Looking for a health and wellness retreat to take this year? Here are our healthy holidays for foodies, spa resorts and yoga holidays with a foodie focus. From spas with special wellness menus and healthy breakfasts, to wellness holidays with healthy cookery courses, and health retreats with fresh and vibrant dishes. These retreats will ensure you relax and unwind while enjoying the best healthy food.

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For more travel inspiration, check out our picks of the best country house hotels in the UK, the best spa hotels in the UK for food lovers and holiday cottages for foodies.

Lime Wood, Hampshire

Secluded in its own estate in the heart of the New Forest, Lime Wood is a luxuriously renovated 13th century hunting lodge. The owner’s outstanding art collection adds a contemporary feel to reception rooms, made cosy with squishy armchairs, crackling fires and heaving bookshelves, set around a chic central atrium with retractable roof. The main house features stone fireplaces, Italian marble bathrooms and large sash windows with magical forest views. Other rooms around the estate include Pavilion rooms with forest-fringing patios and rustic-chic forest and lake cabins, the latter perched on the water with a terrace tub and log burner. All are enveloped in country elegance, with upholstered bedheads, Bamford toiletries and mini bars kitted out with New Forest shortbread, Flack Manor Brewery beer and Hambledon sparkling wine.

A night at Lime Wood includes full use of the Herb House Spa, a serene complex nestled on the forest edge. The sauna and hydro pool have windows to soak up the forest zen before a nature-inspired Ground massage ritual. Take a pilates class, work out in the gym or do laps in the indoor pool and cool off on a lounger amongst the aromatics of the rooftop herb garden. Sip cold press detox juices and CBD drinks while picking from nourishing plates at the adjacent Raw & Cured café, including the likes of British-grown quinoa with harissa roasted cauliflower and house-cured sea bass ceviche in a zingy rhubarb dressing.

Rooms from £495 per night including spa access. Check availability at limewoodhotel.co.uk or mrandmrssmith.com

Outdoor pool with lime green sunbeds surrounded by greenery

Le Barn, Bonnelles, France

If you’re looking for a taste of serenity without the burden of long travel, Le Barn, set in France’s Bonnelles countryside, should be high on your wishlist. Just 40 minutes from Paris Orly airport, the 500-acre estate offers an outdoors experience with comfort and luxury.

The grounds are shared with Haras de la Cense, a prestigious horse riding training centre, and there are horses dotted around the vast space, as well as the option to go riding or try the Whisperer’s Experience. Guests are shown the basics of horse training and invited to try what they’ve learned with one of the many animals on site. This hotel is all about switching off and enjoying nature. Digital detoxing is easy when there are warm Nordic baths, a steam room, sauna, electric bikes, forest walks and weekly activities all included in the price. Wind down for the evening with a drink by the fire in the colder months, or under a canopy of wisteria in the garden in summer.

Food is seasonally led, using as much as possible from the kitchen garden and locally sourced produce. The menu changes daily, according to what’s available, but dishes can include stuffed rotisserie chicken or roasted leg of lamb, with sides of roasted carrots, leeks and potatoes. Desserts are a treat not to be missed, including the likes of tarte aux figues and iles flottantes. Breakfast is a satisfyingly French affair: crusty bread, salty butter and homemade jams alongside eggs, bacon and pancakes. Fruit from the grounds is piled high in bowls, including huge grapes and Mirabelle plums.

The 73 rooms are separate from the main farmhouse building, mostly spread across two converted barns, and provide a cosy home for your stay, with balconies that look over the horses grazing in the fields or the lake (which you can swim in). There is a big emphasis on freedom at Le Barn, meaning guests can choose how to tailor their stay and, with most activities included in the room price, it works out very reasonably.

Doubles from £200 per night, check availability at lebarnhotel.com or booking.com

Le Barn

Rudding Park, North Yorkshire

This 2,000-acre Georgian country estate just outside Harrogate is a lesson in country luxury with a contemporary edge. Stone fireplaces and staircases contrast with pops of colour including pink chandeliers, mustard window seats, striking sculptures and modern art. 300 acres of landscaped gardens and woodlands make relaxing walking routes, with views over the golf course all the way to the Kilburn White Horse in the North Yorkshire Moors.

