Pack your vaccination card, flip-flops, mass-market paperbacks and center your chi.
After a year and change of hunkered-down living, you’ve more than earned your fun in the sun.
But why settle for just sand in your toes and a sunburn when you can experience something new and come home feeling rested, rejuvenated and maybe even with a newfound passion for tarot card reading?
Below, seven wacky, wonderful and woo-woo wellness getaways to add to your radar.
Try a traditional temazcal ceremony in Mexico
Stop burning sage and start cleansing with temazcal ceremonies. This ancient ritual that roughly translates to “steam house” will purify all that stagnant air (and dead skin) you’ve accumulated these past 14 months as a living room professional. At Chablé Yucatán (Chocholá, Yucatán) or Chablé Maroma (Punta Maroma, Quintana Roo), the experience (starting at $128) is led by an X’Men, an individual well-versed in ancient ceremonial ways.
In “Mother Earth’s Womb,” expect volcanic stones soaked in medicinal teas, total darkness and hypnotic chanting. When you’re ready to tuck it in for the night, call Chablé Yucatán in the Mayan jungle near the historic city of Merida or Chablé Maroma’s private beach setting, your home away from home. Either way, you’ll enjoy secluded villas and casitas (from $741).
Pick your panacea: two blissed-out retreats in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Enjoy good vibrations at 3,700-feet at the Art of Living Retreat Center in Boone, NC, with a bit of much-needed reflection amongst 380 verdant acres.
The meditation and Ayurvedic-focused escape has a host of programming options, but our vote is either the three-day Happiness Retreat (from $495) or five-day Silent Meditation Retreat (from $895).
In the former, you’ll be taught practical techniques to tap into your inner sense of joy and to reduce stress in this hectic world. The latter integrates the Happiness Retreat with several extra days of silent meditation, yoga and advanced breathing lessons.
In your downtime, try a pottery or watercolor class, join in on an Ayurvedic cooking lesson or wander Thoreuavian style along many a nature trail or babbling creek. (ArtOfLivingRetreatCenter.org)
Get your new age on in Miami
Who said Miami was for hangovers?
At Carillon Miami Wellness Resort (from $499), get your kicks indoors with touchless experiences like the Prism Light Pod, a red-light therapy system (from $49), Pure Wave Vemi, a combo of bioacoustic electromagnetic and infrared technologies (from $99) and Spa Wave by Gharieni, essentially a power nap cocoon with music, sound waves and vibrations (from $99).
Also not to be missed? Chakra Balance ($175) and Healing Energy (from $175) treatments to enhance your self-awareness or bring balance to your haywire spirit.
The property is oceanfront, so we suppose you can get your oiled beach bod fix, too.
Make a splash at a floating spa in the British Virgin Islands
Settle in for a heck of a Thai massage or aromatherapy session at one of the few floating spas in the Caribbean.
Anchored in the aquamarine waters off of Jost Van Dyke island, the new structure was built after the original location was destroyed by hurricane Irma in 2017 — mostly from lumber salvaged from the storm — and clients rave about the soothing bobbing of the ocean ushering them off to Tranqui-La during their treatments.
After your time at the day spa, scope out the Baths, a national park composed of granite boulders forming sheltered sea pools.
Come nightfall, catch ZZZs back at Jost Van Dyke’s White Bay Villas and Seaside Cottages (from $329).
Expand your mind in rural Wisconsin
You’ve got a lot of venting to do after a year of being cooped up at home. So, take advantage of all that pent-up energy with the Tracking Wonder: The Art & Science of Creative Living / Wild Rice Retreat.
Taking place this July 25 through 29 in Bayfield, Wis., this getaway interweaves psychology presentations, outdoor and indoor tracking wonder experiences (like a “wonder walk” in nature helping participants overcome specific life challenges), creative writing and more.
It’s all designed to help you live a more creative life, foster resilience and enhance your connections with others. The backdrop of Wild Rice Retreat’s new and modern Scandinavian-style woodland lodging, with a sauna, nature galore and locally sourced meals doesn’t hurt on this worthy quest, either (from $1,671 per person with lodging).
Experience a self-care cocoon in Colombia
At Hotel Playa Koralia on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, wellness opportunities abound ranging from crystal healing and radiestesia (measurement and diagnosis of the internal organs and the seven main centers or chakras) to cacao ceremonies and temazcal.
The resort boasts a holistic approach and strong ties to the local Indigenous communities, ensuring a unique experience for guests.
Located in a remote area with private beach access, the resort is also available for full buyouts and wellness-centric retreats, should you prefer to have the whole place to yourself on your first post-vax vacay (from $250 per person, per day).
Soak it up at Lithia Springs Resort in Ashland, Ore.
Take a plunge somewhere that isn’t your bathtub.
For a seriously reinvigorating splash head to sylvan and Shakespearean Ashland (it’s home to the famed regional repertory theatre Oregon Shakespeare Festival).
At Lithia Spring Resort (from $165), soak in lithia water, a rare aqua-phenomenon that mixes naturally occurring sulfur and other minerals along with its namesake lithium. It’s believed to have healing properties.
A craze since the 1880s, you’ll wonder why it took you so long to drink, ahem, dunk in the Lithia-Aid. The property now boasts a recently opened wine garden, perfect for lazing in with a glass of biodynamic vino after an afternoon spent strolling along the 4 acres of lush gardens on-site or taking a hike nearby.