Wellness retreats for body and mind

The beginning of a new year is the perfect opportunity to rebalance and recharge. If you want to make 2022 the year you put your health and wellbeing front and centre, start things off right with a visit to a wellness retreat. We’ve rounded up some of the best in the world, from a Cotswolds sanctuary with a local ethos to a tropical escape in the Maldives. Some are focused on food and nutrition, others on fitness, others still on meditation and mindfulness. But all are designed to improve your health – mind, body and soul.

We’ve also included a collection of homes around the world with exceptional personal wellness facilities, from swimming pools to hammams to gyms, so you can carry on the healthy habits at home.

Bamford Haybarn Spa, Cotswolds, UK

You may know the Daylesford name through its London food stores, but this is the Cotswolds mothership, rooted on the farm where the Bamford family have been championing organic farming since the 1980s. It’s not so much a farm as a way of life, with the ethos of healthy soil, zero-mile ingredients and nutritious food permeating through the cottages, hotel and restaurant that followed in its wake, all scented by lemon thyme, lavender and chamomile. The spa, with its sculptural tree roots in the lobby, has a serene aura about it, inviting residential and day guests to make use of a recently opened herbal steam room, crystal sauna and wellness pool. There are all sorts of classes and workshops, from sound healing to breath work, with yoga curated by Vettri Selvan (an accomplished guru Carole Bamford met in India) while a Harley Street psychotherapist conducts anxiety-banishing sessions using crystal healing. Afterwards, there are healthy farm-to-fork plates such as buckwheat wraps with ewe’s curd and sweet potato, and invigorating walks around the market garden and fields. It’s all presented with enthusiasm and passion – little wonder that outposts continue to seed and sprout, from London’s Berkeley Hotel to onboard the Belmond Royal Scotsman, as well as in New York (a favourite with Claudia Schiffer). bamford.com

Treatment to book The jade hot- and cold-stone massage is Carole Bamford’s go-to therapy – a beguilingly subtle treatment that has a long-lasting effect.

Amanera, Dominican Republic

There’s little point in travelling to the Caribbean just to spend all your time in a yoga studio. This Aman creation opened in 2016 as the group’s first golf resort, its signature clean-lined, low-slung architecture set by the beach within earshot of crashing waves. So there are fairways to walk, biodiverse-rich jungles to explore, and sands to lie on or cast off from on seaward adventures. But this great sense of the outdoors extends to the spa, which draws on the hotel’s elemental setting for its treatments, dipping into the herbal traditions of the indigenous Taíno people. Spa therapists will show you which plants to pick for home-made healing potions, while rituals in the cliff-top spa use natural ingredients such as amethyst powder, sea lavender and raw honey. There’s fun to be had in the Dominican-inspired movement classes using salsa, merengue and bachata, while beach fitness circuits make use of the sands – as does the moonlight yoga session. A calming destination for a sunshine fix. aman.com

Treatment to book The lunar healing New Moon experience using a blue gemstone called larimar, beginning with a traditional palo-santo smudging ceremony and continuing with a foot massage and hot-stone massage. Or if all that sounds too intense, the pre-sun Dominican Coffee Scrub.

Forestis, Italy

The Dolomites are Italy’s great fresh-air playground, and with their swooping, sublime peaks and pine-carpeted valleys, there’s a sense that simply standing still, breathing in and enjoying the view will have a restorative hit equal to a week in a spa. That’s almost true. But at Forestis you get the views – the whole place leans towards them at every opportunity, from the theatre-like restaurant to bedrooms and treatment spaces – as well as some of Europe’s most progressive, nature-based therapies. It’s the work of two young first-time hoteliers, Teresa Unterthiner and Stefan Hinteregger, who have created something original and refreshing, avoiding Alpine cliches and using local materials where possible. While the original building here was once a royal sanatorium, the new-build spa has an almost sculptural design, carved from Dolomite stone and wood, with a rooftop bar you could yodel from. Treatments, meanwhile, dip into Celtic mythology, with druid-inspired meditation and yoga in the woods, forest salt baths, and a range of sessions using wooden sticks on pressure points (see which tree you have an affinity with: mountain pine, spruce, larch or stone pine). This isn’t so much tree-hugging as a rewardingly close embrace of the great outdoors. forestis.it

Treatment to book The Tree Circle Ceremony, which sounds a little Lord of the Flies but is actually an invigorating, highly memorable massage-based ritual using wooden sticks, pine oil and body scrub.