The impressive spa was the first rooftop spa to open in the UK. Take a leisurely circuit, alternating between hot and cold experiences such as an outdoor hydrotherapy pool, steam rooms and panoramic woodland saunas as well as sunlight therapy rooms, oxygen pods and a dedicated foot spa. Book a 50-minute bespoke treatment (try the invigorating body polish, which includes a heavenly head, neck and shoulder massage) to unlock access to the Escape Zone, a space to sip on herbal teas while wandering between rooms that offer relaxing visual and audio experiences.

The hotel’s kitchen garden-led restaurant, Horto, is housed in the swish spa, so expect a relaxed approach, with guests padding through in robes and slippers. Neon canvases, mustard chairs and teal velvet booths beckon punters from the bar, and flashes of florals creep in to complement the garden view. Sharing plates include crisp tempura broccoli, honey roast fig and walnut flatbreads, toasted focaccia club sandwiches and tandoori monkfish kebabs. Hazelnut and chocolate choux are filled with hazelnut praline for a decadent finish.

Rooms from £249 per night. Check availability at ruddingpark.co.uk or booking.com

Rudding Park Spa Roof Top Spa

Glenapp Castle, Ayrshire

As well as ivy-clad turrets and excellent food, there’s one thing Glenapp Castle has plenty of: fresh air. It sits in 36 acres of grounds, all detailed for guests in a beautifully illustrated map. We spent hours watching birds in the Victorian walled garden, admiring views of volcanic island Ailsa Craig, sniffing the candy floss scent of Katsura trees – and chasing the path of a gurgling stream through a wooded glen, rich with deer and the tallest fir trees in Britain. The perfect spot for relaxation or a digital detox. You can even walk a little further, beyond the estate to the Stinchar Valley, and have the team meet you half-way with hot soup and crusty bread… they won’t even judge you if you ask for a lift back (we did!). For dinner, dine in the grand castle dining room and choose the three or seven course daily changing menu.

Doubles from £395, check availability at booking.com

A view of Ailsa Criag from Glenapp Castle, Scotland

Salt, Mauritius

Food is at Salt’s heart (the philosophy explained by catchphrases such as “Farming it, not flying it”) and everything from supper with a Mauritian family to fishing trips with a local fisherman are on the menu.

Then there’s the farm. Some hotels have kitchen gardens but Salt has a whole farm at its disposal, five minutes down the road and founded on permaculture principles. Developed with the help of a local NGO, Island Bio, the farm has a ground-breaking hydroponic system using beach sand for cultivation.

As well as growing pesticide-free fruits and vegetables, cultivating mushrooms and establishing its own beehives, the farm is home to a rustic vegetarian and vegan restaurant. The Salt Raw section on the current hotel menu features wildly creative vegan dishes – tacos made from seeds and stuffed with beet balls, vegan soured cream and avocado salsa. The lasagne is a must-order: layers of courgette, tomato sauce, cashew truffle cream, basil pesto and fresh basil leaves.

Doubles from £250 per night, check availability at booking.com, mrandmrssmith.com or tui.co.uk

Teal-green tiles have a smoothie bowl perched on top. The smoothie bowl has sliced banana and nuts on top

Chiva Som health retreat, Thailand

At this spa resort on the Gulf of Thailand – set in seven tropical, Thai pavilion-pricked acres – you can savour spicy shredded lemongrass salad with mixed seafood, zingy pomelo and grilled prawns, creamy coconut soups and skewers of moreish chicken satay, guilt-free. This is not the kind of place where you nibble on a lettuce leaf and overdose on tofu. Portions of light, aromatic Thai dishes served in the open-air beachfront restaurant, might be small, but they are packed full of flavour.

Most of the vegetables, herbs and salads are harvested from the resort's own organic kitchen garden where sweet basil, holy basil, tree basil, Thai watercress, lemongrass, mustard leaves, okra, Indian spinach (good for digestion), aubergine and tomatoes are grown. You can sign up for a tour of the garden with the chef, wandering among the raised beds, peering into the six grass huts where they grow mushrooms or the tubs of vibrant green wheatgrass.

