The best spa hotels in Europe dig in more than a deep-tissue massage to help heal and revitalise in ways both holistic and high-tech. Some are wellness retreats with a roster of practitioners hip to mental health too, some offer blissful calm in the centre of the world’s most dynamic cities, and some have a setting that does an equal amount of heavy (spirit) lifting.
From saunas in rural Slovenia to slick Alpine indulgence in Switzerland, alternative rituals in Italy to volcanic soaks in Iceland, these are our top luxury spa and wellness hotels in Europe.
NOLINSKI PARIS
France
Even the most ardent of flâneurs needs some put-your-feet-up time. Nolinski Paris provides a serene (and, naturellement, very stylish) sanctuary from the city. In fact, designer Jean-Louis Deniot has created something magical with the space he’s been given, where mirrors add depth, projections of trees by the subterranean swimming pool add an alfresco feel, and twinkling ceilings are a grown-up take on your childhood bedroom’s star stickers.
Treatments using MyBlend skincare and beauty tech might be as simple as a massage with yoga stretches or a snooze under an LED light; or something a touch more intense, such as acupressure or a face peel. Whichever you choose, you’ll leave feeling as luxurious and beautifully turned out as the rooms upstairs.
ADLER SPA RESORT SICILIA
Italy
Had The White Lotus’s second season been set at Adler Spa Resort Sicilia, it might have had less psychosexual drama and more just people having a really nice time… And maybe you having your face cleansed with the mineral-rich waters of thermal-springs hotspot Bagno Vignoni, being wrapped in seaweed or slathered in volcanic mineral muds might not make great TV, but it makes a fabulous holiday — especially when the jet peel-ing, thalasso soaking and Ayurvedic detoxifying takes place in the wilds of the Torre Salsa nature reserve.
All lotions and potions are bespoke, there’s a range of saunas and steam rooms to try, and the relaxation room with panoramic views provides a show with all the drama you can handle in your mellowed-out mindset.
BOTANIC SANCTUARY ANTWERP
Belgium
‘Self care’ might be the term du jour, but mediaeval Belgian monks were doing it long before it was a hashtag. Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp started life as a monastery with naturopathic gardens and an apothecary you can still buy potions from today, and now it’s one of the best spa hotels in Europe — a vast hideaway with all you need for steaming, sweating-it-out and swimming; and truly unique treatments.
There’s the good old monastic medicine (for fatigue and burn out more than plague and leprosy these days), phytotherapy using garden-grown ingredients, herbal massages, enzyme peels, electromagnetic-frequency measuring, fake facelifts — and a resident health coach to consult. You’ll leave praising those pioneering monks to the high heavens.
THE CHEDI ANDERMATT
Switzerland
It’s surely scientific fact that just looking at a picture of the Swiss Alps will start to reverse every unhealthy decision you’ve made in your life. There’s certainly something golden in them there Toblerone-packet hills, and it’s the Chedi Andermatt’s sleek and seductive 2,400-square-metre spa, where there’s a Tibetan relaxation room, every flavour of sauna, Jacuzzis to bubble in, fragrant steam rooms and hot-cold plunges, plus an Olympic-level pool with peak views.
Treatments (most courtesy of Biologique Recherche or Italian MEI skincare) touch on all areas of the body, using forensic skin analysis, cryo and collagen-infused facials, Balinese and Alpine massages, and mountain-inspired aromatherapy.
THE NED CITY OF LONDON
UK
The Bank neighbourhood, at the historic heart of the capital, is more associated with harried suits than a holistic London spa hotel, but tucked away inside the Ned City of London is a palatial space dedicated to various aspects of wellness.
It’s still serious in its approach though, with percussive Theragun massages, cryo-chamber sessions, light therapy, pummelling with sandstone ‘pods’, metabolism-boosting facials inspired by Chinese medicine, physiotherapy, dry-needling… Or, you could just get snoozy with a spell in the hammam. Plus there’s a beauty and nail salon in the ‘hers’ dressing rooms, barbershop in the ‘his’, and a warren of gym spaces for a wide range of classes (HIIT, Vinyasa flow, barre).
GRAN HOTEL MAS D’EN BRUNO
Spain
When it comes to luxury spa hotels in Spain, Gran Hotel Mas d’en Bruno, in the vine-clad region of Priorat, is off to a strong start. It’s set in an ancient winery. but you won’t get a hangover here — in fact, you’ll leave feeling lighter, sharper, smoother and delightfully somnolent after vinotherapy and citrus-y massage treatments, and being slathered in dreamy Natura Bissé products, plus working your way through the sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi, and hot and cold pools.
But, the cork-popping part is that Smith guests get free daily entry throughout their stay (it’s usually €50 a guest), and if you want some alone time, the whole space can be hired privately (at a charge) for an hour of intimate indulgence.
FORESTIS
Italy
The Dolomites show off the full force of their beauty at remote Italian mountain retreat Forestis. And this luxurious European spa hotel harnesses their natural power in the spa, where treatments use four kinds of locally growing wood (mountain pine, spruce, Swiss stone pine and larch), stones and sound frequencies.
