35 of the best spa hotels in Europe for 2024

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1. Vermelho, Alentejo, Portugal

Christian Louboutin’s hotel has brought va-va-voom to Portugal’s wild Alentejo coast. On the edge of the sleepy village of Melides, it has fairytale-fancy interiors and a sexy little spa, decorated with soothing backlit alabaster bricks. The A-list shoemaker has handpicked his favourite therapies from many years of international travel, including stress-busting ayurvedic shirodhara, during which warm oil is poured on the third eye to calm a busy mind. Facials and massages are bespoke and use his preferred products, Kama Ayurveda cosmetics. Surfing and horse riding along the beach can be arranged if you tire of the pretty alfresco pool.

2. La Fantaisie, Paris, France

The flower theme of this boutique hotel is a breath of fresh air in the French capital, and La Fantaisie is the hot spot in the most creative of Paris arrondissements, the 9th. There’s an evergreen secret garden for some communing with nature, but you’ll want to make a beeline for the subterranean spa, where bespoke ceramic botanical tiles line the walls of a series of wellness-boosting baths. These range from comfortingly warm to refreshingly cold to improve the circulation and boost immunity. Further bolster your health with stints in the hammam and sauna before submitting to personalised rituals for the face and body. Treatments use vegan products specifically designed to target the cellular oxidation that causes skin ageing.

3. Finca Cortesin, Andalusia, Spain

Set amid Spain’s dusky sierras and cerulean seas outside Estepona, this upmarket estate’s two palm-filled, jasmine-scented courtyards are a route one to instant relaxation even before you’ve stepped into its spa. Expect unforgettable massages with Thai therapists and results-driven facials from cult French brand Biologique Recherche. Combine with a spa circuit, centred on an Insta-worthy 28C saltwater indoor pool that is naturally backlit by soaring arched windows, and which also features steam, sauna, a snow cave and a cool plunge pool. Guests can also take a yoga class for extra decompression.

4. Borgo Santo Pietro, Tuscany, Italy

The phrase “attention to detail” doesn’t do justice to this incredible 13th-century Tuscan villa outside Siena. From the hand-painted murals to the hand-carved rococo beds, everything is exquisite. The spa is no exception. The owner, Jeanette Thottrup, recruited cosmetic scientists and spent five years experimenting with crops from the hotel’s organic farm to create her Seed to Skin products. She even built an on-site laboratory so that lotions and potions can be handmade in small batches for ultimate freshness. Join the morning yoga on the lawn and music recitals under the stars and set your mind and body on a celestial path too.

5. MasQi, The Energy House, Alicante, Spain

When Sonia Ferre couldn’t find the ideal holistic hideaway to lick her wounds after a divorce and bout of ill health, she retrained as a psychotherapist and yoga teacher and created her own. She didn’t suffer in vain. Set in the Serra Mariola Natural Park, an hour from Alicante, this 19th-century farmhouse has a laid-back vibe that works a subtle magic. There’s a swimming pool, a geodesic dome for morning yoga and evening meditation and tasty macrobiotic meals. Guests can book energy treatments such as reiki and reflexology, but mainly they are left alone to stare at the pine-studded scenery, listen to birdsong and let Mother Nature do her thing.

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6. St Brides Spa Hotel, Pembrokeshire, Wales

The views alone are pure relaxation before you’ve even put on a spa bathrobe. The restaurant and bedrooms have floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the sweep of Carmarthen Bay. But the most appealing spot from which to soak up that panorama is the alfresco hydrotherapy pool, with a soundtrack of crashing waves and squawking seagulls. This modern hotel celebrates the seaside within its treatment menu too, with massages and facials featuring seaweed, one of the most potent (if sometimes a little pungent) skin softeners around. The Pembrokeshire Coast Path passes outside the door for a healthy hike.

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7. South Lodge, West Sussex, England

The humble mushroom is having a moment as recent studies have hailed its beneficial effects on mental health. Conduct your own research into its calming powers at this elegant country-house hotel in Horsham, where the fungus stars in several tinctures designed to enhance treatments. And while the hotel is rooted in neo-Jacobean jollity, the £15 million spa opts for contemporary classiness, with a salt-inhalation cave, jasmine-infused steam room, outdoor hydrotherapy suite and a heated reed-filtered wild swimming pool — the first of its kind in the UK.

