Peptides, stem cells, and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) are the latest advanced therapies that promote youthful skin, she says. Cutting-edge technologies such as HydraFacial, which improves the appearances of dark spots and wrinkles, and Helight Pro, a device that emits red light diodes to revitalise cells, are on offer at recently opened Villa Belle Plage at Hotel Belle Plage in Cannes, France. Swiss skincare specialist, Guerlain, is using innovations like photobiomodulation, a form of light therapy that regenerates collagen and elastin, at its new spa at The Woodward – an Oetker Collection Hotel in Geneva. In London, Claridge’s first-ever spa boasts the UK’s only MLX i3Dome, an innovative three-in-one chamber which detoxes the body and stimulates cellular repair.
Soaking and steaming are the new socialising
Scandinavians believe stress melts away faster if you socialise while sweating. The rest of the world is catching on by building sauna and hydrotherapy complexes with restaurants, bars, and even live music. In Alaska, Alyeska Resort’s Nordic Spa, which will complete its third phase this winter, features a pool circuit of steamy 103-degree pools and polar plunges, a Himalayan rock salt sauna, Russian banyas, and cedar soaking tubs and barrel saunas; open until 9pm with an onsite bar and restaurant, it’s certain to be this winter’s hottest après ski scene. At Thermëa Spa Village, which recently opened two hours outside of Toronto, six saunas, two steam rooms, and multiple hot tubs and cold plunges are complemented by a biergarten, cocktail lounge, and farm-to-table restaurant. At the newly renovated Durango Hot Springs Resort + Spa in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, you can watch live music performances while hopping around the outdoor complex of 41 soaking and plunge pools and eight Japanese-inspired Ofuro soaking tubs.
Not into meditating? Try arts and crafts
Silent meditation sessions aren’t the only pathway to mindfulness. More spa resorts are challenging guests to be in the present by working the right side of their brains in fresh ways. Atelier d’Artiste, a new glass-panelled artist studio at Royal Mansour, a grand riad hotel in Marrakech, offers guests the opportunity to be tutored in pottery, weaving, beading, and more by top master craftsmen. You may roll your eyes, but two screen-free hours spent crafting Berber-inspired necklaces rivals the relaxation you feel after a yoga class. And at Bishops Lodge, a landmark property in Santa Fe recently revived by Auberge Resorts, local artists like Katie Rodgers, whose commissions include Christian Louboutin and Veuve Clicquot, lead workshops both on- and off-property in disciplines ranging from watercolours to chalk pastels. As a result of the pandemic-fuelled pottery craze, Blackberry Mountain, the wellness-minded sister property of Tennessee’s Blackberry Farm, has broadened its ceramics offerings from wheel-thrown and hand-building to include coil building, tile work, and raku firing – a 16th-century Japanese technique. Blackberry’s studio is equipped with six potter’s wheels and two kilns. Two- to four-hour classes have a 2:1 student-instructor ratio, and many guests take a class per day, according to the hotel’s art manager, Polly Ann Martin.
Upstate New York is America’s new wellness mecca
For ages, travellers seeking a wellness reboot have headed West, particularly to California’s pioneering retreats like the Esalen Institute, Cal-a-Vie Health Spa, and Golden Door. But a slew of next-level spa resorts opening in the Catskills and Hudson Valley are shifting people’s attention East. California’s beloved bootcamp, the Ranch at Malibu, will debut a 25-room, lakefront outpost 45 minutes north of Manhattan next summer. The Ranch Hudson Valley will take the same no-nonsense, weight-loss oriented approach to programming but will offer abbreviated three- and four-day itineraries geared to the time-crunched East Coast crowd. Expect vegan meals, fitness classes held in a 2,000-square-foot gym, and endurance hikes on the trails of Harriman and Ringwood State Parks. The Chatwal, a Luxury Collection Hotel, in New York City recently opened a 10-suite sister property, the Chatwal Lodge on a 38-acre wilderness preserve in the Catskills. Here, a meander through old-growth forest trails in search of hawks and ospreys and the rhythmic cast of a fly rod on a quiet lake double as moving meditations. When Wildflower Farms, an Auberge Resort Collection, opens in the town of Gardiner next autumn, its spa, Thistle, will specialise in rewilding (the trend of reconnecting people with nature) guests with unique nature-based therapies like a forest immersion led by a reiki master and animal communicator who specialises in connecting energetically with animals and humans. There’s also a saltwater pool, herbal steam room, and hot tubs nestled in the meadows for some old school R&R. Inness, a new golf club and hotel in the town of Accord, boasts yoga, Pilates and 60 acres of trails for hikes and runs, and will debut a kitted-out spa in 2023. And there are rumours of an outpost of SoHo Farmhouse opening in Rhinebeck. Not to be outdone, upstate grand dame, Mohonk Mountain House, which welcomed its first guests in 1869, recently unveiled a revamped 30,000 square-foot spa rooted in mindfulness.
Recovery steals the spotlight
Elite athletes have long known the secret to performance gains isn’t double gym sessions, but recovery. When the Six Senses Crans Montana opens in Switzerland this February, its spa will feature a biohacking recovery lounge geared at speeding up recovery. In Vail, Colorado, the Hythe, a Luxury Collection Hotel has a recovery lounge that offers oxygen therapy plus equipment such as compression boots and heating and DIY massage devices. In Napa Valley, the restoration and recovery circuit at Springhouse at Stanly Ranch, an Auberge Resort Collection, can cure everything from hiking-weary muscles to a hangover with therapies like a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and lymphatic system-supporting salt room.
