Three Surprising Wellness Destinations

by Tiffany Figueiredo

We all know about the popular “wellness” offerings in places like Arizona, California, Switzerland, and Germany, but true resets can happen in the most unexpected places, where wellness isn’t a prescription, but rather a way of life.

Here are three of our favorite destinations that do just that.

01. Mexico

The Yucatán Peninsula offers something better than prescribed wellness: the chance to sink into a rhythm so old it predates the entire modern anxiety apparatus. At Chablé Yucatán, days unfold around a cenote-fed spa where traditional temazcal ceremonies with Mayan healers feel less like treatments and more like stepping into a different understanding of time entirely. The jungle setting is so lush that simply sitting still becomes its own form of restoration.

If you’d rather disappear oceanside, Punta de Mita’s Susurros del Corazón takes the relaxation-in-nature approach seriously. This new Auberge property weaves sound healing and Mexican herbalism into days that otherwise consist of excellent food, private beach access, and unstructured hours. In the Riviera Maya, Chablé Maroma brings the cenote concept to the beach with an underground spa carved into natural rock, offering Mayan healing rituals alongside direct Caribbean access. This is Mexico beyond the party scene, where wellness happens because you’ve finally stopped trying so hard to achieve it.

02. Italy

Italy has been in the restoration business for two thousand years, which means they’ve had plenty of time to figure out that the best wellness doesn’t announce itself. At Terme di Saturnia, the same volcanic waters that drew ancient Romans still cascade over travertine rocks. While the resort offers a full spa menu, the real magic is in the outdoor thermal pools, where you can spend hours doing nothing productive. Pair exceptional Tuscan food with mineral-rich water and Renaissance views, and you have a break that actually sticks.

Further north at Lake Garda, Lefay Resort proves that Italian design and genuine restoration aren’t mutually exclusive. Their spa program synthesizes Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Western science, but the lake views mean you could just as easily spend your days reading by the infinity pool. In Puglia, Borgo Egnazia takes a different approach: massaria-style architecture, thermal programs rooted in Apulian traditions, and a beach club where wellness means long lunches of burrata and local wine followed by swims in the Adriatic. The Italians understand something fundamental: wellness doesn’t require optimization. Sometimes it just requires beauty, good wine, and permission to linger over lunch until the afternoon light goes golden.

03. South Africa

The African bush doesn’t pretend to be a wellness destination, which is precisely why it works so well as one. Your nervous system doesn’t need another guided meditation; it needs to remember what it feels like to live according to the sun.

At Londolozi’s Private Granite Suites, days structure themselves around game drives and animal behavior rather than an activities board. While their Healing House spa offers treatments using indigenous plants, the real restoration happens when you’re watching a leopard in a tree and realize you haven’t thought about work in three days. Singita’s South African lodges deliver similar magic: you’ll feel so relaxed after a spa treatment that you might take a selfie to remember the moment, but what actually changes you happens on game drives, in early nights and dawn light, watching elephants wander past as time quietly loosens its grip.

Back in the Cape Winelands, Sterrekopje offers a different kind of reset. Vineyard views, farm-to-table meals from the estate’s gardens, mountain silence, and the best massages of your life (trust me). Here, healing comes from long lunches under oak trees, afternoon watercolor sessions, evening swims under the moon, and the radical luxury of feeling like a kid again. No prescriptive program, just the profound relief of stopping.

Ready for a reset? Get in touch with us.