If you’re looking for a vacation that focuses on wellbeing and relaxation, you may be eyeing up some spas and wellness retreats, but where to begin? It all depends on what you’re hoping to achieve. Perhaps you’re seeking stress relief and rejuvenation and would like world class treatments in a pampering setting that’s supportive and sumptuous? Or maybe you’re looking to jump-start a lifestyle change, with a vacation that includes fitness, healthy food, meditation and yoga. Here, we’ll begin by answering a few FAQs about spas and wellness retreats, and then we’ll jump into some of our favorite options.
What is a spa?
There are always exceptions, of course, but generally speaking, a spa is a place of wellbeing, pampering and relaxation. You might attend a spa for one treatment, or for a package that spans the whole day. And there are countless types of spa – for instance, medical spas offer advanced aesthetic treatments alongside the usual facials, while thermal spas use heat to soothe the body, through baths, steam rooms and hammams. Spas might have specialisms in aromatherapy, ayurveda or thalassotherapy. Increasingly, the world’s best hotels are devoting time and money to elaborate spa offerings, so in the best case scenario, you’re also sleeping in the same building.
What is a wellness retreat?
This tends to be a structured vacation, based around one or more activities, like yoga, pilates, hiking or meditation. Guests are encouraged to really break from their everyday lives and feel invigorated by programmes that include meals cooked by private chefs, time for reflection, nature walks, rest, and classes and workshops, possibly with some treatments woven into the itinerary, too.
What is included in a spa day?
Sometimes, you just want to lie down and luxuriate somewhere that was purpose built to be soothing, and not leave it for a full day. That’s where spa days come in. Whether you choose one or six treatments to have while you’re there, a spa day will usually involve paying a fee to use facilities like relaxation lounges, thermal suites, baths and pools.
Read more about spa treatments with: Ayurveda to Onsen: These Wellness Practices Have Stood the Test of Time
Soma Byron Bay, Australia
Give our Inspiring Australia journey a boost by booking into one of the best wellness retreats in the world while you’re in the right hemisphere. In the middle of the Australian rainforest, Soma is architecturally unique – all sharp-edged and super luxe, purpose built to offer people a place to escape and “reengineer their lives”. It’s run by Gary Gorrow, a Vedic meditation expert with CEO clients, and Peter Ostick, a founder and business person who went on his own life-saving mindfulness journey. Through the bamboo thicket is a see-through geodesic dome, where classes take place. Retreats are two to three days long, with a focus on meditation, yoga, rounding (advanced, for Vedic meditators) or immersion (for those experiencing burnout). When guests are not in breathwork, yoga or meditation classes, there is a freshwater infinity pool, a whole food plant-based menu, and a schedule of bodywork treatments.
Fairmont Banff Springs, Canada
On our Majesty of the Rockies journey, we spend two nights at this hotel, a castle in the Rocky Mountains, surrounded by lush forest. The castle contains one of the best spas in the world, and certainly one of the most picturesque: the Willow Stream Spa. Here, a gentle soundtrack for your relaxation is provided by burbling mineral pools and trickling waterfalls, and treatments are designed with the landscapes in mind. The Signature Healing Ascent is two hours of deep relaxation and rejuvenation for your whole body: a warm, aromatic footbath, followed by a dry-brush exfoliation and a soothing, hydrating massage. And the Alpine Glow LED Facial promotes healing, stimulates collagen production, and leaves you as radiant as the Rockies.
Bookmark for later: In Canada’s Rocky Mountains, Natural Wellness and Luxury Go Hand in Hand
Acquaforte Thalasso and Spa, Sardinia
This dreamy, bougainvillea-adorned Sardinian estate contains one of the best spas in the world, and one of the best thalassotherapy centres in the world. Thalassotherapy is all about the healing powers of seawater, something the Romans knew all about – there are ruins of their thermal bath in Nora, a few minutes from the resort. Then, 25 years ago, a medical team led by Dr Angelo Cerina came to finish what the Romans started, creating an extraordinary method for detoxing and rejuvenating the body. At Acquaforte now, there are six pools of Sardinian sea water, with varying saline densities and at varying temperatures. There are also wonderful massages, including one with honey and salt, designed to “purify and smooth the skin, preparing it to welcome the smiling sun”.
Kamalaya Koh Samui, Thailand
This tends to be a wellness retreat for people who are serious about doing a lot of work on themselves, people who might describe themselves as being on a journey. There are also what you might call regulars who return year after year to this, one of the best spas in the world. On the other hand, maybe you just feel it’s high time for a gut cleanse, or to master some pranayama breathing techniques, and you’d like to do so on a tropical hillside sanctuary, with a private beach. Rightfully on any list of best spas in the world, Kamalaya offers comprehensive wellness programmes dealing with detoxing, stress and burnout, and creating healthy lifestyles. Whether you’re searching for “internal harmony” or something less ambitious, as soon as you land here, you’ll feel better.
You might also enjoy: For Stress-Free Travel, These Luxury Products Make All the Difference
Six Senses Vana, India
This one-of-a-kind Himalayan resort falls wholeheartedly into the wellness retreat category. Your experience begins before you even arrive, when you’ll be asked for all the information staff need to draw up your custom health and wellness plan. On arrival, your guest experience manager will provide detox tea and linen kurta pyjamas, and from there it’s a minimum of five days of immersion in healing, rebalancing, rewilding and rechilding. Each day of your stay involves yoga, meditation, workshops, functional fitness, wellness consultations and treatments. The food is wonderful and your menus will be tailored to which Ayurvedic dosha you are diagnosed as: vata, pitta, or kapha. Meals are not meagre bootcamp offerings, but feast-like thalis, abundant with curries, salads, rice and chutneys. Explore our luxury India vacations.
