WELLNESS WANDERLUST
Gautam@2022 After the whirlwind of recent years, medical tourism is more in demand than ever as travellers seek to boost their wellbeing. From the serene shores of Lake Lucerne to sun- soaked Spanish port cities and the lush Tegernsee Mountains, we’ve uncovered Europe’s best medical retreats that are perfect for a holistic, health-centred getaway.
Lanserhof Tegernsee
Resting at the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, Lanserhof Tegernsee is a health-focused, forest-encircled hideaway brimming with the latest and greatest in wellness practices.
Panoramas of rolling hills and flower- dotted meadows create a perfectly serene backdrop for the world-renowned Lanserhof Tegernsee. Since opening in 2014, the German establishment has won an array of accolades including the title of the World’s Best Medical Spa from the annual World Spa Awards several times.
Continuing on the Lanserhof brand – which has stood for innovative medicine at the highest degree for over three decades – the Tegernsee outpost epitomises excellence in the fields of health and wellness. The LANS Med Concept, which is employed at each of the group’s properties, is a symbiosis of traditional naturopathy, scientific know-how and the best of today’s international medicine. Based on the findings of Austrian 20th-century pioneer and physician Franz Xaver Mayr, the LANS Med recovery methodology focuses on optimising both the physical and mental health of patients. The treatments are centred around detoxification, deacidification and purification of the body, enabling regeneration of the intestinal tract – which is being increasingly considered the window to a person’s health.
Offering 21,000 square metres of wellness, Lanserhof Tegernsee invites guests to indulge in two very rare treasures: time and attention. Dedicated doctors and therapists, all of whom are experts in their respective fields, treat guests with their every sense and skill. Even the cuisine, which comprises a personalised detoxifying menu for each guest, has been carefully designed to optimise the body’s digestive powers. Using organic, sun-ripened and ethically grown produce, the LANS Energy Cuisine strives to enhance delight in food, cooking and eating.
With treatments tailored to guests’ specific needs, using their current state of health as a starting point, the necessary measures and therapies are individually determined by Lanserhof ’s team of specialists. This includes detailed diagnostics, professional sports analyses, holistic health consultations, medical check-ups, healing therapies, skin and cosmetic treatments, and a variety of additional healthcare services. Guests’ ultimate wishes, as well as preventative measures, are also weaved into treatment plans. This collective approach is decisive in achieving sustainable and long-term success, which supports guests on their overall path to inner balance and a higher quality of life.
Forcing guests to slow down, days at Lanserhof Tegernsee are deliberately under-scheduled, allowing plenty of time for rest and relaxation. The nature-steeped surrounds are a wonderland of outdoor activity where guests can jog, swim, sail and cycle to their heart’s content. There’s also an 18-hole golf course. At night, entertainment comes in the form of nightly classical concerts.
Inspired by the idea of creating a ‘high-tech monastery’, architect Christoph Ingenhoven and landscape architect Enzo Enea designed the building in harmony with its tranquil surrounds. Luxurious yet evoking a sense of calm, the large spaces and minimalist decor create the most beautiful healing environment. Each of the 70 expansive rooms and suites come complete with a terrace balcony and floor-to-ceiling windows. The property is also home to a spa, outdoor heated saltwater pool and separate bathhouse with saunas, an indoor pool, a therapeutic cold chamber and an exercise and yoga room, all with views across the Tegernsee Valley.
Clinique La Prairie
Sandwiched between the enchanting Swiss Alps and the pristine shores of Lake Geneva, Clinique La Prairie boasts a prime location for a nature-steeped restorative escape that combines the comforts of a luxury five-star hotel with the services of a renowned private clinic.
Committed to helping and inspiring people to live a healthier, longer and better life, Clinique La Prairie believes in a holistic and preventive approach to health. Nestled on a verdant plot in Montreux, Switzerland, the property is home to 50 rooms and suites, boasting breathtaking views of the Alps and Lake Geneva, along with a plethora of superior medical facilities.
