The Vitality Pool, an indoor-outdoor infinity pool

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

Before arrival

I usually find large spas intimidating; I never know where to start or how to get the most out of my visit. Basin makes it simple. Before entering the space, guests can choose from a series of curated Thermal Trails that are designed to guide you through its many offerings based on your intention for the day. My goal was to leave Basin feeling more relaxed and more present than when I came in. I chose the Stillness Trail and received a small guide sheet to follow. My trail instructed me to begin with a 10-minute session in the hot stone room, followed by a Kneipp walk, then time in the hydro pool, aromatic steam room, waterfall shower, bio sauna, and salt relaxation room, ending in the herbal tea room. Instead of guessing what to try first, Basin set me up for success from the start and offered me an overview of each treatment and the benefit of a thermotherapy circuit.

And while there

To understand Basin, forget everything you know about spas. Basin Glacial Waters is an all-sensory experience that’s designed to benefit every part of the mind, body, and spirit. And whatever your wellness goals, there are plenty of thermotherapy options to choose from. At Basin, you’ll find everything from classic spaces like a steam room to loosen tight muscles and clear congestion to revolutionary sauna rituals that encourage complete mindfulness.

One of my favorite stops at Basin that highlighted all the benefits of a thermotherapy circuit was the Kneipp pool. Guests alternate walking slowly through two side-by-side pools of contrasting temperatures at least three times. Alternating between these two extremes is intended to calm the nervous system, strengthen the immune system, and stimulate lower leg circulation. In between treatments, I stopped by the Glacier Lounge to rehydrate and refuel. I was able to choose from a menu of clean dishes and refreshing juices, teas, and elixirs.

I took part in a unique sauna ceremony called the Aufguss ritual, and it was without a doubt the most impactful part of my visit at Basin. The European wellness tradition, pioneered by sauna master Lasse Eriksen, is a multi-sensory experience designed to lift mood and mental clarity, heighten your senses, loosen deep-held tension, and aid in detoxification. During the 15-minute group ceremony, rising heat and steam are swirled by the sweep of a towel, carrying the scent of pure essential oils through the air. I’ve been in many saunas before, but none quite like this. It was hotter than any sauna I had ever stepped foot in—and the heat only continued to rise. As sweat poured from every inch of my body, I couldn’t think about anything other than the heat. All other thoughts were pushed away. Our instructor guided us through the discomfort, allowing us to push ourselves further than we thought possible. The ritual offers a challenging mind and body connection that forces you to stay calm and present.

Intermittent fasting. Cryotherapy. Pleasure-dampening GLP-1 drugs. Silent retreats. Dark retreats. But in our obsessive, high-tech pursuit of longevity, we’re also craving a bit of lo-fi, sensory-igniting fun, especially on vacation. Wellness tourism is one of the fastest-growing segments of travel, predicted to reach over $1.4 trillion by 2027. Longevity clinics and biohack clubs aren’t going away. In fact, they’ll be more ubiquitous than ever, but next year they’ll be the mainstay of business or bleisure travelers looking to maintain their health goals on the road and combat jet-lag. The leisure traveler is tired of optimizing every inch of their life and just wants to let loose a little. Wellness-minded hotels and retreats have taken note and are offering more opportunities to dance to DJ beats, star gaze under dark skies, sweat to sauna performances, and most of all, socialize.

We’re going back-to-basics, looking to centuries-old healing practices and tapping into a bit of mysticism with modalities like soundbaths and astrology. Star gazing will be the preferred way to meditate and desert landscapes are where we’ll go to find our zen. Cultivating purpose is key to longevity and we’ll hone new passions and seek out a new breed of wellness adventures. And at the gym, we’ll skip burpees in favor of brain exercises.This will be the year of women’s health, but also family-focused wellness, with more spas offering multi-gen retreats.

Prioritizing your health on holiday has never been easier. Bring the kids. Go solo. Socialize with strangers in the sauna. Have a glass of green juice, or champagne. Wellness your way is the new mantra. Here are the trends, resorts, retreats, and destinations that promise to make wellness travel less like a doctor’s visit, and more like a vacation in 2026.

