Longevity Destination Travel Is Redefining Holidays and Wellness

Passport and visas, check. Flight times and seat bookings, check. Housesitter, check. Bookings for forest bathing, sleep therapy, mindful hiking, cryotherapy, and infrared saunas on the trip – double-check! For many travelers today, holidays aren’t complete if they don’t leave space on the itinerary for wellness travel experiences. They’re saying goodbye to a quick massage between destinations, and hello to tailored wellness programs. 

Destination Longevity

Considering the health benefits of travel, it makes sense. Research has long shown that travel can be beneficial for stress, enhance brain function, creativity, and mindfulness, increase our level of activity, help us to focus on self-care, and meet the need for a sense of purpose and belonging. 

Paul Joseph is the founder of Health and Fitness Travel, a specialist tour operator for wellness breaks. In recent years, he says, there has been a boom in wellness travel. “Far from the ‘fly and flop’ wellness holidays of old, we’re able to send customers on a hand-picked retreat that includes a tailored wellness program – from personalized nutrition and exercise plans to one-on-one coaching and holistic healing therapies.”

As we continue to seek options to live healthier, happier lives, this change in attitude has led to a dramatic shift in the industry, allowing for new ways to accommodate travelers. This is particularly true as individuals are starting to better understand how simple lifestyle changes can have a significant impact on well-being later in life. 

The Rise of Wellness Tourism

The Netflix series Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, and Dr Peter Attia’s Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity have helped to take the concept of longevity out of the science laboratory and into the layman’s vocabulary. Longevity involves planning, says Dr. Fernando Torres-Gil, director of the UCLA Center for Policy Research on Aging.

It’s essential to recognize that our habits will have a direct impact on our health, and the earlier we start developing them, the easier we’ll be able to maintain them. And it doesn’t stop with diet, exercise, and sleep. New therapies and devices (also known as biohacks), ranging from hyperbaric oxygen chambers to compression boots, are being adopted by spas and retreats to boost healthspan, nutrition, fitness, and sleep.” 

For example, Accor’s Fairmont Windsor Park Hotel has launched the UK’s first spa multi-person cryotherapy chamber. Guests of the Hotels Pullman Paris Centre-Bercy and Pullman San Francisco Bay can look forward to getting fitted with Dreem, technology that tracks brain waves, heart rate, breathing, and sleep patterns while they get some shuteye. 

Cultural immersion packages

Businesses that connect with local hosts have made cultural exchange and immersion possible for travelers who’d like to better understand the history or background of the area or people they visit. Options include guided tours introducing visitors to historical neighborhoods, interactive cooking classes with local chefs, or joining community events. 

Walk of Ancient Wisdom offers an exclusive seven-day walk with the San Bushmen, where visitors can learn age-old rituals and traditions from these guardians of nature. Accommodation is offered at two luxury lodges, and visitors will also experience sleeping under the stars on the plains of the Makgadikgadi Pans. Money raised from this exclusive safari goes towards supporting the San people and their sustainable-living initiatives and wildlife-conservation efforts in the area. 

Visitors have the opportunity to learn first-hand about the San people’s traditional hunting and gathering practices, which go back 35,000 years, as well as their intricate understanding of medicinal plants and their spirituality.

AI is changing the way we travel

Speaking to The New York Times, Oren Etzioni, professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Washington, says he believes a new breed of intelligent travel agents will be built on top of chatbots. 

Sites such as Expedia, Priceline, and Airbnb allow for interaction by travelers typing out questions. They can identify different food, lodging, and recreation options by ticking specific boxes. Chatbots can now also generate itineraries for travelers and personalize trips based on specific criteria – all in a matter of seconds, of course, and completely adjustable. 

“I think a tool like this makes travel planning more fun and more accessible,” says Divya Kumar, global head of marketing for search and AI at Microsoft.

“You just need to have a conversation with the search engine, and it’ll kind of guide you step by step on how to get there.” She says these initial features have “barely scratched the surface” of the potential for how Bing’s trip-planning capabilities could evolve.

However, these AI capabilities depend on travelers being proficient with what is called “prompt engineering”. Training will be required for this to be used effectively, and it may still be a few years before it becomes common practice to use AI for planning trips. 

Within the industry itself, AI software is set to inform more human decisions and optimize operations, such as staff repositioning when needed or transferring baggage carts. 

Rest, restore and rejuvenate

While all these developments are exhilarating and will hopefully enhance our understanding of our health plans, the longevity field is still a bit “Wild West”, says Anna Bjurstam, who heads up the wellness programs at Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas. 

If you’re going to jump on the biohacking bandwagon, you should make sure the facility you’re visiting is overseen by a medical doctor, cautions Tammy Pahel, VP of Spa & Wellness at Carillon Miami Wellness Resort. “You’re using some type of intervention to optimize your goals, whether it’s athletic performance or better sleep,” she says. 

Dr Elizabeth Yurth of the Boulder Longevity Clinic in Colorado urges a measure of vigilance around the sudden popularity of intravenous vitamin infusions at hotels and spas. “Some things you can’t get enough of, like magnesium and vitamin C,” she says. “But you can overdo others, like NAD and glutathione. They really need to be personalized,” she says. 

