Transformational travel: wellness retreats to change your life in 2018

It's inevitable: the dawn of a new year means people everywhere are making fresh commitments to finally get back into shape or to improve their health. Challenging though it can be, the process is made significantly easier when expert guidance is readily available and your exertions are undertaken in the most beautiful of surroundings.

For those in need of keep-fit motivation, below are the most exciting health and wellness innovations being offered at incredible luxury hotels, resorts and spas around the world in 2018.  

Lakeside spas

A clutch of new and supremely serene lakeside spas are offering a natural dose of tranquillity for mind, body and soul. Just opened at Bürgenstock Resort (from ￡494) on Switzerland’s Lake Lucerne, where Audrey Hepburn married Mel Ferrer in the 1950s, the 10,000sq m spa is a super-modern homage to the lake.

Vast floor-to-ceiling glass walls let you drink in the spectacular lake views, an outdoor infinity-edge pool looks down on it, and the spa uses recycled energy-saving lake water to fill it, and to power its signature Vichy shower.

In Italy, Lake Como’s hottest hotel, Il Sereno (from ￡710), has also just launched its spa, in what was originally the hotel’s boathouse. Expect lake-facing treatment rooms and a private outdoor relaxation area with a plunge pool suspended over the water.

Over in South Tyrol, at the recently opened mountain hotel San Luis (from ￡229), a vision of masculine black-slate-and-glass walls and antique wood, the spa juts out over the lake. After you’ve sampled its new detox body treatment of lymphatic-stimulating salts and skin brushing with a soft goat-hair bristle brush, you can head to the lakeside Jacuzzi.

Launched last month in Hamburg, The Fontenay hotel (from ￡315) is curved and clad in white porcelain tiles to mirror the shimmering waters of the lake.It features a rooftop La Mer spa and a fleet of water-based therapies. Take a dip in the outdoor infinity-edged pool and it feels like you’re actually swimming in the Alster lake.
By Suzanne Duckett

Healing heroes

Wellness-orientated resorts have been offering us the chance to develop our yoga practice or get fitter under the masterful eye of visiting experts for a while. But never has the standard been so high – and the ante will be well and truly upped in 2018, with super-specialist, prestigious practitioners offering highly targeted health boosts.

The enchanting, art-filled Hotel Villa La Coste, recently opened north of Aix-en-Provence in France, completes its wood-clad Ila spa this coming spring and will launch a series of programmes designed to calm the nervous system and reset the whole body.

They kick off in March with a holistic retreat combining cranial osteopathy with John Loftus; acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine with Anna Kiff; and aromatherapy with Suzanne McKee – each a long-standing expert in their field. In May, craniosacral master teacher and practitioner Leonid Sebeloff will be in residence.

Further afield, at the impeccable Amanpuri on Phuket in Thailand, guests can take courses from April with qigong master Tevia Feng in White Tiger Qigong, which mixes Chinese qigong and Chinese medicine with sports science and anatomy to improve strength and flexibility and wring out toxic emotions.

The spiritually adventurous can learn level one there and the next three levels at Amansara (Cambodia), Amanoi (Vietnam) and Amantaka (Laos) respectively, then the master level at Amankora (Bhutan).

At the overwater Meera Spa at Gili Lankanfushi in the North Malé atoll of the Maldives, April see s a week-long residency with internationally acclaimed Transformational Breath coach Rebecca Dennis, to help clients deal with issues such as stress, anxiety, addiction, depression and erratic sleep.
By Caroline Sylger Jones

Transformational travel

Possibly the most significant industry trend in recent years has been experiential travel: the genuine desire to get under the skin of the place you’re visiting. In 2018, it’s all about transformational travel – motivated by a desire to shift one’s perspective, to self-reflect and develop.

Enter the new seven-day transformative journey at Deplar Farm on Iceland’s Troll Peninsula by wellness specialists Chosen, in collaboration with Eleven Experience.

With an expert-led, adventure-based itinerary, the retreat combines experiences – such as high-octane trips to the Arctic Circle in a Twin Otter seaplane, sea kayaking with rescue-skill training, and dry-suit snorkelling with whales and puffins – with cooking lessons, hikes and mindfulness. (The Chosen Iceland Experience, departing on June 2 and September 8, costs from ￡12,183.)

In March, pioneer of conservation tourism in South Africa, Londolozi, relaunches its original Varty Camp, adding a Wilderness Healing House for safari retreats combining spectacular game drives with healing, life-coaching, sound therapy and wild yoga (from ￡641 per person).

From February onwards, Wildfitness launches intimate, restorative retreats in Costa Rica, (from ￡2,000 per week) combining high-intensity workouts with boxing, barefoot running and mindset workshops. 
By Francesca Syz

Ancient wisdom

While everyone has their favourite Greek island, far fewer could tell you their sweet spot in the Peloponnese. A clutch of interesting hotels in the region are changing all that, but Euphoria Retreat, a destination spa due to open in May an hour from Kalamata, is like nothing else that’s come before.

On the outskirts of the Byzantine town of Mystras (a 13th-century Unesco World Heritage Site), it’s a wellness retreat specialising in restoring balance in your life through ancient Greek philosophies blended with Chinese medicine.

You can book individual sessions, or focused three-day retreats for particular goals, such as improving body image or creating meaningful relationships.

Or book a week-long “Physical and emotional transformation” retreat. The retreat itself is a modern take on Byzantine architecture, with a spectacular stone-arched sphere pool.

Activities include biking, trekking, rock climbing and outdoor yoga. You can also stroll along a track to the Mystras archaeological site, or drive 10 minutes to explore the ancient warrior city of Sparta. Seven-night programmes start from ￡2,670.
By Francesca Syz

The natural approach

Six Senses will take the concept of a spa journey to a whole new level this spring, with the opening of five intimate lodges in Bhutan. While you don’t have to blaze a trail to all five, every location offers a unique opportunity to restore balance.

Start in Bhutan’s mountain capital, Thimphu, at an earthy “Palace in the Sky”, and soak in a traditional bath heated by fire-roasted river stones which release beneficial minerals into the water. In Bumthang, designers have created a forest-within-a-forest, with giant-windowed rooms of recycled wood, blurring the lines between you and nature.

In rural, fertile Punakha, home is a recreation of a traditional farmhouse and overlooks the Mo Chu river, with meditation huts and foot baths to soothe hike-weary feet.

At Gangtey, you can gaze over the valley, cocooned in a wooden steam chest. And at Paro, the lodge, overlooking 12th-century stone ruins, has working fireplaces, private meditation rooms and an outdoor sauna. Scott Dunn offers a seven-night trip spending three nights at two different lodges, from ￡4,500.
By Francesca Syz