Wellness seekers want to be social

We are social beings and amidst a global loneliness epidemic, travelers are craving connection. In response, spas and hotels are creating more communal spaces and ways for travelers to engage. Earlier this year, the Retreat, a veteran spa hotel in Costa Rica, unveiled Santosha Wellness Club. Set just below the main hotel, the new open-air clubhouse includes 10 luxury lofts, a gym and yoga studio, plus a chic lounge area with an infinity pool, tapas bar, and a restaurant steered by a Michelin-decorated chef. Famed Mykonos beachclub Scorpios blurs the lines between spa and nightclub at its new line of hotels. At its first outpost, Scorpios Bodrum in Türkiye, guests attend group sound baths and yoga sessions by day and at night, they dance to DJ beats. The same formula will roll out at forthcoming properties in Dubai and Aspen. Ahãma Living, another newcomer on the Turkish coast, is also a mish mash of spa offerings and nightlife. And longevity clubs are the new social club, with the hottest memberships being at spots like Remedy Place in NYC, LA, and Boston and the forthcoming Six Senses Place London and the Estate in LA.

Saunas will double as entertainment venues

Saunas have long been social hubs in Nordic countries—gathering places where friends and strangers would sweat it out and reconnect. The concept has swept across North America and Europe, but now we’re catching on to a wacky sauna group ritual known as aufguss. Meaning “infusion” in German, these 15-minute performances are hosted by a trained Aufgussmeister in a large communal sauna. The sauna master prances around the room to a soundtrack of music smashing ice balls infused with essential oils on hot rocks and using towels and fans to waft aromatic steam over half-naked bathers. Priedlhof, a resort in Naturno Italy, has an entire team of Aufgussmeisters who put on theatrical performances in its four-story sauna tower. An aufguss show is included in your entry fee to BASIN Glacial Waters, a new modern-day bathhouse at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise in Canada. Bathhouse Flatiron in New York hosts aufguss ceremonies and Othership, a spa with locations in Toronto and New York, takes a fresh approach with sauna parties featuring breath work, live music, and dancing for up to 90 people.

Women’s needs (menopause + more) are a top priority

After years of neglect, the health industry is finally waking up to the unique needs of women through their full life cycles. A group of doctors known as the “MenoPosse” are the latest stars on mainstream podcasts, speaking openly about once taboo topics, like vaginal dryness and hot flashes. Everyone from Naomi Watts to Michelle Obama have shared menopause experiences and celebrities like Kate Hudson and Halle Berry are talking about testosterone. After seeing an explosion of well-received menopause-focused retreats, spas are now taking a more 360-degree approach to what women need at various stages of their life. At Shou Sugi Ban House in the Hamptons, women can sign up for female-specific nutritional counseling to improve hormone health and support menstruation and fertility. Mothers-to-be can sign up for solo babymoon trips with Mom’z, a retreat group supported by a network of expert doulas, midwives, and wellness professionals. Four-night itineraries around Spain and Portugal include daily prenatal movement, journaling and visualization, and loads of pampering. Canyon Ranch, the OG of American wellness destinations, is making a statement with its next location in Lake Plato, Texas, just outside of Austin. When the resort debuts in September 2026 it will have a dedicated Women’s Collective that will address the needs of women in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s and beyond.

The time I began to notice some personal changes happened right around the time a certain word began infiltrating the cultural lexicon. “Perimenopause” was all over the talk shows, on shelves in book stores, and flooded all over my Instagram feed once the algorithm caught on to my googling “Why am I awake from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. every night?” The world was talking about this very important and often misunderstood stage in a woman’s life, but I was living the conversation. It meant that when Six Senses, a wellness pioneer and a thought leader in the space for decades, let me know they were creating and rolling out a dedicated female health program, aligned with but not limited to the onset of perimenopause, I was all ears. This was the first time I had ever felt such a disconnect from my body, and I know many of my friends, my peers, the fellow mothers in the playground, were feeling similarly. Our work outs lost their effectiveness, our thoughts dissolved before we could articulate them. Our hearts would beat as if running a marathon while lying in bed in the dead of night. I was not simply open to the idea of seeking professional help to get on top of it, I had already decided it was imperative to do so. Before I could say, “cortisol levels,” I was booking flights to Six Senses Douro Valley, in Portugal to try out their new perimenopause program. Here’s how it went.

