If you are planning wellness travel, a holiday with the principal intention of maintaining or improving your mental, physical or spiritual health, it is best to start with the end in mind. What do you want to get out of the holiday? What are your goals?
Then you can start to think about the where, and perhaps also the how, the budget and the when.
Wellness travel can range from a weekend break away at a spa hotel, to a fortnight in the mountains to a month in a holistic treatment centre.
You could be in an urban spa, a jungle retreat, by the sea, in the desert. You could be seriously challenging yourself or you could be stepping slightly out of your comfort zone.
A Wellness Travel adviser will start by asking you what you want to achieve, and then will start to help you plan. Wellness travel is designed around you and it is this bespoke aspect that makes it so important to take advice on how to make the most of your wellness holiday.
Detox
The purpose of a detox holiday is to give your body a boost, to help improve your immune system and improve your health generally through those 3 vitally important ingredients: nourishment, sleep and exercise.
Burnout
Modern life is lived at a fast pace, and at times offers little relief. We are always connected, never left alone to simply relax. And like any sensitive equipment, if our mind and bodies are not serviced and maintained, they can break down or burnout.
A burnout retreat can help you to develop the tools and strategies to rebalance and to manage the stresses from the lives we lead
Spa
The purpose of a spa holiday is to relax and destress. The facilities at the Spa will probably include a number of treatments, massage, water therapies and saunas/steam baths.
The Farm at San Benito in the Philippines is one of the best holistic wellness centres in the world.
It is set in 52 acres of lush jungle close to Lipa and Batangas, a two hour drive from the capital Manila. The health centre was built around an ancient mango tree, which is rumoured to have. healing powers. Certainly those who hug the tree feel something transformational, perhaps hard to describe, but nevertheless profound.
Treatments are founded around the 5 core values of Diganose, Cleanse, Nourish, Repair and Sustain, and your stay there will begin with a full medical disagnosis to help inform your treatment plan.
The farm is fully organic with much of its produce grown on site. They rely on modern medical equipment, the best medical practitioners and traditional Filipino healing techniques.
One of the areas in which I specialise is wellness travel.
I decided to specialise in wellness travel for two reasons
- firstly, as my own health began to deteriorate following covid-induced arthritic inflammation of knees and hips, I recognised the need to take greater care of my mental and physical state.
- secondly, I have a natural curiosity about the world around me, a curiosity which led me to open my own travel business.
I find it difficult to do nothing on holiday for more than a few days, important though simple relaxation can be.
I like to explore, to try new things, to step out of my comfort zone. The essence of a wellness holiday for me is something that develops mind, body and spirit or at least two of those three.
