The best spas in the world
These are the Condé Nast Traveller Spa Guide winners for 2024: the top-level retreats and medi-clinics, the most-results-driven health centres and the slickest spas. Wellbeing has never been more at the forefront of our minds than now, and there have never been more excuses to exercise wellness on a daily basis. From sound baths in the Maldives to recovery lounges in Napa Valley, 2024 is set to see boundary-pushing wellness trends in the travel world. Closer to home, mental health retreats in the UK are becoming an increasingly common holiday break, and newfangled trends from longevity and silent travel to retreats dedicated to healing broken hearts are popping up all over the country. For now, explore some of the world's most incredible spas, as awarded by Condé Nast Traveller in this year's Spa Awards.
The 2024 winners
Manolo YlleraSHA Wellness Clinic
Winner: Live Your Best Life
In the breathtaking landscapes of the Sierra Helada Natural Park in southern Spain, this sunshine spa offers a wide breadth of treatments with miraculously effective results. It’s a spa that consistently embraces modern wellness trends – it has the latest equipment, gadgets and expertise, all delivered alongside fresh, clean air and heaps of healing sunshine. Its biggest attraction is the fact that it doesn’t seem to have a singular USP; instead, it prides itself on catering to any and every wellness need, from food to fitness, dentistry to detox, preventative medicine and sexual health to natural therapies. It is, in essence, a one-stop wellness shop.
Guests choose between one of five programmes (rebalance, healthy ageing, optimal weight, Advanced detox, or optimal weight and advanced detox combined) but can easily add or remove things upon arrival. Stays start with a general health appointment, followed by a series of tests that look at everything from brain health (even to the extent of analysing potential predispositions to Alzheimer's) to sleep analysis and tiredness testing. New this year is the sexual health unit, headed up by clinical psychologist Dr Cinthya Molina. There are a series of treatments from pelvic floor therapies to radiofrequency procedures to stimulate regenerative tissue and an IV serum drop to increase libido. Life beyond the clinical treatments is just as hopeful – there are cooking classes, a well-equipped gym, personal trainers and beauty treatments.
Healing Holidays (healingholidays.com/condenast; 020 7843 3592) can arrange a 4-night Rebalance & Energise programme from £2,849 per person sharing, including transfers, full board accommodation and inclusions of the programme.
Kasper PalsnovLanserhof Sylt, Germany
Winner: Euro Medimagic 2024
As I lie on the treatment table of internal medicine specialist Dr Perpetua Walser, my body feels better than it has for a long time. At the age of 40, a stage-three, grade-three, triple-negative breast cancer diagnosis sent me down a two-year-long treatment path. Brutal chemotherapy took my hair and triggered early menopause. Mastectomy surgery followed, then radiotherapy and further chemo. It felt as if the ordeal had aged my body 20 years. Having emerged from it all, I was drawn, unsurprisingly, to Lanserhof Sylt – its slogan is “living better for longer”. I arrive as a bundle of nervous energy, traumatised by the treatment and terrified of recurrence. Checking in feels like arriving at a healing mecca. Sustainably designed by architect Christoph Ingenhoven, the building’s curved glass facade creates the sensation that the sprawling thatched roof is floating over the gargantuan space of 59 rooms and suites, public spaces and clinic. Natural light is maximised to support the circadian rhythm, promising a dreamless night’s sleep.