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8. Euphoria Retreat, Mystras, Greece

If you want to appreciate the concept of wellness architecture, this pink-hued spa with lines as sharp as a Savile Row suit is the place for you. Carved into a pine forest beneath Mystras, the Greek answer to Pompeii, its Rapunzel-style wellness tower is so instantly relaxing it feels like therapy. By blending the ancient wisdom of Hippocrates with traditional Chinese medicine, the massages manage to be more tension-busting still. You can try t’ai chi in the ruins of a 13th-century church, run up and down the steps of a classical amphitheatre or sling a silk hammock over a centuries-old olive tree for an anti-gravity yoga session.

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9. Ensana Buxton Crescent, Derbyshire, England

For an authentic spa setting it’s difficult to beat this grade I listed landmark building. It took 17 years and £70 million to restore this architectural beauty to its former glory so that visitors can bob about in mineral-rich thermal waters much as their ancestors did in its 1850s heyday. The aquatic dramatics continue with the chance to soak in water infused with carbon dioxide to widen arteries and boost circulation, or be hosed down by underwater jet massages that slay muscle tension. There is also a fine example of that 21st-century pampering essential: an outdoor hydrotherapy pool, here offering tempting glimpses of the Peak District.

Buxton Crescent (John Athimaritis)

10. Maison ila, Languedoc-Roussillon, France

Former nurse Denise Leicester is the brains behind ila, one of the UK’s most successful organic skincare brands, and has designed many world-beating spas for luxury hotel groups. She has opened her own, in Sonnac-sur-l’Hers, a snoozy village in Languedoc-Roussillon. This time it really is personal — she has even decorated the retreat’s seven bedrooms herself (with paint laced with powdered gems and essential oils). Expect plant-based, seasonal menus using healing herbs from the garden, yoga, meditation, sound therapy, Nordic walks and treatments featuring CBD. Initially a sceptic, Leicester is now a supporter of the cannabinoid, hailing it a game-changer for holistic health.

Maison ila (Ricky Wishart)

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11. Old Course Hotel, St Andrews, Scotland

The hotel may be more famous for its golf course but, given it’s owned by Kohler, the American plumbing giant, it’s hardly surprising that its £8 million spa makes a splash too. The hydrotherapy suite is second to none, featuring powerful pool massage jets, a steam room, sauna, cold plunge and a rooftop garden with a hot tub. Water also finds its way into treatments such as Lavender Rain, during which the custom-made Kohler Vichy Shower gently releases a herb-infused mist to boost mood and energy levels. When thoroughly refreshed, you can go outside to recreate the slow-motion running scene from Chariots of Fire, which was filmed on nearby West Sands beach.

The Old Course Hotel (John Pow)

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12. Octant Furnas, Azores, Portugal

Portugal’s Atlantic islands are thrillingly untamed, with pea-green mountain peaks scored with silver waterfalls and beaches as bone white as the Caribbean’s. They also have Europe’s highest concentration of thermal waters and at Furnas on Sao Miguel, the main island of the nine in the Azores archipelago, things get steamy. The island’s soil is so hot that locals bake stews by burying them in the ground — and this spa is the place to stew yourself in style. Its indoor and outdoor pools, Turkish bath and hydrotherapy circuit are all fed by iron-rich thermal springs and products are based on the local larder too, with Gorreana green tea, hydrating seaweed, exfoliating sea salt and cleansing clay muds.

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13. Rudding Park, North Yorkshire, England

A gorgeous woodland-backed rooftop spa garden designed by top horticulturist Matthew Wilson awaits at this Georgian country house in Harrogate, the original Yorkshire spa town loved by the Victorians. Boost your vitamin D levels with a stint in the Sunlight Therapy room, re-energise in the oxygen chamber and leave any knots behind in the Instagram-ready jet-filled hydrotherapy pool. Take your pick from an extensive menu of treatments — the Diamond facial using three types of collagen is best if you want to look ten years younger — and leave time to soak away any stresses in the sunken hot tub. More relaxation awaits post-pamper in the fun relaxation rooms focused on sight, sound and sleep, while Vietnamese dishes can be devoured in Horto, the three AA rosette spa restaurant.

