Traveling itself is believed to help boost longevity, but what if your next getaway had even more long-term benefits?
Picture a reboot that’s good for you. We’re not talking about rigid health camps—we all deserve to enjoy our hard-earned vacations, after all—but rather, trips to beautiful places where mindfulness, wellness, community, and longevity are top priorities.
Wellness travel is booming. Between 2020 and 2022, wellness trips grew by 30 percent annually, according to research by the Global Wellness Institute, which also reported that in 2022, 819.4 billion wellness trips were taken in the U.S. and internationally, making up about 7.8 percent of all tourism.
Clearly, these types of vacations are resonating, with good reason. These are my 10 favorite wellness trips in North America.
1. Soak in Natural Hot Springs
Ojo Caliente in New Mexico
Soaking in natural hot springs makes for easy relaxation and rejuvenation. Mineral baths have been shown to reduce stress, lessen joint pain, improve circulation, and naturally detoxify. At , a spa resort in northern New Mexico, you can soak in any of nine communal pools (with minerals like lithia and iron), which include a mud bath and a silent pool, or book a private tub. Access to the steam room and sauna come with your stay, and you can add on yoga classes or spa treatments like sound healing or anti-inflammatory massage.
Dating back to 1868 and located amid desert cliffs near the banks of the cottonwood-lined Rio Ojo Caliente, the place is one of the country’s oldest health resorts, and open for both overnight and day use. Lodging options include adobe suites with hammocks on the patios or restored vintage trailers. (Day passes for the pools start at $45; rooms from $239 a night.)
2. Check Into a Wellness Resort
YO1 in Monticello, New York
You’ll get personalized treatments and a custom therapeutic plan when you book at , an Ayurvedic longevity resort that opened in the Catskills in 2018 with a focus on Eastern medicine and holistic therapies. This place is for dedicated self-care travelers looking for a total reboot, a concentrated wellness plan, or programs designed to treat specific issues like stress, depression, diabetes, infertility, or insomnia. Visit for the day or stay for a week.
Not sure where to start? Try the three-night wellness program, which includes individual consultations, mud baths, and acupuncture. You’ll stay at a 131-room lodge overlooking Baileys Lake on a 1,300-acre property in pine forests and surrounded by hiking and biking trails—all just two hours from New York City. Access to an infrared sauna, hot tub, group meditation, a reflexology walkway, fitness room, and Olympic-sized swimming pool are included. (Day pass, which includes meals and all-day programming, for $500; overnight accommodations start at $185.)
3. Stay In a Communal ϳԹ Lodge
Campfire Ranch Little Sugar in Bella Vista, Arkansas
If community is what you’re after, consider , a new adventure lodge opening in or around May 2025 with out-the-door access to 40 miles of world-class mountain-bike trails surrounding Bentonville, Arkansas, with singletrack loops over rolling hills and through stands of redbud, dogwood, and mulberry trees. The eight-room lodge comes with access to a communal fire pit, outdoor cooking space, gear storage, bike-wash stations, and breakfast service. Campfire Ranch’s adventure concierge can help plan your outings and connect you with local bike rentals and guides. Rent a single room or, if you’re with a group, book out the whole place. (Rates from $250.)
4. Run In Another Country
Aire Libre in Mexico City
, cofounded by Mauricio Díaz, a world-class ultrarunner from Mexico, specializes in transformational running and hiking retreats all over the world, from Costa Rica to Japan. These retreats focus on the intersection of movement, mindfulness, culture, and sustainability, enabling participants to connect with themselves and the landscapes and cultures they’re exploring.
The company’s ($1,800, including meals, lodging, and guiding) is a four-day running adventure where you’ll jog through Mexico City along the gravel trails of Viveros de Coyoacán park and the plazas of the National Autonomous University of Mexico campus. You’ll also leave the city to run trails across the volcanic landscape of the Continental Divide, then experience a guided indigenous temazcal ceremony in a sweat lodge. By night, enjoy communal meals and lodging in boutique hotels.
5. Spend Four Days Doing Yoga
Esalen in Big Sur, California
Even if you’re not a dedicated yogi or a holistic-retreat kind of person, you’ll love being on the jagged cliffs of Big Sur at , a nonprofit retreat center and educational institute with a heavy yoga focus. You can do a self-guided exploration (read: stay on your own with limited formal instruction) or sign up for the center’s two- or four-night workshops on topics like hypnotherapy, storytelling, or astrology. This is the kind of place where your cell phone doesn’t work, so you might as well stash it away and focus on movement, nature, and real-life connection.
