WILBUR SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA There is perhaps something ironic about a resort that uses Twitter and Facebook to market itself as being “100% off the grid,” but the 32-key Wilbur Hot Springs Hotels and Nature Preserve does just that.
While other hotels strive to achieve technological advances, Wilbur Hot Springs brags that mobile phones do not work there, making it “the only pure escape anyone can find nowadays,” says Richard Miller, owner and founder of Wilbur Hot Springs.
The resort operates with 100% solar energy, but it is the water that is the big draw. Wilbur Hot Springs was a Native American healing and ceremonial grounds before becoming a resort in 1865. Guests bask in the 1,800-acre nature preserve to escape, retreat, decompress, de-stress and unplug from modern life. Wilbur, by reservation only, accepts just one guest for every 35 acres.