3 Top Health And Wellness Retreats For You In 2025

Wellness should be good for you, but “Wellness” has become a multi-billion-dollar word in the travel industry, and that has increasingly meant bad news for travelers. Hotels, resorts, and practitioners are seeking to cash in by marketing anything and everything as wellness, from astrology and tarot card readings to rooms with views of the forests to having a tennis court. Many places do not deliver, but if one of your goals for next year is to live healthier, get in better shape, lose weight or learn more about your personal health and wellness, these are three top health and wellness retreats for you in 2025.

I know this because I have tried them all, along with a lot of other wellness, fitness and active travel. They stand out as some of the bets in the country, and I would go back to any of them in a heartbeat. Not surprisingly, they are not new (though there is a new location), and instead of rushing into the field chasing dollars, they have long been benchmark gold standards for the industry, with proven track records and very loyal followings, customers who go back annually or even several times a year. No one would do that if they were disappointed.

Rancho La Puerta, Tecate, Mexico

These spots are not ranked in any particular order, but I put this one first simply because they have been doing it the longest and in many ways are the inventor of destination fitness and wellness retreats—family owned and operated since1940.

Who It’s For

Everyone, with a very broad slate of physical activities, education, healthy eating, and if you want, weight-loss.

The Details

For more than 80 years, Rancho La Puerta has been sending guests home happier, healthier, better informed and often a little bit lighter than when they arrived. But instead of being stuck in the past, they are watching trends and continually upgrading and were at the forefront of then rare but now ubiquitous activities like yoga and pickleball. When interest in cooking increased, they built a state-of-the-art demo kitchen and added cooking classes with guest chefs.

After all those years they also have the logistics down to a science, with one of the best and most detailed websites of any resort I have ever visited, from sample menus to daily activity schedules, with no detail left out. Since the resort is just 3-miles into Mexico, and most programs run Saturday to Saturday, they set up a table in the San Diego airport, check in arriving guests and ferry them to the resort with a fleet of buses. It is a slick operation to the point where they are so established that we didn’t even have to show our passports at the border crossing. The attention to detail continues after arrival, with orientation and activities beginning right away, plus an amazingly friendly, dedicated and helpful staff—roughly 400 employees, many of them from multi-generational families working here.

The ranch is in a beautiful mountain wilderness preserve of 4000-acres and has additional land through privileges with abutting owners. There are 40-miles of trails, and the main feature is daily hikes, with 3-4 options of varying length and difficulty each morning, as long as 7.7 miles, and an additional afternoon hike some days. After this there is an extremely extensive hourly calendar of exercise and educational classes, including yoga (several options), pilates (mat and reformer), several kinds of strength training, aqua fitness classes, indoor cycling, TRX, bootcamps, as well as tennis and pickleball lessons and free play. Many classes like yoga are offered for all levels from first-timer to advanced, and there are specialty swimming stroke clinics, trail running programs and movement classes like Feldenkrais and dance. There’s also a roster of meditation and mindfulness practices, and perhaps the most challenging activity is just picking what to do from competing choices.

But many returning guests just do a hike, take a class or two and spend a lot of time relaxing, enjoying the many pools, hammocks strung across the property, fine weather, very large spa and ultra-relaxed atmosphere. Separate men’s and women’s “health” buildings each offer complimentary sauna, steam, hot tub and showers.

Each week includes a broad slate of guest expert lecturers, on topics as diverse as music, education, nutrition, and cooking classes with a guest chef. The Ranch operates a large organic chef’s farm, which supplies much of its produce, and you can even take gardening lessons. There is a full art studio with a range of art and craft classes.

It’s like a college campus in a giant garden, with at least ten different gyms and studios, several pools, and lodging in freestanding casitas. There’s a central dining room that serves all three meals, plus ancillary outdoor breakfast spots, specialty dinners, a smoothie bar, two specialty coffee spots. and a separate wine bar serving exclusively Mexican wines, craft beers and cheese plates. The food skews Mexican and is largely plant-based, but also includes eggs, dairy and seafood, and every day showcases homemade soups, homemade breads, entrée specials and extensive healthy breakfast and lunch buffets.

The weekly fee covers all hikes, classes, lodging, meals (including two gala dinners with wine or sangria), entertainment and transfers, while spa, cooking classes, private training and the wine/beer bar are extra. Rancho La Puerta also offers several specialty weeks, an annual Folk Music Festival, Chamber Music week, culinary celebration of Baja foods week, and popular Family week, where extra camp counsellors are brought in and a wide variety of special activities and classes for all ages are offered. Pickle Ball Retreats are offered several times each year.

Rancho La Puerta sits in the middle of the destination fitness spectrum, between educationally oriented learning trips and hyper-active bootcamps. If you want to lose a few pounds quickly, you can, but if you want to eat large meals and drink a bottle of wine every night, you can do that too. For most guests, it’s a mix of several hours a day of exercise with healthy eating, thoughtfulness, education and relaxation, and just about everyone goes home cleaner, healthier and recharged.