At the same time, the devices that are available for home use are usually not intense enough to offer significant benefits. Customization to individual patients is required for most therapies to be effective. 

Taking it easy

Following the consistent upheaval of the last few years, experts predict a more easygoing attitude from travelers that supports rest and rejuvenation. Instead of running themselves ragged to tick off list items from a busy itinerary, they look forward to calmer, more focused escapes and activities that will contribute to their rest and help to combat burnout. 

The industry is responding by offering more staycation packages, relaxing activities such as nature walks and honey-tastings, and improved layouts to their accommodation that allow for solitude and quiet.

Mindful-movement activities are also becoming popular in an effort for travelers to put down their screens and be present during their journey. Anything from pottery, weaving, and painting, they’ll centre the mind and add to the overall experience. 

“What constitutes a well-being holiday is subjective,” says Justin Francis, co-founder and CEO of activist holiday company Responsible Travel. “I’d say a painting holiday in the Scottish Highlands or a wild camping experience can be as much about wellness as a vegan pilates retreat. Wellness holidays simply allow you to rest and revive in your own way, mentally and physically.”

The World’s Top 5 longevity medi-spa destinations

Traveling for health can take you to all four corners of the world. Discover sound baths in the Maldives, deep blue sea therapy in Mexico, natural mineral springs and sulfurous mud in Slovakia, and state-of-the-art medical services in Switzerland. Many of these retreats also have operating rooms and laboratories that allow for quick results and specialist procedures on-site. Here are the very best medical spas in the world, according to Condé Nast Traveller and The Times UK. 

1. Nizuc Resort, Mexico

Head out to the Mexican Caribbean for cutting-edge, non-surgical, and non-invasive treatments that rejuvenate and revive the skin, the lymphatic system, the muscles, and the senses. Boasting indoor and alfresco treatment rooms at its new luxury beachfront MedSpa, the resort offers visitors access to the world’s second-largest coral reef and an opportunity to discover a brand-new health-oriented holiday.

2. SHA Wellness Clinic, Spain

Equipped with all the latest tools to deal with wellness needs of every sort, this spa, built into southern Spain’s Sierra Helada Natural Park, offers guests five diverse programs to choose from: rebalance, healthy aging, optimal weight, advanced detox, or a combination of the last two. Brain health is optimized through the latest scientific advances, such as NASA-designed headsets that lead the brain into the quickest route for states of relaxation and focus, while light therapy stimulates brain cell regeneration.

Fitness, nutrition, dentistry, preventive medicine, and natural therapies are all available here. Recently added is the sexual health unit, which provides pelvic-floor treatments and IV serums that increase libido. Guests can also opt for cooking classes, a well-equipped gym, personal trainers, and beauty treatments.

3. Thermia Palace Ensana Health Spa, Slovakia

The Ensana Health Spa  (as featured in the main photo) in the historic 5-star Art Nouveau hotel takes advantage of the area’s natural mineral springs and sulfurous mud, where guests can enjoy 39°C waters, infrared saunas, and the expertise of qualified in-house medical staff. Physicians use modern diagnostics to recommend personalized therapeutic programs, including mud baths, mud packs, hydrotherapy, and a variety of massages.

The Piestany Spa is particularly recommended for those living with rheumatoid arthritis and its variants, spinal pain and degenerative joint disease, scoliosis, rheumatism, Bechterew’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and others, and for rehabilitation after injuries, accidents, or operations.

4. Absolute Sanctuary Koh Samui

In the Gulf of Thailand, this serene retreat on a tropical hillside provides visitors with a wellness boost through bootcamp training, classes for yoga, pilates, and meditation, and bio-impedance analysis (fat mass, muscle mass, metabolic age). Following the analysis, a personal consultation is given to develop a bespoke routine that covers fitness, daily colon hydrotherapy sessions, reflexology, and massage treatments. Guests also have the benefit of group exercise sessions and early-morning beach walks.

5. Palácio Estoril, Portugal

Integrating both ancient and modern medical practices, Palácio Estoril, situated in a 1930s beach mansion with three floors of medical care, is popular among a celebrity clientele that comes for the specialist treatment of Dr Margarida Garcia (quantum biofeedback medicine) and Dr Paulo Fonte (expert acupuncturist and postural physiotherapist).

The hotel’s Banyan Tree Spa fuses centuries-old Chinese, Indian, and Thai traditions with modern wellness techniques to create a serene sanctuary for relaxation and rejuvenation. The Wellness Centre offers health and fitness retreat programs tailored to the patient’s needs. Guests have the use of gym equipment and can choose from group classes, including yoga, pilates, FitMix, Zumba, dance, and ballet.

Eds note

This article explores how retreats, surgery safaris, longevity hospitals, and AI are redefining how we spend our free time.  It was first published in  our annual print bookazine in April 2024, available in digital format for download. This edition is packed with content themed around Living Beyond 100, and this is just one of the articles we published. 

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Main Picture Credit:  Ensana Hotels