In the restaurant, each dish has a helpful calorie tally beside it as well as a breakdown of the protein, carb and fat content. How many bowls of Yam Mamuang Boran, a spicy green mango salad with prawns, you eat (120 kcals each) – or grilled sea bass for that matter – is up to you.

There are also regular healthy cookery classes (you cook and eat) with the head chef. At these lunchtime classes, taken in a sleek kitchen with its own mini kitchen garden, you learn how to whip up a tasty raw daikon and spinach or raw asparagus and mushroom salad and tasty Thai broth before sitting down to tuck in.

Check rates and availability at chivasom.com

Chiva Som - Ocean Room Deluxe

Palmaïa, Mexico

Palmaïa, The House of AïA, offers a secluded sanctuary in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. With oceanfront suites, a jungle spa and five gourmet plant-based restaurants on-site, Palmaïa is truly a place to rest and rejuvenate in style. The all-inclusive resort offers a daily schedule of activities from guided meditation to yoga, sound baths, full body workouts and even beachfront art classes. The approach to wellness is very personal so guests can decide how deeply they want to immerse themselves on any given day, whether that’s reading a book by the water and grabbing a fresh vegan taco or waking up early for a sunrise yoga session, you get to decide.

The plant-based food at this resort is truly exquisite – perfectly balanced between nourishment and gastronomy. Su Casa offers a cosy and casual beachfront location, with an all-day menu serving seasonal delights from morning to night, while Asian-inspired Ume and Mexican-inspired Lek are perfect for an elegant evening of fine dining. With that said, the star of the show has to be the beachside taco truck, serving up stunning Mexican street food made fresh to order – the grilled corn, loaded nachos and trio of tacos are a must!

Doubles from £180, check availability at booking.com, thomascook.com or expedia.co.uk

Palmaia food

Drift retreat, Jersey

Surfing, yoga and honest food – that’s what a Drift retreat is all about. Set on the west coast of Jersey, within the island’s National Park, Drift Jersey immerses guests in morning yoga sessions, brisk sea swims and evening beach walks (during which you can forage for wild dinner ingredients). You’ll also surf every day, along a five-mile stretch of pristine coastline, no matter what your ability is.

Guests stay in Kempt Tower, built in 1834 from Jersey granite, and the experience is a shared one: chrome bunk beds, big living rooms and communal dining. Food is all healthy fuel – mainly vegetarian, organic and raw – and a day’s menu might include chai coconut porridge, raw almond bread with beetroot carpaccio, tiger nut muffins at snack time and chickpea farinata with a local seaweed salad for dinner.

Check rates and availability at driftretreat.co.uk

Ca’ de Memi, Italy

Stretch out and breathe deep at Ca’ de Memi, an Italian country house between Padua, Venice and Treviso. Ottorino and Michela run it as an agriturismo (it was bought by Ottorino’s great-great-grandfather in 1933) and pride themselves on the fruit trees, vegetable plots, gardens (spot the ancient magnolia tree) and small poultry farm that surround the property.

All of the above are open for guests to explore. En-suite rooms are modestly decorated, and breakfast includes fresh eggs and homemade jams and cakes. But perhaps the biggest draw is Michela’s cookery classes, which transform just-picked fruit and veg from the gardens (including asparagus, hop shoots and chicory) into a wholesome Veneto feast.

Doubles from £120, check availability at booking.com

Hedonistic Hiking, Italy

From the Italian lakes to the Tuscan hills, Hedonistic Hiking offers a range of guided walking holidays, from the gentle to the more strenuous, all with a focus on regional gastronomy. There is an eight-night trip to the mountains of Piedmont, balancing alpine hiking (think wildflower meadows and babbling streams), with gourmet picnics packed with local specialities and nights spent in stylishly rustic hotels.

Piedmont is home to the Slow Food movement, and lunches make the most of local produce, navigating an appetising course around Cuneo prosciutto, Seirass del Fen (a traditional hay-wrapped cheese) and salads made with zucchini and pesto.

