A vacation is usually a license to sleep late, pig out, hit
the bar.
But with wellness tourism one of the world’s fastest growing
travel trends, the new way to de-stress on holiday spurns debauchery in pursuit
of loftier goals.
Wellness tourism accounted for 14% of the world’s tourism
expenditures in 2013, and it’s projected to grow 50% faster than overall global
tourism through 2017, according to a report by the New York-based industry
group, Global Wellness Institute.
With exotic locations, ancient healing traditions and
attentive personal service, it’s not surprising that Asia is one of the key
destinations contributing to the boom.
INDIA
Set in a maharajah’s palace in the Himalayan foothills, this
luxury spa is as remote and as spiritual as it gets.
Its neighbors are the meandering Ganges and town of
Rishikesh, the birthplace of yoga, and packed with yoga ashrams.
Ananda specializes in Ayurvedic healing, India’s ancient
holistic system using medicated oil treatments and foods to bring the body to
its natural balance and health.
A consultation with an Ayurvedic doctor determines each
guest’s body type and current imbalances and prescribes a program consisting of
daily massages and ancient traditional therapies.
Daily yoga and meditation classes are held in outdoor
pavilions or the palace ballroom.
Visiting healing masters offer various programs: Quit
Smoking, Diabetes and Cholesterol Management and Living With Arthritis are a
few examples.
Alternative treatments include reiki, psycho energy healing,
crystal healing, chakra healing and color therapy.
Fitness sessions are available in the gym, along with hiking
in the hills and whitewater rafting on the Ganges.
BALI
Como Shambhala Estate (Ubud)
This uber-luxe wellness resort is secluded in the forested
hills near Ubud.
Devoted to mind-body-spirit programs that aren’t everything
for everybody “but the best to an exacting few,” this health destination for
tropical luxury lovers is famed for its elegant villa interiors as much as its
health offerings.
Plenty of feel-good massages and facials are available, as
well as a variety of wellness therapies and events led by renowned visiting
masters.
A quality, organic restaurant is in the complex.
The five-day retreat, with a results-driven agenda, focuses
on intensive (five hours per day) yoga, Pilates and other wellness practices,
and a diet of organic and raw cuisine.
Fitness and martial arts practices take place in a state of
the art gym.
Activities include hiking, biking and rafting amid Bali’s
stunning rice paddies and river gorges.
BALI
Peppers Sentosa Seminyak Spa (Seminyak)
Peppers Sentosa Seminyak Spa offers an impressive range of
wellness options -- from massages and facials to holistic energy healing --
without forcing guests to be recluses.
It’s a contemporary wellness center within a stylish
boutique resort in Seminyak beach.
Next door to Seminyak’s boutiques, galleries, trendy
eateries and bars, it’s easy to combine detoxing with shopping, sightseeing and
surfing just outside the resort gates.
Inside the property, private garden-enclosed pool villas
offer privacy from the outside world.
Wellness programs are tailored individually.
Some of the services include: detox and colonic programs,
chakra-balancing, crystal healing, life coaching and even anti-aging medical
spa services such as Botox and mesotherapy treatments.
BALI
The Yoga Barn (Ubud)
With a rustic spiritual vibe, The Yoga Barn is a yoga
studio, holistic healing retreat and small hotel. It offers diverse programs taught by resident teachers and
visiting faculty.
Daily yoga classes include classical hatha, vinyasa flow,
power, pranayama, restorative, iyengar, yin and anusara yoga.
Other programs range from meditation and sound medicine to
even more esoteric options such as kirtan and ecstatic dance.
One-on-one classes are available to students of all levels.
Its holistic healing center includes Ayurvedic rejuvenation,
sound medicine, Chinese medicine, acupuncture, chiropractic, naturopathy,
Infra-Red sauna and many more.
The cafe offers an organic health menu, while the shop is
stocked with yoga and holistic products.
Located beside Ubud’s rice paddies, the Yoga Barn is walking
distance to the Sacred Monkey Forest Ubud Sanctuary as well as the town’s shops
and restaurants.
THAILAND
Thanyapura (Phuket)
If you’re looking for a boot camp-style, assault course or
triathlon training, this is the place.
Thanyapura promotes health, wellness and an improved
life -- its tagline is “get more out of
life" -- through sports and active lifestyle.
Numerous professional athletes from around the world come to
train.
Top coaches and cutting-edge programs don’t only provide
physical training but also “Sports Mindfulness training” and education about
preventive medicine.
The vast complex includes four centers -- a Sports and
Leisure Club, Mind Centre, Thanyapura Health and Phuket International Academy.
It also houses a "sports hotel" and a Thanyamundra
wellness retreat.
An amazing range of sports academies -- football, aquatics,
tennis, rugby, triathlon -- offer teams training and competitions at all levels
and ages.
