> In retrospect I do kinda miss _not_ having cell reception on vacations, as it was easier to disconnect from stuff.

In retrospect I do miss _not_ having the internet or cell service at all. It's part of why I like to watch shows and movies from the 80s or 90s. It's funny because I love technology as much as anyone else on HN, but at the same time my idea of the perfect retired life is one that is almost entirely offline.

I don't know if its still the case, but about ten years ago I took ViaRail Canada from Vancouver to Toronto. It was a four-day train ride (with a brief stopover on Bamff) and the vast majority of it was remote Canada crossing the Rockies, with no mobile network coverage.

I asked the train staff about WiFi onboard, and they said that they didn't have it and the preferred it that way. People take their train, not to get from A to B, but to disconnect and meet other people, read books, or watch the beautiful landscape going by. If people had Internet access, they'd be glued to their devices and wouldn't meet fellow travelers, and that's the magic of this line.

(They even said that their corporate management wanted WiFi in the trains so that the staff could digitize a lot of their paperwork, but the crew was resisting it because they believed it was exactly the lack of connectivity that keep people taking the train for vacation.)

The tea ceremony of: sit at computer desk, boot up computer, dial up the internet connection etc was pretty fun. Also the relative novelty.

(As I check HN from the bathroom, which would’ve been a childhood dream)

Yea ceremony, nice way of terming it. Playing a vinyl LP was a more intricate tea ceremony.

I usually ‘lie’ to everyone that where I am going I will have no connection. Even if I go to London City or some urban hub :)

> In retrospect I do kinda miss _not_ having cell reception on vacations, as it was easier to disconnect from stuff.

What's preventing you from not taking a phone with you on vacation?

The expectations of other people, society, and, more and more, infrastructure (taking public transport, ...)

I was in Park City, Utah, not during ski season, just looking around, and we decided to stop and walk around. Parking meters theoretically took coins or cards, but all were nonfunctional. The only way to pay for parking was by installing their app. Promptly uninstalled it when I left, but still… with no smartphone, you literally could not legally park on the street.