Dinners, at local restaurants, also veer towards the traditional: expect Piemontese pinched ravioli stuffed with roast meats, local trout topped with crushed hazelnuts, baby salad leaves and guinea fowl served with a sauce of Moscato, almonds and apples.

Check tours and availability at hedonistichiking.com

Gwinganna wellness retreat, Australia

A heavenly, 500-acre mountainside wellness retreat on Queensland’s Gold Coast, at Gwinganna you can check in and zone out. It offers two- to seven-day all-inclusive retreats featuring a mix of indulgent spa treatments, wellness seminars and delicious organic food in a 'low-tech environment' (that's no TV, no radio, no phones – a digital detox). The three-night Organic Living retreat teaches guests how to use and grow their own medicinal herbs and shares some of the retreat's mouthwatering recipes.

Much of the food at Gwinganna is picked each day from the on-site organic garden and orchard and the menus are dairy- and gluten-free, as are the recipes in the retreat’s award-winning cookery book, A Taste of Gwinganna. For breakfast think pumpkin granola or poached egg with sweet potato rosti, for lunch and dinner seafood paella might be on the menu or prawn bobo (an Afro-Brazilian stew) with kale rice, earthy mushroom pate or a refreshing cucumber soup. For dessert? Raw cheesecake.

Check retreats and availability at gwinganna.com

Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat - Raw Cheesecake

RAAS Devigarh spa retreat, India

Ravishing RAAS Devigarh is a dreamy, cream Indian palace outside Udaipur on the edge of Rajasthan’s Aravalli Hills. The antithesis of a stuffy heritage hideaway, this ornate 18th-century palace houses a modern boutique hotel, all minimalism and eclectic charm. There’s also a blissful Ila Spa which offers three, five or nine-day retreats.

Food is, naturally, another highlight. For guests who want a lighter take on Indian cuisine, the palace offers a curated wellness menu. For breakfast, start the day with sweet lime or watermelon juice or one of an encyclopaedic range of juice combinations, from carrot, ginger and apple to pineapple, papaya and milk. There's gluten-free granola with toasted nuts, porridge with turmeric milk – and turmeric lattes on tap. The all-day dining wellness menu offers delectable dishes such as pear and fennel soup or moong lentil and holy basil soup, basil paneer tikka, a cottage cheese kebab with olives, basil and cinnamon and salads such as soy lentil, low fat yoghurt, roasted cumin, fresh coriander and shallot or home-grown organic aragula, fennel and orange from their kitchen garden.

Suites from £172, check availability at booking.com or mrandmrssmith.com

Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat - Prawn Bobo and Kale Rice

Aristi Mountain Resort, Greece

The mountain village of Aristi, in the north of Greece close to the Albanian border, is a far cry from the country’s sun-drenched beach resorts. Even in winter the landscape here is intensely green (thanks to a blanket of beech and chestnut trees) and Aristi Mountain Resort, with its traditional stone exterior and wood-floored bedrooms, blends seamlessly into the setting.

The resort makes an ideal basecamp for hikes around the Vikos Gorge via stone mule paths and Ottoman-era wooden bridges, as well as rafting and kayaking trips in the Vikos-Aoos National Park. The kitchen, meanwhile, makes use of the forests and rivers – as well as an on-site greenhouse and organic garden – in dishes such as river trout carpaccio, fig and feta salad and fennel soup. Cooking workshops are possible, too, and, in summer, don’t miss brunch out on the patio; a plate of homegrown watermelon overlooking the mountains is a must.

Doubles from £121, check availability at booking.com

Hidden Pond resort, Maine

Open May to October only, this New England gem (here's another that we visited) is a bucolic resort in Maine surrounded by 60 acres of woodland with a cluster of clapboard cottages and a host of restorative activities to choose from: morning yoga and tai chi at The Farm, a treehouse spa, guided nature walks and and bikes to borrow to pedal down to the beach for a spot of paddle-boarding or kayaking.