The Ranch Malibu and The Ranch Hudson Valley

With its intimate small-group size and fast, effective weight-loss, this has become a famously popular choice for A-List celebrities and Hollywood stars.

Who It’s For

Hiking lovers and those seeking to try vegan eating, digital detox, and drop a few pounds quickly.

The Details

The original Southern California location was ranked as the Number One Destination Spa in the country in the 2023 Travel + Leisure Magazine World’s Best Awards and is currently one of the Top 3 U.S. Destination Spa Resorts according to Conde Nast Traveler magazine, one of the 100 Best Spas Worldwide from Vogue, Best Wellness Retreat in the World from Yoga Journal and it won Best Wellness Retreat in California at the 2024 World Spa Awards. The new east coast campus in New York’s Hudson Valley just debuted this spring and immediately won Best Wellness Retreat New York at the 2024 World Spa Awards.

The Ranch has a very loyal following, many of whom return once or more a year, with many describing visits as a “reset, cleanse, detox or recharge.” Overall, it is not as physically demanding as many destination fitness retreats, but the combination of workouts, eating very clean healthy food with no alcohol, and daily massages in a relaxed, escapist setting that encourages detaching from work, social connectivity and outside stress pretty much guarantees you will leave reset and recharged. The low-calorie diet and hiking-centric program also pretty much guarantees you will leave lighter, one reason many people choose this, but hardly the only good reason to do so.

The Ranch cornerstones include the vegan diet, with clean, nutrient rich food in limited quantities, no alcohol, coffee only at breakfast, and less than 1,400 calories daily (though each guest can choose extra-sized portions and add accordingly); fairly strenuous daily hikes; optional low-key strength and yoga classes; and massages (rates include a daily massage, a rare luxury in this travel sector). While some destination fitness programs go morning to night, the Ranch has built in down time for napping, reading, hitting the pool or enjoying sauna, hot tub and cold plunges. It is at the luxury end of the spectrum for these kinds of retreats, especially the New York location with even more opulent lodging.

Programs also include a Bod Pod analysis, a device that measures your body composition (how much muscle and fat you have and where that puts you in the population spectrum), and then there are numerous optional add-ons, some of them very unusual, including hypnotherapy, colon hydrotherapy, IVs, acupuncture, reiki and more. Besides a vegan cooking class, there is less focus on education/takeaway and more on the immersive experience of being here.

One big difference between the locations is that weeklong programs are standard in California, while New York has 4-day/3-night and 5-day-4-night sessions, Monday to Thursday and Thursday to Monday respectively.

The New York campus, opened this year (2024), occupies Table Rock Estate, a 200-acre property with a main house that is a 40,000-sqaure foot mansion built 120 years ago by financier J. P. Morgan as a wedding gift for his daughter, who married Alexander Hamilton’s great grandson. They have preserved or restored almost all of its opulent detail, including huge fireplaces, very high ceilings, detailed glasswork, moldings, ornate carved wood paneling and period furniture. Yoga and strength classes are held in what was the ballroom, probably the most beautiful studio you will ever sweat in. Next to the main house is a huge stone and glass solarium with gorgeous indoor pool, hot and cold plunges, and large infrared sauna. The conversion to the Ranch earned a Hotel Great Design Award from Architectural Digest magazine.

The Ranch delivers physical and mental results quickly, and while everyone, especially those in high-pressure jobs, will enjoy the resetting and recharging, it is also great as a jumpstart for those seeking weight-loss. One barrier that prevents many from sticking to new lifestyles is the slow pace of change, so coming home with measurable results can be a motivator and big step down a longer road.

Center for Health & Wellbeing at the Four Seasons Westlake, Los Angeles, CA

Taking the opposite approach of many retreats focused on quick-results, this science-driven destination focuses on education and instruction for lifelong changes and betterment.

Who It’s For

Those seeking to invest in their future and make lasting, significant lifestyle changes for the better, as well as those already well down the path of fitness and wellness who want more understanding and expert fine tuning.

The Details

The Forbes 4-Star Four Seasons Westlake Village is the most luxurious resort I have been to with a dedicated immersion wellness and fitness program of this caliber and scope. It was listed as one of the best hotels in Los Angeles here at Forbes. Its 40,000 square foot Forbes 4-Star spa also happens to be the largest at any Four Seasons in the world, with 128 treatments. Men’s and women’s locker rooms have steam, sauna and whirlpool tubs, available to guests at any time, and there is also a very large state-of-the-art 24/7 fitness center that includes a yoga studio, group class cycling suite with Keiser M3i bikes, as well as ultra-popular Peloton bikes in the main gym. Here there is a full schedule of free fitness classes daily (yoga, Pilates, cycling, bootcamp, and much more) and personal training available. Westlake also recently opened one of the largest hotel pool complexes in California, a $20 addition with bar and restaurant, private day beds, whirlpool spas, and hammocks.