14. Palacio Estoril, Cascais, Portugal

It may be a 1930s wedding cake of a mansion that’s entertained royalty, titans of industry and film stars, but this grand old dame is also a star for wellbeing. Expect massages as good as anything in Asia (mainly because the spa has therapists from Thailand), first-rate medical doctors such as osteopath Isabel Tomaz, who can relieve a stiff back in a matter of minutes, and facials by French brand Biologique Recherche. Workouts range from aqua t’ai chi to Zumba, while an inviting beach awaits at the end of its manicured lawn.

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15. SHA Wellness Clinic, Alicante, Spain

If you’re more concerned with brain health than belly fat, check into this minimalist retreat outside Alicante, where Professor Bruno Ribeiro promises to restore your peace of mind. His encyclopaedic knowledge of the latest scientific advances combined with some fancy technology will help you to feel rebalanced. Guests wear a Nasa-designed headset to help them to master their grey matter and achieve states of relaxation or focus. There is also light therapy to stimulate brain cell regeneration. The limb-loosening massages and ocean view from the pool play their part in keeping you upbeat too.

shawellness.com

SHA Wellness Clinic (Antonio Terron)

16. Hope Street Hotel, Liverpool, England

A stone’s throw from Liverpool’s Lime Street station, this spa is undeniably urban, but oh so urbane too. Immerse yourself in its courtyard pool, fringed by ribbon fires (sort of long, thin fire pits) and surrounded by the beautiful brickwork of the hotel’s listed townhouses, or splash about in its sexily dark indoor pool listening to underwater music. You can also laze by a light installation worthy of Tate Modern, or in a vast Himalayan salt chamber with ion-infused air. Indulgent treatments feature Moroccan rose oil and Italian black truffles; there’s also an impressive gym and barre studio.

Hope Street Hotel (Andy Forster)

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17. Oceano Health Spa Hotel, Tenerife, Spain

Park your preconceptions: this bright and breezy bolt hole is in the green northeast of the island, miles away from mass tourism. Instead, there’s an empty stretch of the Atlantic for bracing swims, the mountains and vertiginous cliffs of the Anaga Biosphere Reserve for hikes, and a hotel rooftop made for chilled yoga sessions. You can choose between pampering and punishing with either indulgent massages and facials or hardcore detoxing supervised by a team of medical doctors, all trained in the renowned FX Mayr fasting method.

Oceano Health Spa Hotel (Peter Aldag)

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18. Grantley Hall, North Yorkshire, England

This excellent fitness hotel in Ripon uses the dramatic ruins of nearby Fountains Abbey as well as its lush landscaped garden for outdoor exercise. Back at base, the high-tech approach includes a 3D scanner to measure body fat ratios and muscle metrics, cryotherapy and spinning classes in an altitude-adjustable studio. The gadgetry continues with grooming — the signature facial features a medical-grade LED mask that emits coloured wavelengths of light to support cellular regeneration.

19. Galgorm, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland

This award-winning country estate is on the banks of the River Maine near Ballymena and features a fabulous £2 million Alpine garden. Guest can relax in the garden’s vitality pool, which is cantilevered over the riverbank, or in the private sauna pods and relaxation cabanas. Elsewhere there is an array of thermal experiences including 11 hot tubs, outdoor hot tub, infrared loungers with riverside views and a snow cabin. Its skin clinic has customised facials using hero ingredients such as hyaluronic acid and retinol.

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20. Preidlhof, South Tyrol, Italy

There’s no better all-rounder than this resort in Naturns. The Vinschgau Valley unfurls its orchards, vineyards and olive groves for you to inspect from your bedroom balcony, or by bike or boot. There is a HIIT studio, which will neatly offset your enjoyment of seven-course dinners at the farm-to-fork gourmet restaurant. You can try sound therapy, submit to medical tests or make the most of its spa tower’s 16 steam, sauna and chilling zones and rooftop saltwater pool. Be sure to book an emotional MoT with the charismatic spa director Patrizia Bortolin.

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21. The Bath Priory, Somerset, England

The much-loved tourist sights and shops of Bath are an easy stroll from this honey-stone Georgian mansion. But since not a pylon nor rooftop can be spotted from its four acres of restful gardens you can pretend you are deep in miles-from-anywhere Somerset countryside. Plants are the focus for its pampering palace. The hotel has the UK’s only spa by L’Occitane, the renowned French brand whose products are infused with healing herbal essences such as verbena and lavender. There’s a dinky indoor pool and a heated outdoor one, a sauna and steam pod. Guests also receive a complimentary pack of cards detailing various yoga poses that they can practise in the privacy of their bedrooms.