When you’re not learning about your conscious intentions, you can hike the trails within Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park amid 300-foot redwood trees, oak, and chaparral, and see an 80-foot waterfall plummet into the sea. You can also wander the beaches of Big Sur, or bathe in Esalen’s famously clothing-optional hot springs above the roiling Pacific Ocean. Accommodations range from bunks in communal rooms to private yurts overlooking the Pacific. (Rates from around $950 for multi-day workshops, including lodging, meals, and programming. Scholarships available.)
6. Sit in a Sweat Lodge Under a Full Moon
The Horse Shoe Farm in Hendersonville, North Carolina
You could come to the to stay in a well-appointed cottage and eat farm-to-table meals with ingredients sourced on site. Or you could make a trip here into a more broad-based wellness excursion. Just under 40 minutes from Asheville and situated between the verdant Blue Ridge Mountains and the Great Smoky Mountains with a view of Mount Pisgah, this health sanctuary has five energy vortexes (places believed to be centers of energy currents with spiritual effects), holistic spa treatments, an outdoor labyrinth for walking meditation, and a meditation tower.
The resort recently partnered with, a Cherokee wisdom keeper and ceremonialist from the Qualla Indian Boundary in the Great Smoky Mountains, to build a sweat lodge on the 85-acre property, where he hosts ceremonies on each full and new moon. Overnight accommodations include one-room lofts or three-bedroom homes, depending on your group size. (Rates from $399.)
7. Go Forest Bathing
Southall Farm and Inn in Franklin, Tennessee
Not all spas are created equal. ’s spa goes above and beyond, incorporating botanical ingredients and mindfulness in sessions like energy healing and detoxifying treatments to develop a deeper connection to self and nature. This working farm on a 425-acre plot in Tennessee has a 62-room lodge plus 16 private cottages that opened for guests in 2022. You can add treatments like sound-bath meditation, forest bathing, or a wellness consultation, depending on what you’re looking for. More than seven miles of hiking and biking trails surround the farm, and there’s canoeing and fishing on the private Lake at Southall. Or take guided tours of the orchard and apiaries that are home to some 8 million bees. (Rates from $695.)
8. Build Something With Your Hands
Yestermorrow in Waitsfield, Vermont
This place isn’t a spa resort in the standard sense, but for people who find learning new skills and using their hands to build things are perfect ways to unlock a deep sense of fulfillment. is a green design-and-build school in Vermont’s Mad River Valley, with a small campus offering day classes and overnight lodging in the Green Mountain National Forest with its lakes and mountain hikes. You can take courses on building a coffee table, sustainable treehouse design, harvesting your own lumber, or basic carpentry. Classes last from two days to two weeks (with certification programs that go longer). Healthy-meal plans plus lodging—dorms, cabins, or camping—can be added to your tuition. (Lodging from $10 to $55 a night; courses from $260, scholarships and sliding-scale tuition available.)
9. Surround Yourself with the Ocean
Pebble Cove Farm in Orcas Island, Washington
Getting to is the first step: You’ll need to take a ferry to reach Orcas Island, part of the dreamy San Juan Islands in upper Puget Sound, 100 miles north of Seattle. Once you’re here, you’ll settle into a cozy cottage overlooking a quiet bay at this farm and animal sanctuary that hosts guests and offers wellness retreats. The inn rents out kayaks and paddleboards and has a garden and apple orchard you’re welcome to wander through. Rescued farm animals like horses, chickens, pigs, and goats, adopted from elsewhere, reside here. The garden and farm animals are closed off from November through April, but the cottages are open year-round. (Rates from $300.)
10. Ski With New Friends
The Ski Retreat in Palisades Tahoe, California; Sun Valley, Idaho; Breckenridge, Colorado
You want to spend a weekend playing outside in snow-covered mountains, but not to deal with figuring out logistics or finding a group of friends to go with. We get that. Enter , a women’s getaway in places like Lake Tahoe, Sun Valley, or Breckenridge for groups of six to 12. These trips, numbering five this winter, are about connection, friendship, relaxation, and play—without having to plan a thing. Your three-night retreat includes lodging at a slopeside cabin, morning yoga, gear demos, chef-prepared group dinners, fireside chats, art classes, and ski and snowboard adventures for a wide range of abilities. (Rates from $550 for local residents not including lodging; from $1,190, including lodging.)
Megan Michelson, an ϳԹ contributing editor, lives in northern California. She’s hoping her occasional habits of drinking tea, practicing yoga, and sleeping 10 hours a night will lead to a long and healthy life. She recently wrote for us about buying a 1 Euro (yes, as in one dollar) home in Italy; how to travel to ski, hike, and bike in Jackson, Wyoming, on the cheap (hard to believe, but she knows of great deals); and why she and her family traded traditional Thanksgiving options for Campsgiving. Her list of great outdoor festivals extends into May 2025.
