In this day and age, it's increasingly difficult to relax on vacation—especially for millennials. According to a 2017 study from Accountemps, 62 percent of workers ages 18 to 34 check in with the office "at least once or twice a week during their vacation." It's easy to see why: free hotel Wi-Fi is as abundant as bad continental breakfasts, and the temptation to check in is ever-present. (Consider us guilty.)

Enter Survivor-style trips—designed to totally remove you from the outside world and your daily routine. Literally. Bushmasters, an extreme adventure travel agency, leaves you and a small group in the middle of the Arabian desert, with only a basic survival kit and minimal food and water. Or, you can brave the jungle in Guyana with nothing more than the clothes on your back, a machete, a bow and arrow, and belt kit—a very Hunger Games-esque adventure. These vacations may sound extreme (and albeit, a little frightening), but that's the point. As Tom Marchant—co-founder of Black Tomato, a luxury travel and bespoke adventure company—explains, distraction is the new relaxation. And for that very reason, survival holidays are quickly becoming a new travel trend.

"What people find is when they’re going on a vacation that’s supposedly relaxing, they’re lying on beaches but looking at their iPhones, looking at emails coming in," Marchant tells Traveler. "And it’s not a true sense of relaxation. [So instead] they’re looking for travel that challenges, and drives a deeper sense of connection to the place they’re in."

These vacations may sound extreme (and albeit, a little frightening), but that's the point.

Marchant isn't far off. Sabine Sonnentag, a sociologist at Germany’s University of Konstanz, told TED there are four core requirements for a vacation to be an effective recovery—"relaxation, control, mastery experiences, and mental detachment from work." Obviously, going on extreme trips will distract you from your work: Considering how demanding (mentally and physically) it is to climb a glacier, or say, raft down the Amazon, we'd say your odds of checking email are pretty low. But challenging travel also ticks off the boxes for "mastery experiences"—defined by Sonnentag and colleagues as "engaging, often challenging things you do well"—and to a degree, control, depending on what your trip entails. And, though it seems counterintuitive, Marchant argued that these Survivor-esque experiences—in which you may find yourself, say, braving desert conditions—actually help facilitate relaxation. Instead of worrying about your daily grind, you're entirely focused on the environment around you.

With this in mind, Black Tomato in October 2017 began offering "Get Lost" trips, which are exactly what they sound like. Travelers have the option to pick a terrain they'd like to visit—polar, jungle, desert, mountain, and coastal—and specify their health and fitness details. But that's it: Guides will take you to a mystery destination, give you survival supplies, a map with a few check-in points, and then leave you alone to make your way to a final destination. Some travelers even forgo selecting a terrain completely, choosing to "roll the dice," however, Marchant said picking terrains is far more popular. Because the trips are bespoke and personally crafted for each individual customer, there are varying levels of difficulty. You can endure an extreme arctic trek, or sleep in a "beautiful tent" in the jungle. Either way, this isn't your run-of-the-mill getaway.

The concept was born from a focus group Black Tomato conducted a few years ago: When they pitched "Get Lost," more than 90 percent of respondents said it was the kind of transformative travel they were looking for. There was also strong feedback about focusing on wellness, with disconnecting and digital detox front and center, according to the company.