'Smexit', or how to take back control of your family holiday

Summer holiday ideas often come on dark winter days, but this particular inspiration was unexpected – the moment I dropped my smartphone down the lavatory. After my initial panic, watching the phone flicker and die, I realised that something had to change. Why did I have my phone in the bathroom anyway?

Over the next few phone-free days, I stopped constantly checking the internet and – to coin a phrase – took back control. “Smexit” was the way forward. I replaced my smartphone with an old-style Nokia and went back to the time when texting took an age and people gazed at the world around them instead of at a screen.

On holiday, in particular, the smartphone revolution has driven many of us barking mad. I watch with exasperation as tourists worry about taking the right photos and counting likes rather than enjoying the view IRL (that’s “in real life”). When travel companies proudly market the “Instagrammability” of their destinations, I want to scream.

My children, Jake and Isabella, are 13 and 11, ages when screen overload can be a challenge, so a phone-free family holiday seemed the antidote. Truly getting away from it all meant escaping Wi-Fi, and I searched for a trip to fit the bill. The criteria was short-haul sun, active and technology-free.

KE Adventure Travel’s family Algarve trip ticked all the boxes – a remote farm just north of Sagres near the beach with no Wi-Fi and scarcely any phone signal, an itinerary to keep children too busy to notice and a small group tour so they could make friends. As a single father of tweens, I’ve found that activity-filled holidays allow the children to have fun and me to relax a bit.

We started our digital detox as soon as we arrived in Portugal; the receptionist at Hotel Eva in Faro looked blankly at me when I politely declined his offer of the Wi-Fi password. I might as well have said I didn’t want a room key. After a relaxing, internet-free evening in Faro, we headed west to Moinho Velho (meaning Old Mill), three miles from the beach in the south-west corner of the Algarve.

Owners Jon and Violeta took over the farm in 2014, renovating it with natural materials to create six rooms and seven cabins sleeping up to 16 people. It’s completely off-grid, with electricity and hot water exclusively from solar power. The rooms have only 12 volts for lights and there are no plug sockets, so there would be no temptation to charge devices.

Besides, who needs screens with such a view? Bordering south-west Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park, the farm of 150 acres is in a breezy, verdant valley with more than 1,000 cork oak trees, harvested every 10 years. There’s a vegetable garden, orchard, swings and a lake with a zip wire, which my son tried out and deemed “awesome”.

Jon has been running family tours in Portugal for eight years and from Moinho Velho for the past three. He has a clear idea of its appeal: “This holiday is for families looking for more than just the beach. They want to be kept active but also to bond with each other and other families.”

He’s honed the schedule to include a diverse range of activities – hiking, cycling, climbing, surfing and kayaking. There’s also T-shirt painting, an optional boat trip to caves along the south coast, an evening watching the Atlantic sunset by the clifftop lighthouse of Cabo de São Vicente and daily relaxation on the beach and at the lake.

The trip works so well that two families on our tour were repeat customers. Fellow guest Karen had been coming to the farm with her husband, Paul, and children, aged 19, 14 and 12, for three consecutive summers, attracted by the personal atmosphere of a small group tour. Her youngest daughter, who has Down’s syndrome, thrives in the familiar environment. During more challenging activities, she would relax on the beach or travel in the van, supplying the trip’s soundtrack with her love of Michael Jackson.

Another couple, Louise and Martin, had travelled with KE to Slovenia the previous summer with their children, aged 19, 12 and 15. They wanted something similar but with more beach time. Their eldest daughter may have been perturbed initially by the lack of Wi-Fi or phone signal, but seemed to forget about it after a day or two. The other teenagers with us had a similarly laissez-faire attitude and, apart from one unsuccessful search for Wi-Fi one evening in nearby village Pedralva (I barely stifled a smile), they were too busy enjoying themselves to bother.

Evenings were spent chatting, playing board games, petting the dogs, Luna, Roxy and Chocolate, and relaxing on the terrace overlooking the valley. My son, Jake, bonded with Louise’s 12-year-old son immediately and the boys kept themselves busy with skateboarding and playing table tennis. Violeta served up a delicious spread of food for buffet meals, including plenty of fruit from the farm. The mulberries were the best I’ve ever tasted and the children would often steal off to pick them, returning with hands and clothing stained bright red.

The range of activities worked well. We especially enjoyed climbing a 50ft rock face on the outskirts of the nearby town of Bensafrim. Jake climbed all three routes, scampering up like a pro, while Isabella made it about halfway with more confidence than on previous climbs. We cooled off afterwards in Boca del Rio on the south coast, where currents bring unusually cold waters from the deep ocean.

An unexpected highlight of the trip for me was my first experience of bodyboarding. After an hour of mistiming my jumps, I enjoyed zooming into the beach on the crests of waves alongside Jake and Isabella. Portugal, of course, has a grand surfing heritage and the Atlantic waves attract professionals from around the world. Brazilian Rodrigo Koxa broke the world record riding an 80ft break at Nazare on the west coast in April last year.

We were, admittedly, far from that level during our surf lesson at Praia do Castelejo, but we could dare to dream. After warming up with beach games, we practised the three positions on the board – easy enough on the beach but, after succeeding quite quickly at bodyboarding, I was getting a bit ahead of myself. While the first position on the surfboard (similar to a cobra pose in yoga) was easy enough, I found standing on the board while catching a wave nigh on impossible. It was no disgrace for a first time though, I was told.

Jake and Isabella both managed a few seconds standing up, but were less than impressed with their own efforts, particularly on seeing the more experienced teenagers beginning to master it. There may be unfinished business with surfing in our family, and it certainly takes time and practice. The group were supportive of each other, though, and competition was largely restricted to who could reach the outdoor shower first at the end of a busy day.

After a fun, action-packed week, we were getting ready to leave when the next group arrived, among them a teenage girl fussing about the lack of Wi-Fi. “I just need to send my streaks,” she moaned, tapping her unresponsive phone with that familiar frantic expression. Another parent explained Snapchat “streaks” to me, and I responded, my son observed, with a teenage-style eye-roll. Did she really need to send them? Life as a neo-Luddite is far more serene, especially on holiday. Dropping my smartphone down the lavatory turned out to be a smart move.

Essentials

Ben Westwood and family travelled with KE Adventure Travel (keadventure.com, 01768 773966). The eight-day Family Adventure in the Algarve costs from £895 per adult, £795 per child (minimum age eight, excluding flights), including accommodation, all activities, instructors, equipment, all meals except one lunch and dinner, and transfers to and from Faro airport.