Anyone who lives in a city like New York knows all too well that the most precious commodity is silence. Like any longtime New Yorker, I have spots where I go to escape the cacophony outside: The New York Earth Room at Dia in Soho featuring Walter de Maria’s interior sculpture of 250 cubic yards of dirt; the vine-cloaked pergola overlooking the Hudson River at Wave Hill; the morning hours in the far corner of Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery; the top-floor reading room at Jefferson Market Library; and St. Paul’s, an austere Catholic church on the corner of Congress and Court Streets not far from my home.
After all, even a conversation on the platform of the 6 train at Union Square station can be a challenge. The high-pitched screeching of incoming trains regularly sends decibel levels skyrocketing; last year the measurements at that particular station hovered around 107. (For context, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health says that exposure to anything over 100 dBA for more than 15 minutes a day will increase your chance of developing hearing loss.) But whether it’s the screeching of a subway, the jackhammering of construction work, or the low-grade buzz of traffic outside our windows, we’ve all become eerily accustomed to noise in our daily lives. Immune we may seem, but we often don’t clock the impact all this sound has on our physical and mental well-being—how it exacerbates anxiety, sleep problems, and even cardiovascular issues, while also impairing our memory and attention span.
The Environmental Protection Agency has known that noise can be dangerous to our health since 1972, when Congress passed the Noise Control Act, which states that it “presents a growing danger to the health and welfare of the Nation s population, particularly in urban areas.” But the EPA has failed to act for decades (the advocacy group Quiet Communities sued them in 2023 for that gross inaction) and the Trump administration is unlikely to right this wrong, particularly considering that the agency recently (and quietly) bypassed Clean Air rules allowing companies to ignore limits on mercury and cancer-causing emissions.
The healing power of sound
But just as sound can amplify many health issues, wielding it in a more intentional manner can help mitigate those issues, too. Therapeutically working with sound isn’t simply about listening to mellow music, but instead about creating a specific sonic setting where, with proper guidance, a downshifting of our brain waves from an active beta state to a more introspective and calm alpha and even theta state can happen. “Viewed through the lens of physics, everything in the world is vibrational, including us, and when we start to explore the effects of sound as part of this vibrational experience, then it’s easier to apply the concepts of resonance and dissonance,” says Nate Martinez, a Brooklyn-based sound therapy practitioner and corporate wellness consultant.
In other words, sound can soothe the effects of sound. The way that Martinez harnesses its vibrational power is via sound meditations—or, as they’ve become more commonly known, sound baths—wherein particular instruments like singing bowls are used to facilitate a shift in participants’ nervous systems from the heightened, stressful sympathetic state to the more relaxed, parasympathetic one. The practice, Martinez emphasizes, is not just about someone playing a bunch of instruments for people lying down but requires a knowledgeable practitioner who can establish set and setting and instruct participants in how to lean on their breath as a tool.
Tamara Goldsby, a research psychologist in integrative health at the University of California San Diego, has devoted her research (which was published in a 2016 edition of the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine) to studying the impact of sound bowls on our health. “Participants in our research demonstrated a significant reduction in tension and anxiety, as well as depression and anger immediately following a sound bath,” says Goldsby, adding that those who had physical pain reported a reduction as well. Lee Bartel, professor emeritus of music at the University of Toronto, used the same physics-born principles of entrainment Martinez highlights, to create music with a specific rhythmic structure that would impact the body at a cellular level, thereby helping people better sleep, focus, and relax, but also reduce pain for those suffering with ailments like fibromyalgia and even address the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
Bartel’s work is focused on studying the effects of exposure to vibrational sounds with a frequency of 40 Hz. “Research shows that the neurons of our brain are most responsive (they jump into action) with a 40 Hz stimulus,” says Bartel. “Rodolfo Llinas [a Colombian neuroscientist] found that when a person develops Alzheimer’s they have a reduction in 40 Hz activity and the memory circuit gets weaker, so ‘writing’ memories to the hypothalamus becomes difficult. The theory therefore is that when you stimulate 40 Hz and increase its activity, the memory circuit will power up again and function.” And neurologists have found that many of the sounds synonymous with mainstream music are processed in something called the acoustic cortex, but binaural ones—two tones at slightly different frequencies produced by instruments like singing bowls—have an effect that literally goes deeper, being processed in the lower brain stem.