Bath Priory (David Griffen Photography)

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22. Arctic Bath, Harads, Sweden

Can good health, glamour and goose bumps ever go together? Yes — but only at this fantastical resort, which teeters on the edge of the Arctic Circle. Its circular spa, a striking criss-cross of birch trunks, floats on one of Scandinavia’s most powerful rivers, the Lule, with a plunge pool cut into its centre. Mindfulness here means overcoming your fears to be submerged in icy water that hovers at around 4C. You’ll also remember facials by Sweden’s favourite brand, Kerstin Florian, walks in the woods with a moose whisperer and flavour-packed dishes such as smoked moose heart and reindeer blood pancake.

23. The Ned, London, England

The former Midland Bank HQ in London’s Square Mile is an unlikely venue for decadent rubs and scrubs, but down in the depths of this 1920s masterpiece lies a spa that could have been designed by the Great Gatsby. A marble-clad bullion reserve has been turned into a centrepiece 20m lap pool and consultations with the resident physiotherapist are offered along with treatments that combine botanical medicine with advanced technology. There’s a menu of hair salon cuts, colours and up-dos. The gym has a hammam, steam room, sauna, juice bar and exercise studios where regular classes are held. Members of the Ned can skip them and head to the rooftop bar instead to sigh over a 360-degree cityscape that showcases the Shard, the Walkie Talkie and St Paul’s.

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24. Sopwell House, Hertfordshire, England

The England football team have hung out at this Georgian mansion set in 12 bucolic acres before Wembley fixtures — but even if you have no sporting ambition, you will feel the benefit of its indoor pool, steam room, sauna, and its fabulous indoor/outdoor hydrotherapy pool, which leads to a garden with hot tubs and fire pits. The standout treatment is Sound & Sand, unique to the spa, during which you lie on warm sand made from crushed amber on a quartz crystal bed while listening to singing bowls and having a scalp massage.

25. St Moritz Hotel, Cornwall, England

This stylish art deco hotel has a prime location not far from both yachty-posh Rock and surfer-dude Polzeath. The vibe inside is equally eclectic: cheeky yet glamorous, and home to a Cowshed spa. English country garden botanicals such as rosemary and rose geranium are blended for mood-boosting massages and superior facials. There’s an outdoor pool with beach huts, but if the weather isn’t good there’s also a steam room and sauna. The indoor pool is currently closed as the hotel is investing £2 million in its wellness space as part of a development expected to be completed by June 2024.

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26. Les Sources de Caudalie, Bordeaux, France

Expect classic Gallic insouciance at this lovely château outside Bordeaux, where waiters at its two-Michelin-starred restaurant assure you a glass of merlot will do you nothing but good. Faith in the noble grape extends to the rustic spa, which harnesses the fruit’s anti-ageing polyphenols for its lotions and potions and has an outdoor hot tub in a giant wine barrel. Borrow a bike and cycle through the hotel’s award-winning vineyard to the Forest of the Five Senses, the estate’s open-air gallery where artists have created thought-provoking sculptures to celebrate the importance of sight, touch, smell, scent and taste.

Les Sources de Caudalie (Roberta Valerio)

27. Six Senses Ibiza, Spain

Forget about wild times and retoxing, these days Ibiza is as much about wellness retreats and detoxing. Nowhere sums up its new holistic ethos better than this resort in the untamed northern tip. The spa menu runs from pampering treatments in alfresco catacomb cabins and a thermal suite with infra-red sauna, steam room and caldarium to excellent complimentary fitness and yoga classes and pop-up workshops from breath-work and sound-therapy experts. There’s also the option to go on a deeper wellness journey with health screenings, sleep clinics and skin analysis.

28. Daios Cove, Crete, Greece

For glamour and good health, check in at this super-smart hillside resort on Crete’s east coast where Saatchi Art has curated the paintings and personalisation runs to a choice of six in-room fragrances to boost your mood. For a more permanent fix to frown lines, there are science-first facials by 111Skin, the cosmeceutical range from Harley Street specialist Dr Yannis Alexandrides. There is also a healing water circuit, a cryotherapy chamber to boost immune response, an infrared sauna, a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to reduce inflammation and, for the serious spa goer, even colon hydrotherapy — if you have to ask what it is you should probably skip that one.

