It’s time to let go of that highly coveted and hardly realistic “bikini body” fantasy and shift your focus. This summer, it’s time to focus on a new kind of purpose: Feeling flipping awesome. The summer season has us all craving a getaway, because who can expect us to dive into fall without a mind-body-soul makeover?
These seven summer wellness retreats are among the most popular in the world. They offer a wide range of activities, therapies, and myriad forms of relaxation for you to choose from. And who knows, maybe you’ll get that bikini body you wanted in the first place, only without all the accompanying anxiety, deprivation, and lackluster scenery.
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1. Peak Health, Switzerland
Nestled in the Swiss Alps, Peak Health is one of the best summer wellness retreats. The retreat offers a full-body evaluation, nutritional consultations, daily Olympic trainer-guided hikes, and meals prepared by a Michelin-starred chef. Peak Health’s methodology, the Lifestyle Quadrant, is simple but effective. It focuses on four key components of wellness: physical fitness, diet and nutrition, sleep quality, and mindfulness practices.
Peak Health addresses hormonal imbalances and seeks to improve metabolism, digestion, nutrient assimilation, the ability to burn fat, and weight loss. When the retreat is over, participants leave with a six-week personalized program that includes information, tools, and resources to integrate the Lifestyle Quadrant into their daily lives.
2. Winvian Farm, Connecticut
If you live and work in and around an East Coast metropolitan, consider Winvian Farm your savior. This is one of the best summer wellness retreats. Eighteen cottages and a suite lace the 113-acre Relais & Chateaux property in Morris, Connecticut, offering a unique R&R experience with wine in hand and five-star dining to match.
This retreat is around woodland and meadows, and features a 40-foot swimming pool, winding paths, organic gardens, and a luxury spa. Winvian Farm is New England luxury at its finest.
3. La Reserve Ramatuelle: Hotel, Spa and Villas, France
La Réserve Ramatuelle’s subtle, expert design accomplishes what any facility perched over the Mediterranean should do: let nature speak for itself. La Réserve Ramatuelle is more than a hotel – it offers two wellness programs that aim to combine a life focused on pleasure with the latest scientific breakthroughs in the field of anti-aging. The Nescens Boot Camp is a three or five-day program that includes Nordic Walking, spa treatments, and the benefits of a light Mediterranean cuisine.
The Nescens Better-Aging Exclusive Experience digs even deeper and lasts four, six, or more days. The program offers four body treatments per day – a massage bath, a body wrap, a jet shower, and a 50-minute massage – as well as a lipomassage every other day, a daily coach-led physical activity (yoga, fitness, aqua-gym, walking, etc.), and three tailored meals per day.
4. FX Mayr Health Center, Austria
FX Mayr is legendary in Europe and around the world. Dr. Franz Xaver Mayr founded the “FX Mary cure”, a diagnosis and treatment methodology that was revolutionary during his time. The “cure” hinges on bringing the intestine and digestion into optimal condition by applying five basic principles: rest, cleansing, training, rhythm, and conscious abstinence.
Doctors and therapists at the center combine traditional medicine, complementary medicine, and aesthetic medicine to bring you results. While experiencing the FX Mayr cure, enjoy the scenes of Carinthia from a house built on a low hill on the southern shore of Lake Wörthersee. Behind you are woods, meadows, fields, and lush nature. Mayr programs last a minimum of ten days and range in offerings, from basic to intense.
5. LifeCo, Turkey
Frequented by Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, the LifeCo in Bodrum, Turkey, offers comprehensive detoxification programs to its visitors that aim for boosted immunity, alkalizing the body through raw/vegan nutrition, and weight loss. To achieve its ends, LifeCo does not disappoint when it comes to both new-age and age-old alternative therapies.
It provides coffee enemas, wheatgrass implants, ozone sauna sessions, oxygen therapy, sodium inhaler administration, magnetotherapy, biophoton therapy, salt therapy, luminette light therapy, infrared sauna sessions, colon hydrotherapy, and a range of massage and skin treatments. Book a stay as long as you desire and get ready to shed the toxins, the weight, and the bad mood.
6. The Marbella Club, Spain
The Marbella Club is one of the best summer wellness retreats. It began as a project by an eccentric aristocrat and playboy named Ricardo Soriano Marqués de Ivanrey. Today, it’s a hot-spot destination for Spain’s elite and others who are looking for the best of the best of everything, including wellness.
The Marbella Club Thalasso Wellness philosophy has four pillars: mindset, sleep, nutrition, and movement. While you luxuriate under the Andalusian sun, indulge in a personalized wellness program. Choose from The Mediterranean Lifestyle, Cleanse & Purify, Bikini Body & Beach Ready, Destress & Unwind, Tranquility & Sleep Enhancing, and Optimal Fitness & Energy programs.
7. BodyHoliday, Cariblue Beach, St. Lucia
Its namesake says it all. The BodyHoliday in Saint Lucia tells prospective retreaters to “give us your body for a week, and we’ll give you back your mind.” With its facilities on a secluded cove of white sand beach at the edge of the Caribbean Sea, it’s hard to resist the temptation. BodyHoliday encourages vacationers to stay as long or as short as they like, fueling their bodies with food at the resort’s five-star restaurants, which use fruits and vegetables grown in the resort’s very own organic garden.
Meanwhile, vacationers have access to state-of-the-art body treatments and therapies as well as various physical activities, including yoga, fitness classes, scuba diving, sailing, tennis, golf, biking, hiking, and more. The all-inclusive stay includes daily complimentary 50-minute sessions of a therapy of choice, such as a massage, body wrap, Thalasso therapy, or facial.
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