The Spa at Coworth Park, UK
If you’re the sort of traveler who has our Castles & Kingdoms journey on your to-do list, you will adore the traditional spa at this Berkshire country estate, amid green fields and wildflower meadows, a mere hour from London. Guests in thick, white robes follow the English oak trees to the dual level eco-luxury spa, where they can pick and choose from personalised massages, skincare (“the Germaine de Capuccini Timexpert Hydralyronic facial” reaches deep into the skin for “noticeable outcomes”), nail care and more. Visit for one treatment or stay for the day; it’s a beautiful place to luxuriate, with a gym and a gorgeous indoor pool.
Go behind the scenes: Skip The Jacuzzi and Brave the Ice Bath: Industry Insider Joanna Moran Reveals Her Top Spa Secrets
Le Grand Spa at Le Grand Bellevue, Switzerland
Extend your Luxury Gold journey through Majestic Switzerland to incorporate the divinely alpine town of Gstaad. Le Grand Bellevue is a lemon-coloured Wes Anderson-style palace that’s spilling with blooms through summer and thickly snow-clad through winter. Within, there’s caviar at Leonard’s, truffle fondue at the log cabin Le Chalet, adaptogenic coffee at the art deco bar and reviving sleep in sumptuous suites. But Le Grand Spa is the cherry on the layer cake, with its 17 wellness zones including steam baths, an ice fountain, a herbal sauna, a hay sauna, a salt inhalation grotto and an outdoor relaxation pool. And if that doesn’t soothe and calm you, the Swiss Back Release will restore you to a truly blissed, Swiss state.
SHA Mexico
The original SHA opened in Alicante, Spain in 2008, when its in-depth approach to holistic living made it stand out from wellness culture as a whole. Their follow-up property is even better. It’s in the north of the Riviera Maya, on the coast of Costa Mujeres, with acres of wild white sands and turquoise waters. If you want all that natural beauty, but you also want a program that’s “data driven and science-led”, SHA is for you. The ‘recover and energize’ program, for instance, is a minimum of four days and includes a 3D body scan, various medical appointments with clinicians, tailored meal plans, acupuncture, osteopathy, Abhyanga massage, intravenous ozone therapy treatment, personal training, cryotherapy and so much more. SHA’s are the best wellness retreats in the world if you want a true 360-degree experience.
Dior Spa at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, France
There are a few Dior spas, including a cocooning, white, sanctuary-like space at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris, but for a more escapist wellness vacation, this one in Antibes is more invigorating. The spa is on the edge of the hotel grounds, beyond a 150-year-old rose garden and a grove of imposing pine trees. The treatment rooms are adorned with Dior textiles, mostly white and blue to echo the glittering French Riviera location. There are four Dior-designed wellness programs available: relaxation therapy, detox and slimming therapy, reverse aging therapy and homme therapy. And there’s an Eden-Roc eau de parfum to take home with you, so the scent of salty sea air and pine lingers, along with your newfound sense of wellbeing. Our Ultimate France journey begins at the Fairmont Monte Carlo, less than an hour from here.
More inspiration for spa lovers: Expert Selected: The 4 Best Hotel Spas You Can Visit With Luxury Gold
Two Bunch Palms, USA
An actual oasis in the Californian desert, this is a contemporary wellness hotel and hot springs, with mineral waters emerging from a 600-year-old spring. Sprinkled among the palm groves are hammocks, parasols and shaded rock grotto pools – it offers the sort of relaxation that involves quietly padding around barefoot in the sunshine. One of the best spas in the world, the treatment rooms are cool, breezy standalone bungalows for individual massages and facials, or you can go all-in with the four-hour Desert Revival, which includes massage, reiki and an adaptogen wrap. The rest of the experience is distinctly Californian, with sound baths, cacao ceremonies and vision board creation available, plus vegetable-forward dinners, matcha lattes and date shakes made with dates from Coachella Valley.
Amanemu, Japan
Aman are responsible for many of the best spas in the world, and each suite or villa has its own onsen at their ryokan-inspired retreat in the south-western Ise-Shima National Park. Ancient pilgrim trails through dense forests lead to Shinto shrines, and guests have access to boats on Ago Bay, home to a community of pearl fishers and female freedivers, the ama. The spa features two private onsen pavilions, an outdoor yoga deck and hydrotherapy, and treatments incorporate local, seasonal ingredients, such as pearl powder, seaweed, and herbs and plants used in traditional kampo therapies. The area is renowned for its seafood, so there’s plenty of post-spa spiny lobster and abalone. And the Ise Jingu shrine breakfast is a deeply soothing tray of rice, fish, tofu, miso soup and pickles – a very alive way to start the day. Experience the majesty and mystery of Japan on our 11-day journey.
You may also enjoy reading: A Haven of Tranquility: Discovering the Best Luxury Spas in Japan
BodyHoliday Cariblue Beach, St. Lucia
This is everything you want from a luxury all-inclusive vacation in the Caribbean – beach location, lush tropical garden, butler service, hammocks, six restaurant options, spectacular views, scuba diving and kayaking – but with an added holistic living dimension at one of the best spas in the world. It’s a BodyHoliday, after all. Not a grueling one, though – the food is organic, with a farm-to-table focus, the daily lineup of fitness activities ranges from Beach Fit and BodySpin to beach trails, triathlon and yoga, and each day you can choose from a selection of 50-minute treatments, such as an aloe body wrap and a serenity massage. The resort also runs some more structured five-day wellness retreats, but it’s a delicious health and wellbeing reset whichever way you do it.
For the ultimate luxury vacation, take a look at our collection of limited-edition small group luxury journeys.
