Spartan holiday is an upcoming concept that advocates a total disconnect from technology in order to truly enjoy a vacation. By Shrimayee Thakur
“To celebrate a Spartan Holiday is to wring pleasure from modest stuff… To enliven a rainy day. To gain independence from the media narrative of the week… Honour the actual. Observe, slowly. Engage the world like a traveller, canny but agape, whether five or fifty or 5,000 miles from home. That’s what you can expect here. An eyeful,” writes DB Dowd, the author of Spartan Holiday, an award-winning illustrated journal that combines travel writing, memoir and history, and talks about observing life fully.
Dowd, referred to in the journal as Professor Red, firmly believes that travelling and experiencing your surroundings should be unhindered by distractions such as technology. While our essential tools when travelling include a phone to take and post pictures with, Dowd believes in carrying paper and a pen with him, and drawing what he sees. Also, the author of Stick Figures: Drawing as a Human Practice, Dowd uses drawing not as an aesthetical instrument, but as a tool to study the world with.
Spartan holiday, as a concept, is fast catching on and is predicted to be one of the major trends in 2020. This is evidenced by the complementary trend of micro hotels. Micro hotels, as the name suggests, have tiny rooms when compared to usual hotel room sizes, but aim to maximise space.
For instance, one of the companies that has constructed micro hotels is Vipp Shelter. One of their shelters is in a Swedish forest, and has dining and living room area, bathroom and a mezzanine bed loft. The stay is self-catered, with a fully-equipped kitchen and an outdoor fire ring. Since the shelter is in a forest, it is the perfect place to unplug and relax. It is right next to Lake Immeln, meaning tourists can enjoy canoeing, sitting on the lakeside and reading, or just pleasant strolls through the surrounding lush forest.
Vipp also has a Loft in Copenhagen. Other companies taking the initiative to build forest micro hotels include Fuselage and Unyoked.
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