If your idea of a holiday involves losing the Wi-Fi rather than finding it, a new roundup from Condé Nast Traveler has you covered: 13 remote Airbnbs, each vetted for Superhost status, guest ratings, amenities and decor, spanning four continents and a serious range of comfort levels.
The clever part is that 'remote' here doesn't always mean hours of rough driving. A mirrored cabin in Búðardalur, Iceland, sits five minutes from a shop in town but still hands you a fjord-view glass sauna and decent northern lights odds. A one-bedroom cottage in Gásadalur in the Faroe Islands is a five-minute walk from the famous Múlafossur Waterfall yet only 20 minutes from the airport. A Tennessee cabin near Goodlettsville offers 42 acres of pure forest views and is still half an hour from Nashville International Airport.
Elsewhere, the solitude is the real deal. There's a desert cabin in Lone Pine, California, at the edge of the Owens Valley with Mount Whitney views, an outdoor bathtub and more cattle than neighbours. A 200-square-foot Scandinavian-style tiny house in Efland, North Carolina, comes with a cedar barrel sauna and a wood-fired hot tub but no TV. In Scotland, a minimalist bothy on the Isle of Skye looks out over the Quiraing and Trotternish Ridge — Skyeskyns rugs and stargazing deck included. And in Utah, a luxury home built from two shipping containers near Teasdale pairs an infrared sauna with easy access to Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon.
A few stays double as experiences in themselves. A transparent skylodge hangs 1,200 feet above Peru's Sacred Valley near Urubamba — you reach it by zip line or Via Ferrata, and dinner and breakfast are included, so it's strictly for the fit and fearless. In Fujieda, Japan, you can sleep in a 100-year-old former green tea farmer's house between Tokyo and Kyoto, with bamboo weaving workshops and loaner bikes on offer. A pod-like shell in Trevelin, in Argentine Patagonia, nods to the region's Welsh settler heritage and puts Andean glaciers and trails on the doorstep.
Rounding out the list: a White Mountain hideaway in Norway, Maine, with a record collection and a stargazing net; an off-grid cabin on a working farm in South Africa's Overberg with a wood-fired hot tub facing the Riviersonderend Mountains; and a hut near Mount Somers, New Zealand, so isolated its host promises you won't see a neighbour — e-bikes included.
Why it matters: disconnecting is one of the fastest-growing travel motivations, and this list maps the whole spectrum — from a Tennessee cabin you could reach on a Friday evening flight to a cliff-hung pod in Peru. Budget travellers, luxury hiders, couples and adrenaline junkies all have an entry point here. Book early for the aurora-chasing spots (Iceland, the Faroes, Skye), and read cancellation terms carefully: the remote ones often have strict weather and access caveats.