In a nutshell

“Men have had extensive hormonal research done, but females are still playing catch up,” said Anna Bjurstam, the Head of Six Senses Spas and Wellness. As such she and her team have spent the last few years developing an effective program focussing on hormone balance, diet, exercise, sleep habits, bio and other metrics. Experts in the field—including Mindy Pelz who literally wrote the book on the importance of fasting in female health—oversee the program and according to Bjurstam, all practitioners will go through a certification on female health. Though it was piloted at Six Senses Douro Valley and is currently available at Six Senses Kanuhura in the Maldives, Six Senses Crans-Montana, Six Senses Ninha Van Bay, and Six Senses Rome, it will soon roll out across the entire Six Senses portfolio and guests can choose between three, five, and seven-day programs.

Before arrival

The program is designed to have you hit the ground running so much of the screenings happen before arrival. I had a series of calls with experts, including Javier Suarez, the property’s Director of Wellness and Joana Barretos, a physiotherapist and female health expert at home in New York in the weeks leading up to my visit. I will admit that I can be skeptical of short-term, intense wellness retreats—the all-in-approach over 72 hours that doesn’t replicate your life at home makes me dubious that the results will last, and I was here because I needed to make new habits that would work with my real life. I appreciated talking with Javier, who, after asking me to identify the key points I wanted to explore (trouble sleeping, weight gain, eating habits) told me to be me. “If you drink at home, don’t deprive yourself of a drink here,” he said. “You have to eat the fries.”

I submitted a questionnaire before my call with Joana, which allowed her to talk me through my symptoms and discuss my goals. For me, it was education so that I could effectively combat the fluctuations in weight, moodiness, fatigue, and more in my day to day life. We discussed my cycle, my diet, and my mental energy in recent months. I told her what exercise I preferred and did at home (a hard pass on yoga and pilates, which is often what these retreats seem to offer. I need a gym.). Three days before my arrival, a program was sent to my inbox.

Showers may have a monopoly on everyday cleansing, but bathtubs own luxury. Aside from good water pressure, attractive tiles, and walk-in enclosures, there have long been few better ways to upgrade the shower than there are the bathroom tub: Moisturizing bombs, salt soaks, whirlpool jets, “bath menus,” candles, and even expertly positioned TVs that let you stay watch game shows feel like the pinnacle of hotel luxury—plus, you get to lie down. But now, in a surprising twist, it might be the humble shower’s turn in the spotlight: High-end hotels around Italy are harnessing the power of the bathtub’s lesser sibling to offer something new and immerse guests in carefully designed temperatures, colors, water pressures, and aromatherapies.

“Emotional showers” are an increasingly common fixture of luxury Italian spas—and they are not what they sound like. I’ve experienced a lifetime of emotional showers (read: sobbing under running water), but here the term is a somewhat odd translation of “una doccia emozionale,” which might more aptly be called a “sensory shower.”

Most emotional showers offer different modes of water pressure, from hard rainfall to fine mists that correspond to specific lights and sounds. The intention is to engineer an emotional state, whether invigoration, serenity, or something in between, and to increase blood circulation. (It should be noted that most emotions, for example jealousy, disdain, and hilarity, are not on the menu.) Paramount to the experience is chromotherapy—the idea that colors offer different health and emotional benefits; here, colored light illuminates around you in an almost discoteca-like fashion.

Lake Como property Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni offers two types of preset sensory showers which incorporate automatic light settings, aromatherapy scents, and mist intensities.

Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni

Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, a luxurious 150-year-old estate perched on the edge of Lake Como in Bellagio, recently unveiled a newly renovated spa. Anointed “Luce del Lago,” or light of the lake, the tranquil new facilities are bathed in hues reflecting the water, shore, and sky of the surrounding landscape. There’s a focus on hydrotherapy, the centerpiece of which is a dreamy indoor pool with bubbles and currents that evoke the gently rolling lake, right beside a sauna and…an emotional shower.

The sensory shower offers two settings that are controlled by a button: a refreshing cool mist perfumed with oceanic oak moss and white musk, and an invigorating mango-fragranced “tropical rain,” both released from overhead. When I tried it the cool-mist setting bathed me in soft blue light, while the tropical rain paired with a stimulating red. I alternated back and forth between the two, relieved that neither temperature was scalding nor icily akin to the trendiness of cold-plunge circuits. I felt at once serene and energized.