Lanserhof’s latest gem opened on the windswept island of Sylt, a seagull’s whirl from Denmark and known as “the Hamptons of Germany” for its unspoiled beaches and heritage. The clientele range from burnt-out business owners to A-listers on an annual reset. The medical is thorough, with tests spanning cholesterol and blood sugar to body composition. I wear a heart-rate variability monitor strapped to my chest for 24 hours and am delighted to learn my biological age is five years younger than my actual age. The focus is on holistic health, so there are sunrise beach walks and cathartic psychotherapist sessions. They suggest IV therapy to replenish my amino acids, so I try to relax as the nurse inserts the cannula. Suddenly, I can’t breathe, and there are tears running down my face as I have a flashback to the chemo ward. A doctor grips my shoulder firmly and fixes my gaze. “Crying is transformation,” she tells me, turning a traumatic experience into an exorcising one. I check out with my head cleared, shoulders relaxed and gut cleansed of the anxious buzz of modern life. Feeling lighter, calmer and – yes – healed. Rosamund Dean
Healing Holidays (healingholidays.com/condenast) can arrange a seven-night Lanserhof Cure Classic programme from £3,979 per person sharing, including transfers, full board and treatments
Absolute Sanctuary Koh Samui, Thailand
Winner: Ultimate Reboot 2024
This serene retreat sits on a tropical hillside, looking out over the peaceful water of the Gulf of Thailand. The island is no stranger to wellness (nearby Kamalaya and the Four Seasons also have excellent spas), but this spa has served a devoted fanbase for years, loyal to Absolute’s good value and strong results. Founded by a Thai banker-turned-entrepreneur who established Absolute You, a series of fitness and lifestyle studios around Asia, the Sanctuary is well-equipped to handle harried city-dwellers in need of a quick-fix health boost. There is a focus on de-stressing and boot camp training, offered alongside a series of yoga, pilates and meditation classes. The Signature Wellness Programme, for example, involves a bio-impedance analysis (fat mass, muscle mass, metabolic age) before having a private consultation to establish a bespoke plan, which could include the likes of gym work, fitness training and daily colon hydrotherapy sessions, as well as massage treatments and reflexology.
The spa is run by chief therapist Meaw Tip-anong Tipkanngoen, whose team has spent years honing their treatments and wellness offerings. Jana Braeuer teaches yoga classes with a heartfelt warmth known to bring guests to tears, while a series of visiting practitioners lead group exercise sessions and early morning beach walks. There’s so much going on here – it’s a place that doesn’t stand still, endlessly efficient and remarkably effective. It’s a simple, uncluttered spa without gadgets or gimmicks. Michelle Jana Chan
Healing Holidays (healingholidays.com/condenast; 020 7843 3592) can arrange a 7-night Yoga programme from £1,749 per person sharing, including transfers, full board accommodation and inclusions of the programme.
DARIO SEQUIAcquaforte Thalasso & Spa, Forte Village
Winner: Family First
Forte Village is not simply a resort. Open since 1970, it’s a whole – safely contained and celebrity-friendly – town dedicated to the pursuit of holidays, folding in eight hotels, 13 villas, boutiques, bars and 21 restaurants, from Michelin-starred to brunchy. If that sounds like a turn-off, imagine all that ensconced in 300 acres of perfumed Italian pines, palms, eucalyptus and yucca; bookended by mountains and a thick wedge of talcum-white sand. Thalasso’s imprint on Sardinia is ancient, so it’s right it should be the focus at the Acquaforte Thalasso & Spa. The hero of the piece is the thalasso circuit, created by Dr Angelo Cerina alongside the Thalasso Research Centre at Milan University. Set in an acre and a half of greenery, it has six seawater pools, each with a different level of salinity and heat. You can bob along, clocking up endorphins and detoxification. Yet there’s much else besides. Acquaforte didn’t start out as an ambitious destination spa, but has evolved in that direction. One can sign up for packages focusing on thalassotherapy detox, anti-ageing and sports performance counselling, or go a la carte, while the thalasso circuit aids chronic fatigue, sleep disorders and menopausal issues.