The complex houses various quality sports venues, fitness
center and martial arts studios.
Facilities include a day spa, kids and teen clubs, arts
studio, performance center and restaurants featuring organic cuisine, wine and
cooking school.
THAILAND
Chiva-Som International Health Resort (Hua Hin)
What do cigarettes and children have in common? Both are
no-nos at this health resort in the royal beach town of Hua Hin.
Twenty years ago Chiva-Som was the region’s first luxury
destination health resort and paved the way for Thailand’s standing as the spa
capital of Asia.
It attracts celebrities like Kate Moss, David and Victoria
Beckham and Elizabeth Hurley, as well as stressed-out CEOs looking for weight
loss and anti-aging sessions.
Activities revolve around the gleaming health center, where
spa and wellness treatments take place in sleek facilities modeled after a
European luxury spa.
Arriving guests get health consultations and a
custom-tailored program featuring daily massages.
The restaurant focuses on fat-free, weight-control food --
raw greens dominate the buffet.
Offerings include a range of holistic and alternative
therapies such as acupuncture, energy healing, iridology, Emotional Freedom
Technique, aqua aerobics, hypnosis, physiotherapy, yoga, Pilates and personal
fitness training from a rotating list of visiting healers and wellness
consultants.
THAILAND
Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary (Koh Samui)
Conceived as a sanctuary for holistic healing by founders
who had spent years living in Kathmandu, Kamalaya offers wellness retreats,
detox, cleansing, yoga, emotional healing and spiritual offerings whose quality
and excellence has led to numerous awards.
Set on a secluded beach by a hillside, its open-air wellness
center and restaurants -- serving creative organic health cuisine -- in a lush
natural surrounding.
The wellness center offers spa treatments, detox, colonics,
Thai and Ayurvedic treatments, yoga, meditation and fitness training.
Resident Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors and visiting
healers from around the world offer energy healing, sound therapy, emotional
healing, chakra balancing, life coaching, osteopathy and cranial sacral
therapy.
THAILAND
Samahita Wellness Retreat (Koh Samui)
Originally started as Yoga Thailand by a yoga teaching
couple in 2003, this center evolved into Samahita Wellness Retreat in a few
years.
Located on a pristine beach in a tranquil bay, it has three
yoga studios including a beachfront yoga pavilion.
Samahita’s calendar offers regular teacher-training programs
drawing students from around the world for international teacher certification
and visiting yoga teachers.
It offers a variety of yoga (but it's best known for
Ashtanga yoga), detox and wellness retreats and packages, daily, short- and
long-term.
The open-air beach dining room is intimate and laid-back.
The poolside restaurant offers organic, low-fat, high energy, mostly vegetarian
food.
Samahita Retreat, 55/20-24 Moo 4 T. Namuang, Koh Samui Surat
Thani, Thailand; +66 (0) 77 920 090 , +66 (0) 77 920 091, +66 (0) 831 752 730
SRI LANKA
Barberyn Ayurveda Resorts
Founded 31 years ago with a vision to create a traditional
Ayurvedic healing resort, Barberyn has long been known only by word-of-mouth
among mostly European wellness seekers.
There are two properties now, the original Barberyn Reef
Resort, Beruwala (on a quiet beach on the west coast) and the newer Barberyn
Beach Resort, Welligama, in the south, on a spectacular hillside sweeping down
to the sea.
Barberyn is dedicated to healing through traditional
Ayurvedic treatments consisting of custom-tailored, doctor-prescribed programs
of daily Ayurvedic medicated oil massages, treatments, herbal medicines and
tonics and pure Ayurvedic cuisine.
There's a stationing doctor in the dining room to ensure
that guests on prescribed food programs stick to the foods designed to bring
the body back into balance.
Many people come here for treatment for more serious medical
conditions, such as recovery from strokes or surgery, healing from cancer or
relief from illnesses through alternative holistic healing rather than pills
and drugs.
Others simply come for a healthy holiday in a homey and
friendly atmosphere while enjoying the fabulous beaches and sightseeing in Sri
Lanka.
PHILIPPINES
The Farm at San Benito (Philippines)
The only wellness sanctuary of its kind in the Philippines,
The Farm offers holistic rejuvenation on the grounds of an eco-friendly coconut
plantation a few hours outside Manila.
Popular for detox retreats, its Prevention and Recovery
Retreats focus on medically guided detox procedures to cleanse the body, with
psycho-emotional detoxification as an integral part of the program to cleanse
the system of repressed and negative emotions that lead to illness.
It features one of Asia’s first and best vegan restaurants
as well as a raw food restaurant, using produce fresh from its organic garden.
Wellness packages include customized detox treatment
programs, yoga retreats and healing retreats.
Its 100% pure extra virgin coconut oil products are used in
spa treatments and cooking.
The Farm donates part of its coconut oil earnings to support
the local community and environment.
