6 PLACES TO REALLY GET AWAY FROM IT ALL

SURE, PEOPLE ARE great, but sometimes you really want to be an individual—alone. Solitude and quiet, unfortunately, are becoming a luxury commodity. Here are six out-of-the-way places offering unique experiences to the antisocial traveler.

- C.J. CIARAMELLA

JULES' UNDERSEA LODGE

NO ONE'S GOING to bother you at Jules Undersea Lodge in the Florida Keys, besides maybe a class of new scuba divers practicing in the lagoon outside your window. The lodge offers a hotel room that one must scuba dive down 20 feet to enter. The price includes underwater pizza delivery, too.

NEW CAMALDOLI HERMITAGE

WHEN MY NEIGHBORS crank up their gas-powered leaf blowers for the umpteenth time, I consider the finer points of joining the brothers of the New Camaldoli Hermitage, a Camaldolese Benedictine hermitage overlooking the cliffs of Big Sur, California.

New Camaldoli's location was chosen for its isolation and beauty, and the place is accessible only by a winding mountain road. The dozen or so monks there take a vow of silence and spend their days in prayer and peaceful contemplation. They also welcome visitors to experience life at the hermitage at several guest lodges.

The branch's founder, St. Romuald, instructed brothers to “put the whole world behind you and forget it,” a task that’s considerably easier when you're watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean from a quiet bench with your back to the rest of the world.

FORT JEFFERSON AND THE DRY TORTUGAS