The Forte Lab does proper diagnostics and there’s a huge team, including a huddle of experts in the diseases of the spine: physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors and craniosacral practitioners. At the biomechanics lab, all of us are analysed for our posture, strength, stability and reactivity. Meanwhile, they don’t skimp on beauty, with treatments from LPG and Dr Barbara Sturm (including the famous Super Anti-Aging Facial). The Aesthetic Medical Centre does hi-tech treatments: biolifting, Yumeiho therapy and body sculpture from Dr Joanna Hakimova; and radiofrequency, fillers, peels, carboxytherapy and more by Dottorressa Francesca Marceddu. The best thing about tapping into it is that parental guilt doesn’t exist – the children are happily busy, with plenty of chances to have fun together too. The group tennis lesson on one of the 13 courts is a laugh, as is being lapped by an 11-year-old on the proper go-karting course. It’s an active kids’ paradise: there are world-class academies in every sport imaginable, including basketball with Ettore Messina, who coached the Italian team, and boxing with British ex-pro Frank Baglioni. The Real Madrid football academy draws in legions of happy half termers. There’s also diving, coastal rowing, sailing – you name it, they’ve got it.
Forte Village is not the sleekest resort in the world, nor has the best restaurants – though we eat beautifully. But it has a behemoth of a following, and guests are emotionally attached. I talk to the GM of a top London hotel, who comes every year, and a Qatari minister who visited every summer with his parents and is now bringing his child. It’s a testament to this diamond with many facets – one of which is a brilliant spa. Lydia Bell
Healing Holidays (healingholidays.com/condenast; 020 7843 3592) can arrange a 4 night stay from £2,445.00 per family of four sharing, including transfers and half board accommodation.
ComoCOMO Shambhala Estate
Winner: Forever Icon 2024
Acres of lush Edenic gardens flank steep forested terrain. Mist rises above rice terraces, and a sacred spring overflows into bathing pools seemingly hewn into natural rock. It’s hard to find a more beautiful backdrop to focus on oneself. Como Shambhala is one of the original greats, offering a rare union of health kick and holiday vibe in Bali’s cultural capital, Ubud. Since closing for two years during Covid, the property has had a revitalising shot, with new wellness director Kimberly Rose Kneier launching programmes targeting fitness and detox, lifestyle and beauty, as well as introducing some tech, including sound frequency hubs for better sleep, an infrared sauna and a hyperbaric chamber. Kneier herself focuses on traditional Chinese healing. Behind the powerful Ayurvedic programme is Dr Prasanth Vayanakathu, who deploys dosha-specific medicated oils and herbs in his treatments, from the cleansing rituals of panchakarma to shirodhara, a deeply relaxing head massage. Together, the pair focus on fundamental transformative healing rather than quick fixes, and they don’t shy away from spirituality and energetics, forces they say are magnified by this revered location on the banks of the Ayung.
Established in 1995, this property has serious pioneering pedigree. Its first iteration, Begawan Giri Estate, was founded by British couple Debora and Bradley Gardner, who wanted to create a private estate that worked in tandem with surrounding villages, using materials that were in keeping with the landscape. The five-residence property became legendary. A few years later, Singaporean hotelier Christina Ong snapped it up, adding to her global portfolio that stretches from Tuscany to the Turks and Caicos. She shifted the focus to wellness by adding yoga pavilions, hydrotherapy pools and colonic treatments, creating an Eat Pray Love escape that is more about abundance than deprivation. Postpone any inclination to fast here. Como Shambhala Cuisine is a brand of its own, using organic ingredients, often served raw or with speedy field-to-fork passage to retain goodness. The 30 rooms, suites, villas and residences are mostly contemporary, with sleek interiors by Koichiro Ikebuchi amid local stone, wood and alang-alang roofing. Larger villas can take families, although most guests I meet are repeat couples from New York, Sydney and Tokyo. Underpinning the holistic healing is a profound appreciation of nature and traditional culture. When I ask the hotel’s general manager, Gede Suteja, why the Balinese believe this location – on a river bend surrounded by temples, shrines and ashrams – is special, he says: “We don’t believe this place is special. It is special.” Michelle Jana Chan
Healing Holidays (healingholidays.com/condenast; 020 7843 3592) can arrange a 7 night Integrated Wellness programme from £4,439 per person sharing, including transfers, full board accommodation and inclusions of the programme