Kamalaya, Thailand

Kamalaya has the sort of backstory from which legends are made – it was founded by an art-dealing monk after he stumbled across a hermit’s cave on the south coast of Koh Samui and decided to build a hillside spa here. Teak-lined villas, yoga salas and lotus ponds are set among the jungle and boulders, the sound of streams and nature bringing an instant calming effect. But while this looks and feels like an upscale Thai resort, it also has a deep-rooted wellness reputation, honed by an insightful team of doctors, therapists and naturopaths who draw on all sorts of disciplines from Ayurveda to contemporary medicine. Guests come to shed the pounds, reboot their fitness and perfect their Pilates, but Kamalaya is also very well-positioned as a post-Covid retreat in which to re-evaluate life, with its popular Embracing Change course tackling negative habits and emotional blockages. However you decide to spend your time here, before leaving make sure you spend some reflective time in the meditation cave, illuminated by flickering candles, where it all began. kamalaya.com

Treatment to book The seven-day Resilience & Immunity, aimed at post-viral sufferers and those who simply want to be better fortified, and using Traditional Chinese Medicine, mindfulness, bioresonance therapy and massage.

Patina, Maldives

Morning yoga may be a familiar experience for spa aficionados, but how many start the day with a sun salutation in a site-specific installation by legendary light artist James Turrell? Patina arrived in the North Malé atoll in 2021, the first of a new, sustainably minded brand from the switched-on Capella group, which will act as a hub for the Fari Islands when it’s joined by two other resorts (the Ritz-Carlton and the Capella). As well as Turrell’s Skyspace, there’s a 20-berth marina – home to the hotel’s own superyacht – an art gallery and marine conservation programme, while villas and rooms are all designed in a tropical modernist style, with glass walls that retract on three sides. The Flow Spa is equally progressive, using OSEA and Haeckels products rich in seaweed and algae, and treatments that range from sci-fi-style experiences – LED light therapy, sound immersion – to gentle, Balinese-style body massages and watsu water sessions. In the evening, toast marshmallows around the fire, feast on lobster ceviche and return to find 3D-printed vitamins on your bed instead of chocolates – it’s that kind of place. patinahotels.com

Treatment to book Immerse yourself in a Dream Scapes session in the float pod, which uses sound and images for a deeply meditative relaxation experience.

Sha Wellness Clinic, Spain

In a region of southern Spain better known for its golfing greens than its medi-clinics, this sleek, high-achieving retreat has carved out an enviable reputation that draws back guests again and again. Much of that is based on the sheer know-how that drives the treatments, which combine natural therapies and traditional Chinese techniques with up-to-the-minute research and NASA-developed equipment. Many come here for the weight-loss programme (the menu is Mediterranean and fun, not spartan) but there’s something here for everyone, from anti-ageing and immune-system-boosting (using ozone therapy) to treatments for depression, insomnia and stress. You can even be genetically tested to determine a hyper-personal regime. Despite all its qualifications, blood tests and technical prowess, it feels more like a beach club than a hospital, with relaxed open-plan villas that look out over infinity pools to the mountains or sea. You will emerge feeling lighter, energised and increasingly optimistic about 2022. shawellnessclinic.com

Treatment to book The seven-night Rebalance programme should fix any post-lockdown anxiety and sluggishness, drawing together cryotherapy, detox massages, sports activities and nutrition to reboot the whole system.

Arctic Bath, Sweden

There’s been a recent boom in Scandinavian architecture that hunkers down stylishly and sustainably in the landscape. This floating spa amid the wide-open vistas of far-north Lapland was much awaited ahead of its 2020 opening, and didn’t disappoint. From above, its criss-crossed pine-log design – assembled by the same architect behind the innovative Treehotel nearby – resembles a frosted doughnut. From the ground, it’s a little Game of Thrones, suggestive of serious physical challenges ahead. But apart from the cold-water immersion – optional, of course, but there’s little point coming and not taking an immune-boosting dip – this is a comforting, rejuvenating place to spend a few days. Guests cosy up in the minimalist hygge of reindeer skins and stripped-back timber, hop between sauna and steam rooms, and experiment with the Sámi-inspired menu (berries, Arctic char, smoked butter). In the summer, launch yourself off your private deck into the river; and whatever the season, local guides are at hand to share their Sámi culture and introduce you to their reindeer herd. arcticbath.se

Treatment to book The 80-minute Bäck stone massage with river stones traditionally used by the Sámi people.

Rick Jordan was senior editor at Condé Nast Traveller for many years, writing about hotels, villas, spas, food and culture and visiting destinations from Spain to Laos. Born in Edinburgh, he lives in North London and is a keen observer of the city’s bar and restaurant scene.

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