More travellers are taking wellness trips as travel has been shown to decrease stress, improve brain function, boost your immune system and make you feel happier over time.
Wellness retreats are the highest form of “self care” and “me time” where you can switch off and forget about the worries of your life or learn healthy coping mechanisms on how to deal with stress.
With heritage day around the corner, we’ve compiled a list of five luxury wellness retreats in the country to help you connect with South Africa’s rich, multicultural and diverse backgrounds.
Hammam Turkish Bath & Spa, Pretoria
If you’re looking for a wellness retreat with hints of Middle Eastern culture, then Hammam Turkish Bath & Spa is the perfect place for you.
A Turkish Hammam is a traditional Turkish bath package that includes 45 minutes of washing; traditional body scrubbing with handwoven wash cloth known as a kese; a foam wash; and a massage. The attendants usually provide visitors with a peshtemal, a thin cotton towel, to wrap yourself and a regular towel to use after bathing.
Hammam Turkish Bath & Spa uses the fusion of luxury spa blends from around the world to provide its guests with intoxicating treatments from the most discerning global brands.
The wellness retreat offers a traditional hammam, yoga and other aesthetic treatments. The facilities on site include a Rasul chamber, sauna, outdoor jacuzzi, rain showers, a couples treatment room.
The spa restaurant serves delicious Turkish cuisine and a half day couples package, the Royal Ottoman Hammam Indulgence, costs R 5 900.
Santé Wellness Retreat & Spa, Paarl
“Santé” means health in French and the Santé Wellness Retreat & Spa offers a multi-faceted approach to health. The spa sits in spectacular countryside in the Cape Winelands, rich with culture and heritage.
It has three healing centres under one roof including the Health Optimizing Royal Retreat, the Day Spa and the Bio-Energy Centre. The Health Optimizing Royal Retreat offers a comprehensive health assessment and individual treatment plan, supported by specialist doctors and therapists, the Day Spa provides complementary programmes to help you rejuvenate, relax, detox, or support healthy-ageing while the Bio-Energy Centre harnesses the healing and balancing attributes of magnetic fields, colour, light, and crystals.
Since food is an important part of the healing experience, Sante’s menu contains no sugar, dairy, gluten, artificial colours, preservatives or additives, and uses fresh ingredients from the resort’s own garden and local bio-dynamic produce.
Sante’s facilities include 16 massage, facial and wet rooms, two saunas, two steam rooms, two vinotherapy rooms, a yoga studio, fitness centre, heated indoor pool and jacuzzi and outdoor pool.
The spa offers Hammam, Vichy showers, Rasul, hydrotherapy baths and salt relaxation.
You can also try out colour therapy, energy therapy, health optimising assessments and treatments, Kneipp therapy, lifestyle coaching, nutritional consultancy and sleep medicine therapy.
If you are looking for activities to de-stress then you can partake in biking, bird watching, hiking, golf, horseback riding, yoga and pilates. A room at the retreat starts at R 5 615 a night.
Londolozi Game Reserve
One of the World’s Healing Hotels’, Londolozi Game Reserve is a place where you can reconnect with nature. The word “Londolozi” comes from a Zulu word and means “Protector Of All Living Things”.
The reserve is set in the heart of the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, which borders the famous Kruger National Park, making it the perfect Safari retreat luxury experience.
Londolozi is home to the highest density of wild leopards in Africa and goes beyond the usual safari experience by offering a space to reconnect with nature.
The Londolozi Healing House is a healing space where wellness experts, life coaches, wisdom keepers and shamans have created a range of retreats, activities and experiences designed to help travellers rejuvenate, restore, and transform.
When it comes to food, each camp has its own dining spaces and ingredients used in food preparation are ethical, sustainable, local, organic or free range where possible.
The wellness retreat has 3 dedicated bodywork treatment rooms, a yoga Nidra & BEMER PEMF therapy room, Himalayan rock salt heat cabin, cold plunge pool and yoga deck.
Some of Londolozi’s healing therapies and treatments include massage, aromatherapy, stone therapies, body activation, guided meditation & breath work, BEMER therapy and sound therapy.
There’s a lot a wellness traveller can do at Londolozi like game drives, safari walks, daily yoga, community visits and village walks. Staying at this establishment can cost up to R 42 690 a night/ a room.
Fordoun Spa, Midlands
Fordoun Spa offers some of the most luxurious self-treatment or wellness packages. If you want to truly relax and rejuvenate, then consider this treat. The Midlands is perfect for those seeking to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and enjoy the simplicity that comes with small town living or the farm life but with luxury.
There are plenty of relaxing activities to participate in the region besides just staying at Fordoun Hotel and Spa.
The spa boasts a team of experts that include skilled masseuses, reiki and bio-energy specialists, a traditional African healer and highly trained aestheticians.
It is one of the retreats that offers unique African treatments that include the Indulgent African Earth Experience, the Inkomfe (African Potato) healing wraps and Ndukuduku massage.
The spa also offers detox retreats with a specialist team of health experts to guide, motivate and inspire travellers through a life-changing journey.
The spa’s renowned goal-oriented detox programmes have been designed from a medical and scientific standpoint and have provided guests with optimal results over the years. It focuses on altering one’s perception of healthy living by uncovering the underlying flawlessness of the body.
Through this process, one can safely neutralise and eliminate toxins which have accumulated over the years. The spa also assists its clients in making a lasting lifestyle change once back at home.
For a more spiritually African experience, travellers can consult with an African traditional doctor or Inyanga, Dr Elliot Ndlovu, in order to bring clarity to life situations.
Baba Ndlovu also has a signature range of Ndlovu products, created in conjunction with the spa. The range of products include scrubs, shower gels, massage oils, bath salts, body butters and teas.
The packages at the spa are varied, depending on the length of your stay and a 3 day retreat or Essence of Africa package starts at R13 255 a person.
Oxford Healthcare Retreat
Right in the heart of Joburg, in Melrose, is Oxford Healthcare Retreat. Oxford Healthcare is situated in one of the world's busiest cities. The boutique wellness guest house is a specialist health care and stress detox facility.
It has five private, luxurious suites with their own balconies and en-suite bathrooms. The tranquil and spacious retreat grounds also have ample space for relaxation and exercise, fresh air and sunshine while its multi-disciplinary team of health-care professionals are available to look after guests around the clock.
The health-care facility offers Kundalini Yoga, floatation pool therapy, breathwork, meditation and mindfulness classes, cranio sacral therapy, reflexology, music sensorium, sauna, walking, Qigong, Shiatsu, massage therapy, psychologist consultations and nutritionist consultations.
A stress and wellness detox starts from R 9 800 a person for four days and four nights intensive treatment for those requiring an immediate sense of relief and some sustained rest and rejuvenation.