Some, such as massages carried out with thick rolling sticks or forest-salt scrubs, don’t require much belief-stretching. But we urge you to fully embrace the more alternative therapies, because after sessions of Celtic-style Druidic movement theory, and partaking in a tree-circle ceremony where you’re encouraged to connect with a certain kind of wood, you’ll be fully invested in the inherent magic of these mountains.
NATURALIS BIO RESORT & SPA
Puglia, Italy
The living at Puglian hideaway Naturalis Bio Resort & Spa might be inspired by the traditions of Salento farmers, but they’d be wide-eyed at how fancy their beautiful barn is now as a luxury spa — or that the wine, olive oil and wheatgerm grown is going towards treatments rather than a meal. Your eyes will also be saucer-like at the curtain-swagged cabanas by a beautiful, flower-flanked pool; and long, languid rituals that end with wine and homemade tarallini biscuits.
As the name suggests, nature has had some influence here, so expect organic experiences: soothing aloe foot rubs, pomegranate-based ‘emotional massages’, and raiding the ‘alchemic minibar’ for personalised oil blends. Clearly, the hotel has soared several lifestyle brackets from its agricultural beginnings, but you can still enhance spa sojourns with herb-harvesting sessions or dishes made using ancient grains.
EUPHORIA RESORT
Greece
While some luxury European spa hotels might tout ‘holism’ in its pampering, Euphoria Hotel on the Peloponnese peninsula is indeed the whole package. Bringing together Hippocratic medicine, Taoist spirituality and modern methodologies in a building that looks like a light-years-ahead temple to wellbeing, there’s not one aspect of life-quality improving that’s overlooked.
There’s a vast Byzantine-style marble hammam, a womb-like pool with a cupola, Kneipp-therapy water well, sensory-deprivation pool, salt room, tepidarium and swimming or soaking spots of various temperaments. And, this is wellness as a way of life, whether you need a nutritional or homoeopathic consultation, acupuncture and watsu healing, healthy cookery classes, bioenergetic profiling, psychic channelling…it’s all there under a, likely, organically curvaceous, roof.
HOTEL BOHINJ
Slovenia
A turquoise glimmer amid stern mountain peaks, with a bristling coat of pines, ruined-castle-topped islets and soaring waterfalls, Slovenia’s Lake Bohinj feels otherworldly. Adding to this is Hotel Bohinj, whose spa offers transcendent treatments, such as a head spa with massaging jets and spells in the salt room under chromotherapy lights to rev up lungs and ready your mind for lengthy hikes.
More down to Earth, but still dreamy, are massages with bundles of spruce, a thermal circuit through Finnish- and Turkish-style saunas, experiential showers and a whirpool bath to wallow in. Then seek two kinds of chill: the ‘agh’ sort in the ice room, and the ‘ahh’ sort in the relaxation lounge, which has panoramic views.
THE RETREAT AT BLUE LAGOON
Iceland
The mystical, milky waters of Iceland’s Blue Lagoon don’t need help to act as a healing force of nature amid the lunar lava fields of Grindavik. Whether it’s from being submerged in a toasty mineral soup, or frequenting its swim-up bar, you’re sure to leave with a geothermal-powered glow.
But spa hotel The Retreat at Blue Lagoon not only has top-tier suites where you’ll have your own private section of hot springs. There’s also a sultry subterranean spa, hewn from dark stone, where large heated rocks act as a sauna, a lava-spring lounge provides some aquatic theatre, which you can enjoy from cocooning nest chairs. Get massaged while floating, get a personalised facials with mineral-rich serums, and complete the lagoon ritual of silica, algae and salts, to conjure up a potently pampering stay.
OCTANT FURNAS
The Azores
Billed as the ‘hottest of the hot’ (or quente das quenturas round these parts), the Azores Islands’ natural springs do indeed get quite steamy, but in the way that leaves you with glowy, mineral-enriched skin, rather than something more ‘reality show’ in style. They’re part of a Portuguese spa break at Octant Furnas, where the thermal circuit lets you marinate in variously hued waters, before hopping from sauna to Turkish bath, then refreshing in aromatic showers and pools with targeted jets.
And, while having direct access to these virtuously volatile natural wonders is a true privilege, it’s worth exploring the menu of delicious spa treatments too. We mean that literally, because doesn’t a pineapple and brown-sugar body scrub; cocoa and coffee exfoliation; and a wrap of sea salt, olive oil and lemon all sound like tiers on an intriguing tasting menu?
VILLA LA COSTE
Provence, France
Villa La Coste is an art and design lover’s passion project, filled with works by stellar names: Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeoise… But wellness is also an elevated art here, bringing together Provençal aromatics (jasmine, lavender, rose) and ancestral techniques in a painterly French setting.
The menu reads like a pâtissière‘s prep list: body scrubs mudded with lavender and poppy seed or cranberry and Gascony plum; massages using rose and bergamot oil or apricot and vanilla butter. Ila and Oway facials purify, brighten and plump, meditation sessions are held in a room spackled with cathedral-esque stained-glass and chakra-boosting, coloured, heated muds let you get creative as you paint on each other.
Choose from our full menu of luxury spa hotels in Europe