camp in a Kenyan game reserve who complained about a hippo brushing up against their tent. For me, these things would have been exhilarating, but for these guests, it was too much to handle."

Similar complaints are being fielded in remote locations all over the world. At Skog Aurora Igloos in Kalix, Swedish Lapland, a guest noted that the silence was so complete it almost made their ears ring. "They were so used to sleeping with the soft background noise of a city that the absence of sound kept them awake at first," said founder Lea Pierrefitte. At one of Nomadic Resort's luxury Thai resorts in a primary forest overlooking the Gulf of Siam, guests were so disturbed by frogs croaking in the night that they demanded that the caretaker team go out and round them up – all in a resort renowned for its biophilic and sustainable approach.

These stories point to a growing chasm between the idea of a remote, nature-led holiday and the reality of experiencing one. With the dominance of off-grid travel in this year's travel trend and behaviour reports, it seems likely that this clash will only grow as 2026 continues. Virtuoso's 2026 travel trend report cites "space and serenity" as a key trend, while Vogue Business is calling disconnection the new luxury. Over the last year, A'Aru Collective has seen demand for remote island stays double.

We want to escape our increasingly hectic, screen-driven worlds, but when we do, it seems we're unable to handle the rewards.

When nature stops feeling idyllic

Tom Williams, founder of Desert Island Survival,........

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