This post was last updated on August 19th, 2023 at 05:42 pm
Even at famous historical sites, you’ll find people losing themselves in their devices. As someone who uses a dumb phone full time, I’m amazed (and a bit saddened) by the extent to which people cling to smartphones, even when paying good money to visit someplace special. However, I did encounter a pleasant exception during our family vacation this summer: Mammoth Cave in Central Kentucky. In the cave area, cell phone service is spotty. Inside the cave, it doesn’t exist. For anyone interested in having an unplugged vacation experience, I recommend taking one of the cave tours offered by the National Park Service.
Considered the longest cave system in the world with more than 400 miles of passageways, Mammoth Cave came toward the middle of our week-long vacation of the Midwest, which started in Louisville, Ky., at the Louisville Slugger factory (a must-see for baseball fans). The cave was just what we needed to fortify our spirits after a restaurant stop in Louisville, where we sat surrounded by three families fixated on their phones. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except one family was watching videos and blasting the volume. They seemed so unaware of the disruption that we didn’t bother asking them to please turn down their devices. Before our waitress even visited our table, we decided to leave.
Yep, we just got up and walked out.
We found another restaurant and fortunately it worked out. Later, I recalled the days when people ate out and enjoyed conversing with others at their table. Before phones, kids colored with crayons on the backside of kids menus. Yeah, they often became bored, and parents sometimes had to scold them in hushed tones in an effort not to cause a “scene.” While many kids today sit quietly at their seats, they need digital babysitters to do it. I actually prefer the days of kids testing their parents’ patience.
For an unplugged vacation experience, try going underground
On the heels of our restaurant experience, I expected the usual amount of device fixation at Mammoth Cave but quickly noticed how few people were on their phones at the visitor center. Once we started the tour of the cave itself, the tour guide declared there would be no signal available whatsoever down in the cave.
Really? Yippee! I thought.
To describe stepping into a no-cell-signal zone as magical is overstating it. But to stand alongside nearly 100 people who cannot receive notifications or check their social media feeds felt kind of liberating. Granted, many people still used their phones to take photos, which didn’t require an internet connection. Of course, people on vacation years ago took lots of photos, which is why the cave tour felt like vacations I experienced as a child during the 1980s and 1990s. Our tour group was committed to experiencing the present moment. It helped, too, our tour guide’s presentation was captivating. Plus, the sights themselves were fascinating, especially the areas where miners had mined for saltpeter in the early 1800s for gunpowder.
(Which reminds me to tell you: If you want to take a tour, make sure you book it online several weeks in advance. If you go there before booking the tour, you might discover they’re sold out.)
Read: How to travel without GPS
The tour climax: total darkness and total silence
This tour was perhaps my non-digital/analog moment of the year, climaxing about halfway through our journey when our guide showed us what total darkness felt like. She blew out the flame of a lantern providing the only light to the spot where we had all stopped in the cave. Then in this total darkness, she invited us to be silent for a few moments and experience not only total darkness but also total silence. And that’s what we all did—all 100-plus of us. For about five seconds, our group managed both “totals.”
It was awesome by modern standards. The folks on this tour weren’t necessarily cave enthusiasts. I signed up for the basic, two-mile “historic tour,” not something that required us to wear boots and crawl on our hands and knees. Most of us came to simply catch a glimpse of this spectacular site. I’m not sure everyone there could have resisted the urge to check their phones during that brief moment of total silence and total darkness had the internet been available. Thankfully, it wasn’t.
Of course, there are plenty of places you can visit where there’s no cell service. But these areas are typically not major tourist sites. I knew our family would enjoy Mammoth Cave for its natural beauty and historical significance, but I didn’t expect it to feel like a sanctuary. It not only invited you to experience the present moment—it gave you little choice.
Got more than the t-shirt. I went for the sweatshirt
As a family, our frugal state of mind takes over when it comes to overpriced clothing and trinkets (I managed to fork out only a couple dollars for “Louisville Slugger” pencils after touring the Louisville factory). But Mammoth Cave triggered a different response in us. We decided as a family to splurge. A $56 sweatshirt was a biggie for me. The last time I took this big of leap was for my “2018 Division Champions” Milwaukee Brewers sweatshirt (if only it would have been a “World Champions” sweatshirt, but darn those Dodgers). Yes, I will be proudly wearing my Mammoth Cave sweatshirt, and if anyone asks about it, I’ll tell them to consider a visit and enjoy the tranquility of it all. It’s a great unplugged vacation experience.