I needed a break.

Just a few days without digital distractions, and to remember that I was not, in fact, merely the sum of my posts and tweets and filter-enhanced iPhone photos.

A few years ago, wrestling with a tenacious bout of existential anxiety, I had retreated to Furillen, a remote peninsula on the northeastern coast of Gotland, the Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. Now I felt the urge to return to that solitude, to recalibrate myself by again meditating on the stark landscapes that once served as backdrops for many melancholy films by Ingmar Bergman.

Until 1974, Furillen was the site of a working limestone quarry. Later, the area was closed to civilians while it was used for military exercises. In 1999, inspired by the dramatic light and desolate setting, the Swedish photographer Johan Hellstrom purchased the former quarry grounds, complete with giant rock mounds and old factory buildings, one of which was converted into Fabriken Furillen, a luxury hotel with 18 stylish rooms. But what interested me were the eremitkojor, or hermit huts — isolated cabins lacking electricity and running water — that the hotel maintains in the wild landscape that surrounds it. It was in one of these huts that I would embark on a five-day digital detox.

Last summer, after a 40-minute flight from Stockholm, I made the hourlong drive north from the city of Visby. On this trip, I was joined by my husband, Dave. While his dependence on technology is relatively mild, he was intrigued by the idea of back-to-nature isolation.