A digital detox on the world’s first ‘phone-free’ tourist island

We walked along the narrow wooden jetty towards the forest in deliberate silence. The sky was pastel grey, but the day felt mild. A fresh breeze skimmed off the Baltic, brushing the tops of pine trees. Listening mindfully, I realised how incredibly satisfying I found the sound of the dry spindly needles and chunky cones crunching underfoot.

“I like starting nature hikes quietly, to help us become instantly connected with our surroundings,” said my local nature guide, Simo Peri, tying up his shoulder-length blond hair as we walked. On his back, a pack containing a surprising number – I’d realise later – of supplies for our half-day adventure.

“It’s so easy to just start chatting or taking pictures that we don’t notice what’s going on around us,” he explained. “Seals also have incredible hearing and I’m hoping we’ll spot some.”

I was in the unsung Eastern Gulf of Finland National Park, a serene area in south-eastern Finland, that tourists often overlook in favour of the western archipelago. I was also fresh from a highly invigorating 45-minute RIB taxi boat ride across the inky-black Baltic Sea from Sapokka harbour at Kotka. This port and industrial city is two hours east of Helsinki, and acts as the gateway to Finland’s southeast. I was on an otherworldly uninhabited island called Ulko-Tammio, 10km from the Russian border, nearly completely covered by forest except for the shoreline.

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It’s been dubbed the country’s first “phone-free” island, as part of a campaign to encourage visitors to put their phones away and experience it with all their senses. There are 100 islands and islets in the Eastern Gulf, but Ulko-Tammio is one of the most unspoiled and beautiful. No one has ever lived here, Simo tells me later over lunch around the campfire, which gives it a unique atmosphere. “It’s only been used as a fishermen’s camp and a pasture for people from other islands, like nearby Tammio. It’s also easy to hike around, a habitat for rare birds. You can freely pick berries, and edible mushrooms, camp out and light fires,” he said.

Eventually, we emerged into the open onto huge slabs of grey-red granite lapped by the Baltic Sea. I felt like I’d landed on another planet, or…