How to Get Away from it All

Step 1: Separate yourself Cut ties with anything holding you to your current existence. Bid goodbye to anyone you don’t want to include in your new life and sell your possessions — a little cash can be helpful wherever you go.
TIP: Hang on to any hardware and first-aid supplies, medicine, and camping gear you own.
Step 2: Head into the wild Pack up your remaining items and hike to a remote spot. Sustain yourself by constructing a shelter, hunting wild game, gathering edible plants, and building fires. Keep a journal to record the depths of your solitude for future loners.
Step 3: Set sail Don’t want to be landlocked? Head out to sea. Bring fishing equipment and rain gear to stay fed and dry. Use onboard electronics that beep regularly to keep you company during long nights on the water.
Step 4: Go on island time For ocean views without the motion sickness, set up shop on a remote island. Feast on the natural bounty around you and pick up a hobby that lets you exercise your brain enough to stave off insanity.
TIP: If you do go insane, don’t worry: there’ll be no one around you to judge.
Step 5: Get desensitized Want a simpler way to get away from it all? Climb into a sensory-deprivation tank and lie still until your mind goes blank. Once your cares have fully disappeared, emerge and rejoin civilization, knowing isolation is just a soak away.
FACT: The 4 islands that make up Tristan de Cunha are the most remote inhabited place in the world.

Lessons in this Guide