Wellness, your way

Take it slow

Perhaps you’re in the market for another sort of rejuvenation – the type that entails sleeping late and taking a leisurely breakfast before embarking on an itinerary of precisely nothing. This holiday means basking in the sun, lingering dips in the pool and sinking into a menu of spa treatments, where you’re lulled into a soporific state and leave feeling like you’re floating.

The Caribbean is king when it comes to such experiences. Here, the pace of life is slow. Perhaps you’ve heard of it – ‘island time’ – where deadlines, shifts and schedules melt away. Barbadian grande dame Sandy Lane embodies this attitude: the spa is an enormous monument to relaxation, and the swimming pool comes complete with underwater music and attendants on hand. The hotel is also home to arguably the best beach on the island, where guests luxuriate on iconic pink loungers.

The Sandpiper also does luxury the Barbadian way. Here, spa facilities include an outdoor hydro-pool, a thermal suite with a ‘crystal steam room’, and an experience shower. Therapists perform massages, facials and scrubs with products made from local plants. Elsewhere, in Turks and Caicos, lies another wellness haven: COMO Parrot Cay. The Shambhala Retreat (meaning ‘peace’ in Sanskrit) at this resort specialises in Asian-inspired therapies and boasts treatment pavilions overlooking the water, a light-filled yoga area and a Jacuzzi garden.

Across the Atlantic at Bahia del Duque Tenerife, guests choose exactly how far they want to venture into a wellness journey. Dip toes in with a treatment or two – hot lava stone massages and the thalassotherapy circuit are both highlights – or jump head-first into an immersively bespoke programme. There’s even a range of petite wellness rituals so little ones can experience their first massage too.

Achieve balance

Of course, when it comes to luxury stays and relaxation styles, you can do either or both, anywhere in the world. Golf is a huge part of the proposition at Sandy Lane and The Sandpiper, with both also offering tennis and extensive gym facilities. Alternatively, get your daily movement in via sailing, paddle boarding or windsurfing on Barbados’s crystalline coast. At COMO Parrot Cay, there’s no need to idle all day thanks to an offering that includes private yoga and Pilates, and even bespoke diet programmes from a nutrition expert. At the same time, vegging out is enthusiastically encouraged at Kimpton Aysla Mallorca, which is home to a cocooning spa with multiple pools, sauna, steam room, salt cave, mud bathroom and more.

Down in the Indian Ocean, balance is everything. Vakkaru Maldives excels in championing the needs of sun-worshippers, diving-devotees and spa-seekers with equal enthusiasm, while also aiming to give back; employing local staff, planting coral and establishing an organic farm. The out-of-this-world overwater Merana spa and wellness centre are home to everything from sound healing therapists and digital detox experts to a cold plunge pool, ocean sundeck and yoga pavilion. Balance – achieved.

What we’re trying to say is, when it comes to feeling rejuvenated, there are no rules. Get-up-and-goer or fly-and-flopper – how you relax is wholly down to you.