Embracing its locale, which has long been considered a sublime sanctuary where time moves at a slowed pace, Clinique La Prairie invites guests to enjoy peace of mind while uncovering the retreat’s storied medical secrets. Providing a results-driven approach while enveloped in all the luxuries the mind could fathom, this ultra-exclusive establishment is the only one of its kind in the world. In 1931, Dr Paul Niehans pioneered cellular therapy on these very grounds, and Clinique La Prairie has built on his legacy, continuing his research and methodologies.
Its Revitalisation programme, which is based on Niehans’ discoveries, promotes vitality through enhancing immunity and helping to slow the ageing process, and is one of several programmes offered at Clinique La Prairie. With programmes including Master Detox, Weight Loss System, Rebalancing, Better Sleep, Advanced Aesthetic Beauty, Immunity Boost and Energizing Wellness, the facility has a wide range to offer, with a focus on Clinique La Prairie’s four core pillars: medical, wellbeing, nutrition and movement.
Through intimate and bespoke treatments that take guests’ individual genetic compositions into account, Clinique La Prairie provides an all-encompassing health and wellness service. The holistic approach not only focuses on physical health, but works to ensure that the mind is healthy too, combining evidence-based, scientifically guided and aesthetically conscious medicine with unique wellbeing, nutrition and exercise plans.
The award-winning wellness centre – which has been lauded as Switzerland’s Best Wellness Retreat for 2020 by the World Spa Awards as well as Condé Nast Traveller’s Spa Award for most progressive clinic in 2018 – is comprised of a trio of buildings, each with its own selection of rooms and suites. Le Château is the most modern structure and is where all the wellbeing magic happens; La Résidence is the most historical building and the Medical Centre is the home of the 50 medical specialists. With its most recent facelift, the Medical Centre has welcomed three new operating theatres and has expanded its expertise to include a range of specialists in stem cell cosmetic surgery.
Ambiance also effects state of mind and therefore also healing, and so the buildings’ interiors bring tranquillity and elegance to the forefront, with understated and airy decor featuring calming shades of yellow, white and green. Service at the facility is impeccable too, with an average of five staff members for every guest. Italian chef Sara Bussetti leads the kitchen, which employs a mostly vegan approach, transforming what are often considered mundane plant products into true gastronomic delights that are both delicious and nutritious.
SHA Wellness Clinic
Perched on a hillside overlooking Altea’s bay in Alicante, Spain, the ultra-modern SHA Wellness Clinic is leading a global wellness revolution focused on a comprehensive and integrative approach to health.
Sunkissed by the Mediterranean’s rejuvenating rays, SHA Wellness Clinic is a radiating haven of health whose mission is to help people live a longer and better life. Presenting a life-transforming experience, this Spanish sanctuary is where guests come to realise that health is not simply an absence of disease, but is rather an optimal state of physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing that resides in harmony with the environment.
SHA Wellness Clinic combines the latest advances in scientific medicine with the most effective natural therapies to realise their guests’ goals. Its multi-disciplinary medical team is comprised of internationally renowned experts in nutrition, preventive medicine, anti-ageing, genetics, holistic medicine, dermo-aesthetic medicine, regenerative medicine, revitalising medicine, physical and sports activity, psychology, dentistry, bioenergetic medicine and cognitive stimulation, among others, enabling the highly acclaimed clinic to cater to any and every need. Treatment programmes cover optimal weight, detoxing, rebalancing and healthy ageing.
The SHA approach gives special prominence to healthy and balanced nutrition customised to each guest’s requirements. The healthy, energetic and balanced diet is inspired by millennia-old principles adapted to modern life. The practical and attractive approach is aimed at respecting nature’s seasonal and regional offerings.
One of the facility’s main goals is to assist guests in simplifying the maintenance of long-term health through the incorporation and learning of new habits. This is done through a selection of conferences, healthy cooking classes, relaxation, meditation, yoga, mindfulness and other activities that provide the tools and knowledge needed to enjoy lasting wellbeing. Optimising emotional and mental health is also a core factor of the SHA method, so mindfulness, stress management, coaching and psychotherapy are also offered.