The property has long been the flagship health program within the entire global luxury Four Seasons portfolio, but it used to be known as the California Health and Longevity Institute. It revamped and rebranded a few years ago as the Center for Health & Wellbeing and features a new partnership with the Cure Medical practice, a third-party provider outside the scope of the retreats that gives participants—and all hotel guests—additional options including blood tests and genetics, executive physicals, hyperbaric and cryotherapy treatments, plus cosmetic and elective procedures.

But the main event for today’s purposes are the scheduled Wellness Retreats, with a variety of options designed to help you lose weight, live longer, get in better shape, or enjoy some pampering along with learning.

This is the time on the calendar for New Year’s Resolutions, with many of them health and diet related, but these have a high failure rate and are often short-lived. Despite the best intentions, most people do not know how to actually go about making changes, so they give up trying. But even small changes can be really important in the long run. These programs are not get slim quick bootcamps, but if your goal is to make lasting lifestyle changes, this may be the best place to go, and I was extremely impressed.

For many guests, fitness escapes are a jumpstart, and unfortunately, for some participants the benefit is over the minute they leave. The approach at the Center For Health & Wellbeing is much more long-lasting, even potentially life changing, because it focuses on education and teaching new habits, not trying to send home a new you after four days. Instead, they take the teach a man to fish versus giving him some fish tact and send home a you much more capable of becoming a new you.

They are also realistic, and know most guests are not going to completely overhaul their lives based on a short visit, so they promote incremental changes. They educate you to make better decisions, eat a little healthier, exercise a little more, and incorporate lifestyle changes that can potentially stick forever going forward—and might lead to more and bigger changes down the road. If a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, these are the first steps towards your healthier way of living the rest of your life. In that vein, they add a great benefit I have never seen at another program: all Retreats include a follow up a month afterwards with the expert specialist of your choice to reassess, clear up any confusion, answer questions and discuss next steps.

The Center takes take a research and science-based tact, with a very impressive group of experts, both on staff and as outside contributors. Every discussion of diet, fitness or strength training modalities began with “studies have shown…” There are also guest presenters who may join for dinner or other slots, and these experts tend to be top tier in their fields. When I went, a dinner speaker was nationally known sleep medicine expert Dr. Sam Kashani, a doctor, clinical instructor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and on the Board of Directors of the California Sleep Society. There were similar experts from the worlds of nutrition, fitness, life balance and more. Four days may sound short, but you are constantly learning, even when you are eating.

Unlike many other wellness escapes, these are a small part of the offering of the large “conventional” resort, not the sole reason for it to exist, so dates are fewer and farther between. Four-day all-inclusive retreats are offered five times a year, and the 2025 calendar was just released, with three variations or themes to choose from. All feature very small groups (averaging around 10) and the three programs share common elements, with all participants eating and doing some group activities together, then separating for activities specific to their choice of focuses, as well as personal electives. The retreats are perfect for couples, even if they want to pursue different tracks, with plenty of together time. Ther are also two-day wellness-stays, a scaled down private version of the program, offered at any time.

Shared elements include guided hikes through the gorgeous coastal Santa Monica mountains, fitness programs for the entire group, yoga and meditation classes, a spa treatment, healthy cooking class, high-tech Body Composition Analysis (very similar to the Ranch above), complimentary use of a reserved luxury pool cabana during breaks, and all meals, most of which are in the Center’s dedicated Wellness Kitchen. Lodging is included in rates, and for free time you also get unlimited access to all regular resort fitness classes, gym and spa facilities.

The three focus areas are Optimum Performance, Sustainable Weight Loss and Spa & Beauty. I chose Optimum Performance, which is more athletic/fitness focused. I picked it because I have been working out regularly for a long time, and wanted to refine and improve my performance, bust through plateaus, and make my workouts more efficient. I arrived with a lot of questions and went home with a lot of answers, as well as new things to implement in my strength training, diet, cooking and workout and recovery schedule. Optimum Performance adds a VO2 Max treadmill analysis, private personalized session with a nutritionist, and a focus on functional training and workout technique. Sustainable Weight Loss spends more time on nutrition, diet and cooking instruction, and adds a private nutritionist consultation, goal-setting fitness consultation, mental fitness and life balance consultation. The first step in eating better is learning to eat better, and this is the focus. It’s also much easier to eat better at home than in restaurants, so the cooking classes are very important. Spa & Beauty includes all the shared hikes yoga, group fitness classes, Body Composition analysis, and cooking class, and adds a body treatment, facial treatment, salon treatment and choice of spa treatment, plus one elective specialist consultation.

For all three tracks, there is a laundry list of a la carte electives that can be added.