Seeking sound therapy
As sound therapy is being increasingly used to improve mood and cognition and address a wide range of health issues in our everyday lives, it’s also proving to be a draw for travelers who are auditorily overtaxed in their regular environments. “There’s a growing desire for experiences that offer a break from this sensory overload,” says Torunn Tronsvang of Up Norway, an Oslo-based agency that curates experiences for travelers that use sound and silence intentionally to promote well-being. Tronsvang calls it restorative silence. “It’s more than just the absence of noise; it’s an opportunity to reset, be fully present and reconnect with nature,” she explains. At the Norwegian properties they collaborate with, like Varanger Lodge, they offer a silent immersion in nature, one that’s heightened by design that minimizes artificial noise and sound pollution and instead enhances the acoustics of the remote forest and river surroundings.
At the InterContinental Maldives, their White Lotus-esque “Silent Immersion” packages invite guests to relinquish their devices for a digital detox whereby a wellness mentor curates your newly screenless existence. On a “Quietude Hike” at Mii amo in Sedona, guests are encouraged to embrace the stillness of the surrounding red rock wilderness and listen to the canyon wrens warble instead of trying to take a selfie with them, and at Forestis, a mountain refuge in Italy’s Dolomites, guests can opt-in for silent rooms which offer a meditative place to lay your head every night.
Many other destinations have broadened their wellness offerings to incorporate sound: sound baths are on the treatment menu everywhere from Wildflower Farms, Auberge Collection in Gardiner to Kempinski in Seychelles to Castle Hot Springs in Arizona to the Six Senses in Rome to Grand Velas in Riviera Maya. “In an increasingly noisy world, silence has become a luxury,” says Tronsvang. One that this overstimulated New Yorker can attest is priceless. Below, a look at some of the best quiet travel destinations to visit next time you’re seeking silence.
The best quiet travel destinations
A digital detox at this Umbrian monastery in Italy is easy: there’s no Wifi or cellular signal. The stone-clad rooms are spartan-chic, meals (all vegetarian) are enjoyed in silence, and activities include forest bathing, yoga, meditation, and, should the spirit move you, Gregorian chanting.
When you hear “island resort,” you likely wouldn’t picture this modern, stilted hotel overlooking the blustery North Atlantic in Newfoundland. It feels far removed (it’s an hour ferry then a drive) from mainland Canada, and that’s the point. The rugged coastline is centered in the hotel’s design and is perhaps best appreciated while solo soaking in the rooftop hot tubs.
The founder of Ananda (which translates to contentment in Sanskrit) built the sprawling holistic wellness enclave at the foothills of India’s Himalayan mountains as a response to the mounting stress levels he was seeing. Ayurvedic treatments, mindfulness, and yoga are Ananda’s core principles, and during their sound healing retreats (which are complimentary to guests) they are buoyed by sound healing sessions with vedic guides.
Nothing but trees. Look out the floor-to-ceiling windows in your serene room (there are only seven total) and you can see why “landscape” is in the name of this hotel—there is little to distract you from focusing on the surrounding natural beauty in this remote location on Norway’s west coast.
Francis Ford Coppola built this remote rainforest lodge amidst Belize’s Maya Mountains to be en plein air (all of the 20 rooms are either open or screened-in) so that the only sounds that guests are surrounded by are nature-born: you wake up to the birds.
It doesn’t get more off-the-grid than this: hours from Reykjavik amidst the snowy peaks and untouched glaciers of central Iceland’s wilderness, you’ll find Highland Base, the sister property of the Retreat at Blue Lagoon. Spend your days soaking in the geothermal hot springs onsite, and your nights stargazing and for maximum seclusion opt for one of the freestanding pod-shaped “lodge” rooms.
Communal onsen, or hot springs, are a hallmark of Japanese culture, but at Zaborin your plunging in the hot volcanic spring water can be done in the privacy of your serene forest-facing villas; each of the only 15 rooms comes equipped with its own indoor and outdoor private baths. When you’re not lingering in the waters, linger over a robatayaki omakase meal.
