Why you need a Digital Detox at The Old Mushroom Farm

Reclaiming Your Attention (The Old Mushroom Farm's definition of Luxury)

For some, luxury accommodation means the ability to order fast food at any ungodly hour, those disposable slippers, and a TV so big it blocks all daylight from the room. At The Old Mushroom Farm, we define luxury as switching your phone to airplane mode and forgetting where you left it.

Why you need a Digital Detox at The Old Mushroom Farm

The world has become very good at pulling our attention away from life itself. Our devices are tiny portals to anywhere but here, to the polished lives of strangers, the dramatised chaos in the news, the strange trance we find ourselves in when scrolling for "just five more minutes” (...two hours later). Being present has quietly become a radical act.

It's an actual movement. People are now paying good money to lock themselves out of their own phones. Apps that block apps. Subscriptions to stop doomscrolling. Digital babysitters for grown adults. We admire the effort, but we think there’s another way.

Enter: positive friction.

At The Old Mushroom Farm, we don’t offer digital detox workshops such (although… perhaps we should). We simply don’t make digital distraction very easy. It's true, there is very little cell reception out here on the farm. There are no televisions in our accommodation. The wifi can be erratic and occasionally disappears to frolic in a field somewhere. Frankly, we like it that way. It’s a digital detox farm stay in the KZN Midlands, an all inclusive package (it's a pleasure).

Think of a Digital Detox as social rewilding.

You arrive mildly twitchy, patting your pockets. You notice how often your hand reaches for your phone. You sigh. Then something strange happens. You talk to the person you came with. You stare into a fire. You walk without tracking your steps. You remember the rules of a board game. You notice birds. Actual birds.

Reclaiming your time and attention, according to numerous 2026 travel trend reports, is becoming a new kind of luxury. Not the shiny, AI perfection kind, but the sort that you feel and remember. At The Old Mushroom Farm, we want to define luxury for ourselves. Luxury as intentional action. IRL conversations. Places with histories. Grassroots movements (Eat weeds, not social feeds!).

This is a farm stay, after all.

In the KZN Midlands it gets muddy when it rains. Plants grow with vigour (sometimes in the wrong places). Artisans in messy aprons make actual things with their own hands. If you're booked into our holiday accommodation, your room is furnished with pre-loved treasures (that some people might see as junk). There is life happening beyond the reach of the algorithm.

If this sounds like your kind of luxury, then you’re exactly who The Old Mushroom Farm is for. Book a stay, visit for the day, or join a workshop or event. Come as you are. Phones optional (and if you really need help, we’re happy to lock yours in a box at check-in).