Like all the SHA Wellness Clinics, the Spanish property is situated in a location where the climate is predominantly warm throughout the year, and is surrounded by nature with easy access to the sea. Enveloping guests in a natural environment encourages self-reconnection and promotes improved wellbeing.
With the average stay spanning a week or more, the clinic has been designed to ensure that guests feel at home. The rooms and suites are large, and each boast a living room and a generous private terrace to soak up the sublime weather. The interiors are warm and sophisticated, creating a quiet and relaxing environment in which every detail has been carefully selected for comfort.
Respect and care for the environment lie at the core of the SHA brand, with steps taken to minimise its impact at every point possible. The buildings are adapted to the land, prioritising natural materials, enhancing the surrounding environment and using natural energy sources. All in all, SHA brings together the greatest levels of comfort and service with innovation and sustainability to present the highest echelon of wellness to its guests.
Chenot Palace Weggis
Having opened its doors in June 2020, Chenot Palace Weggis is Europe’s latest and most advanced medical spa. With its upmarket facilities, luxurious accommodation and panoramic views across Lake Lucerne, this Swiss retreat is setting new standards for medical tourism.
The newest edition to the renowned Chenot brand, Chenot Palace Weggis brings the group’s extensive medical expertise and impressive hospitality skills to the shores of Lake Lucerne. Spanning a vast 5,000 square metres, this full-service integrated medical retreat epitomises holistic wellness at its pinnacle.
By far the most comprehensive offering within the Chenot portfolio, Chenot Palace Weggis’ facilities include a world-class metabolic and sports laboratory, an in-house blood-analysis laboratory, a whole-body cryochamber at -110°C, antigravity technologies, an altitude chamber, an epigenetics lab, a 21-metre indoor swimming pool and four dedicated sleep rooms technologically designed and created to increase and improve rest.
Pioneering the wellness trend for lab-led personalisation, the medical professionals at Chenot Palace Weggis carry out in-depth, holistic medical diagnostics and nutritional consultations with every guest to help tailor detox programmes to the individual. These assessments are also used to curate tailor-made lifestyle recommendations that guests can follow at home to prolong the benefits.
Welcome the increasingly health-conscious traveller, Chenot Palace Weggis is also home to a spa, fitness centre and 97 spacious lake view rooms and suites. New for 2021, Chenot Palace Weggis will introduce dedicated sleep rooms that have been designed to enhance rest during guests’ detox programmes. State-of-the-art sleeping technology, which includes specialised acoustics, lighting and bed linen technologies that revert body heat back into energy, have been scientifically interwoven with interior design and architecture to create a natural sleeping environment that provides a truly optimised and restful sleep.
Taking advantage of its superb location, Chenot Palace Weggis also offers direct, private access to Lake Lucerne for wild freshwater swimming, which has been proven to not only reduce inflammation and help the body’s immune system, but also to increase endorphin levels. The resort also has a private beach, which serves as a truly idyllic place to relax and connect with nature between treatments.
The property offers three signature, six-day retreat programmes, including Advanced Detox, Recover & Energise and Prevention & Ageing Well. During these programmes, guests can expect treatments such as therapeutic massages, hydro-aromatherapy, manual lymphatic drainage, altitude hypoxie-therapy, anti-gravity exercise training and body- composition analysis, as well as a bespoke, low-calorie and plant-based nutrition plan from the Chenot Diet.
The Chenot Advanced Detox is the property’s standout treatment and is aimed at those with unhealthy habits and inactive lifestyles. By promoting deep purification and detoxification, the Advanced Detox assists in supporting the body’s natural process to excrete metabolic waste and toxins while repairing defective tissue and restoring hormonal balance. Clients can expect to restore their body’s natural rhythms with a low-calorie, plant based nutrition plan, a stress test to determine cortisol levels, HRV biofeedback training sessions (wherein one attains an unusually low breathing rate to reach cardiac coherence, which is proven to help reduce anxiety levels), along with a series of advanced and holistic therapeutic treatments. Some of the treatments include plant-based mud wrapping with pure micro-algae and aromatherapy baths, cupping massages and electro-stimulation.
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