I was sitting on a small wooden stool in a dark room, wearing nothing but a piece of white cloth tied around me like underwear when my Ayurvedic practitioner, Vijay, began singing me a pre-treatment prayer song. Her voice was soft and melodic, and the air around us smelled like jasmine and rose incense. Once the song was over, Vijay began to massage my scalp with warm medicated herbal oil, and I felt it dripping all over my head and onto the rest of my body. By the time she guided me over to the wooden massage table to cover the rest of my body with the warm oil, I’d already fallen into a state of deep relaxation. The voices in my mind—the ones that tend to narrate a situation as it is happening—had quieted. Of course the meditative power of massage is nothing new, but Vijay’s beautiful pre-treatment prayer song, coupled with the soothing Ayurvedic oils she rubbed into my skin, put me into one of the calmest, most grounded states I had ever experienced.

Such is the power of Ayurveda, a traditional medical system that originated in India more than five thousand years ago. I’d first learned about the ancient science through my husband Rahul, who grew up in New Delhi and had introduced me to its basic premise on my first visit to his childhood home a few years back. But after casually dabbling in its teachings here and there over the next few years, I’d finally decided to go all in and fully immerse myself–this is how I found myself at an Ayurvedic retreat in the southern Indian state of Kerala, the birthplace of Ayurveda.

Commonly referred to as the “sister science” to yoga, Ayurveda was first recorded in Sanskrit in four sacred texts known as the Vedas. It teaches its students that true health is achieved when you are living a life of perfect balance in your mind, body, and soul. Reaching this equilibrium requires a daily dedication to all sorts of habits and rituals, like timing your sleep to the sun, using healing herbs, spices, and medicated herbal oils, and eating with your dosha (the energy that defines a person’s genetic makeup) in mind, to name a few.

At Nattika Beach Ayurveda Hospital and Resort, where I stayed in Kerala, this was especially easy to do. The property is set on 16 acres of lush coconut groves overlooking the Arabian Sea, with 52 thatched-roof villas, an organic farm where the staff grows all their produce and herbs, a gorgeous yoga and meditation shala, and an Ayurveda Center where they conduct all of the treatments. Everything on my itinerary, from what I ate to how I exercised to the treatments I received, was selected by a team of expert Ayurvedic practitioners in an attempt to guide my body, mind, and spirit into harmony. Mornings began with sunrise meditation and gentle yoga by the sea, followed by a soothing Ayurvedic breakfast: warm herbal-infused water (my go-to was coriander water), spiced tea, and a variety of homemade dishes, from idli (South Indian fermented rice cakes) to cardamom oatmeal. Afternoons were spent at the treatment center, where I received all sorts of personalized therapies to balance my internal state, including shirodhara (during which a practitioner poured a steady stream of warm medicated oil over my forehead), ksheeradhara (a therapeutic milk bath where I laid down on a wooden bed and a practitioner poured warm rose-infused milk all over me to soothe my soul), and my abhyanga oil massage with Vijay. Dinners were early and light, and by the time I reached my villa around 8 p.m., it was easy to fall right to sleep under the slow hum of the overhead fan. Not that I had many other options anyway: WiFi was only available in the lobby, and there were no TVs or electronics in the room, either.

Given this backdrop, it should come as no surprise that I was glowing from the inside out by the time I left Nattika. Of course I was! I’d spent every hour of every day devoting myself to myself, and all of this self-care showed. But taking care of yourself at a dedicated wellness retreat is–no huge surprise–not that hard to do. The bigger challenge is finding ways to weave the lessons you learned into your everyday routine back home, when real life gets in the way. It hasn’t been easy, but I have managed to do it. While Ayurveda is a science of discipline—meaning the best results come from adhering to the Vedic texts as strictly as possible–there are still ways to incorporate Ayurveda in daily life without going into full-on retreat mode. Dr. Saroj Barthwal, an Ayurvedic practitioner from Jaipur, India, and the spa director at The Palms and The Shore Club in Turks & Caicos, says this Ayurvedic realism is more than okay: “The ancient Ayurvedic texts are filled with strict discipline, but today’s modern interpretation can be more loose and flexible,” Dr. Barthwal told me. “We simply encourage you to be aware, and then choose what’s best for you.”