A change of scenery becomes necessary when routine shrinks your field of vision, and I found mine three and a half hours from Dubai at Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara. The property sits deep inside the Rub’ al Khali, better known as the Empty Quarter – the vast, uninhabited expanse of the Arabian Peninsula’s largest desert and the fifth largest uninterrupted desert on the planet. When the Anantara sign finally does appear, after driving through beautiful salt lakes, bypassing camels grazing along the roadside and fields of palm trees framing the surroundings, the outside world simply falls away. Having that much space entirely to yourself is hard to find at any resort, but here it simply feels normal. Long after my return to civilization what I keep returning to about my time at Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort is how little I reached for my phone while I was there.