The resort's restaurant is called Earth and guests eat in two rustic-chic dining sheds in the forest choosing from a menu of inventive farm-to-fork dishes. Think stir-fried rice noodles with Maine lobster, Calabrian chillies and green onions or broccoli greens and kale with pecans, fried shallots, pickled local beets, goat's cheese and miso vinaigrette. There's also an organic kitchen garden where you can help yourself to vegetables and herbs if you want to rustle something up in your cottage’s kitchen, plus a weekly farmer's market on-site.

Rooms from £439, check availability at booking.com

Six Senses Zighy Bay, Oman

Much of the food at Six Senses Zighy Bay is aligned with Six Senses’ general wellness philosophy. Menu options include choices that subscribe to the Eat With Six Senses philosophy (essentially food made from scratch using local, organic produce, avoiding trigger ingredients such as gluten but promoting gut health). If you want to take it a step further you can go for a wellness screening in the spa and the therapist will suggest a programme to suit you, from sleep-enhancing to fitness; each programme’s best choices are listed (discreetly) on menus throughout the resort so if you want to stick to the guidance you can (for the sleep programme, for instance, menu choices include lots of tryptophan-rich foods). One benefit of this “integrated” wellness approach is that one half of a couple can follow the sleep programme, say, while the other does an unofficial retox, indulging however much they like, while still eating at the same restaurant and ordering from the same menu.

Villas from £871 per night, check availability at booking.com or mrandmrssmith.com

Six Senses Zighy Bay: Hotel Review

L’Auberge de Sedona, America

It’s hard to avoid hiking when there are more than 100 walking trails right outside your hotel. L’Auberge de Sedona, an 11-acre creekside resort near the beautifully named Bear Wallow Canyon, is a dream spot for gung-ho walkers, who can rely on the nearby Hike House (a kind of all-singing, all-dancing information centre for hikers) for guidance on planned routes (including those to The Bell Rock Vortex, a spot that apparently emits energy from the earth’s surface).

For the ultimate in forest bathing, back at the auberge an al fresco spa is located literally on the banks of the creek. So, too, is the hotel’s impossibly romantic candle-lit restaurant, Cress on Oak Creek, which specialises in pretty plates of foraged food. Guests can choose to stay in a cottage or a lodge room, some with staggering views of Sedona’s Red Rock country.

Doubles from £484 per night, check availability at booking.com or expedia.co.uk

There is a running river with trees shadowing it. Sat on the banks of the river are tables and chairs laid for dinner with candles

Ulpotha, Sri Lanka

For thousands of years, peace-seeking visitors have sought solace at Ulpotha. A traditional Sri Lankan village, cocooned by mountains and paddy fields, it welcomes tourists for six months of the year. Guests stay in simple one-bedroom huts set within a 22-acre organic farm (also home to macaque monkeys) and spend their time swimming in lakes dotted with water lilies, practicing yoga or tai chi, and taking part in programmes run along ayurvedic lines.

Stomachs are nourished as well as souls, with fresh fruit juices to drink (watermelon, custard apple, hibiscus flower) and homemade organic curries and sambals to eat, all served simply in clay pots on rush floor mats.

Check retreat rates and availability at ulpotha.com

Desa Seni, Bali

Tropical gardens strewn with wildflowers and statues are the backdrop to dreamy eco-retreat Desa Seni. A 10-lodge resort on the fringes of Canguu, it is designed purely for relaxation – guests can float in a saltwater pool, take classes at an open-air yoga pavilion, indulge in holistic spa treatments or just sip lemongrass tea in their wooden cottage, relaxing among Indonesian antiques and colourful handmade furnishings.

Everything at the resort is connected by stepping stones, including the restaurant, which takes around 80% of its ingredients from a huge vegetable patch right beside it. Don’t miss the famed Tabanan Delight for breakfast – eggs on sweet potato corn cakes, with a tomato, broccoli and Thai basil chutney.

Check retreats and availability at desaseni.com

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Authors

Tracey RayeRegistered Nutritionist

Tracey Raye is the Health Editor for Olive and BBC Good Food. She oversees all health, nutrition and fitness related content across the brands, including the bi-annual Healthy Diet Plan, monthly Health Edit newsletter and health column in the magazine.

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