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29. My Arbor, South Tyrol, Italy

This luxury Alpine retreat is perched atop 66 tree-trunk stilts, creating the illusion that it floats at the edge of woodlands within the pristine landscapes of South Tyrol. The spa and bedrooms overlook the forest canopy, which has also inspired treatments, with healing extracts from local trees including larch, Swiss pine, mountain pine and spruce incorporated. Forest bathing and sauna infusions (there are five saunas, with varying temperatures) are a central part of the year-round wellness programme. In winter there’s also skiing and sledging, in summer there’s hiking and biking. Nutrition is another key element with seasonal dishes influenced by just-over-the-border Austria as well as Italy.

30. Yeotown, Devon, England

Group retreats at this converted farmhouse outside Barnstaple are enviably effective. The style is sophisticated house party rather than detox dictatorship. There’s surfing and hikes along north Devon’s windy cliffs but also send-you-to-sleep yin yoga in a candlelit studio and luxurious massages by the fireside. The schedule works just as well for beginners as for elite athletes — Victoria Pendleton’s a fan. Fortunately, the food is so delicious that you will forget it’s free of meat, caffeine, refined sugar, gluten and dairy, and you’ll be on such a high from the exercise that you won’t even miss alcohol.

yeotown.com

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31. Bamford Wellness Spa, Cotswolds, England

Carole Bamford is the UK’s queen of green and Daylesford Organic, her food and homeware emporium that operates from the family estate outside Moreton-in-Marsh, is the Ferrari of farm shops. She has converted an old barn there into a decadent eco-spa, with a hydrotherapy pool, crystal steam room and herbal sauna. Given Bamford’s little black book of A-list practitioners is very big indeed, this stylish wellness space is destined to become the Maserati of meditation. There’s sound healing in a tepee in the heritage orchard and clairvoyant readings in a crystal hut in the garden. It’s only open for day guests but you can stay at Bamford’s boutique boozer, the Wild Rabbit, up the road in the classic Cotswolds village of Kingham.

bamford.com

Bamford Wellness Spa (Shomos Uddin)

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32. Stanglwirt, Tyrol, Austria

There isn’t really another spa like this. It manages to be a charming family farm in the mountains and one of the most sustainable luxury hotels in Europe. You can watch its white Lipizzaner horses frolic in the fields from the treatment rooms, or take a whey bath, using milk from the resort’s cows. And while the female staff wear dirndls, don’t be fooled into thinking it’s all folksy. Apart from three steam rooms, five photogenic saunas, seven vast pools, tennis, golf and a state-of-the-art gym, there are also facials by Dr Barbara Sturm, whose fans include Gwyneth Paltrow and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

stanglwirt.com

33. Avalon Wellbeing Centre, North Yorkshire, England

Roger Tempest, the owner of 16th-century Broughton Hall near Skipton, has embarked on a grand plan to rewild his 3,000-acre estate, including the planting of a million trees over the next two years. His mission for this state-of-the-art wellness centre is to rewild guests, via nature-based experiences such as the spa’s fire temple, moon bathing and sessions with its forest therapy guide, medical herbalist and “wisdom strategist” — yep, you read that right. For those who aren’t quite ready for the full-on outdoors there are also massages and personal training workouts in a glass-fronted studio.

avalonwellbeing.com

34. Chenot Palace Weggis, Lucerne, Switzerland

Within dipping distance of Lake Lucerne — wild swimming is a prerequisite of any wellness break these days — this turreted palace in Switzerland also has a medical spa offering a raft of tests and state-of-the-art technologies. Guests can have their advanced glycation end products analysed to gauge precisely how their body is ageing, and be soothed by bedlinen made from fabric that converts body heat to energy to enhance cellular recovery and aid sleep. One element that has changed little since its founder, Dr Henri Chenot, established his method almost 50 years ago, is the food. What happens in Weggis is a strict detox diet mainly featuring fruit and vegetables, and what stays in Weggis is all your excess kilos.

chenotpalaceweggis.com

Chenot Palace Weggis (Alex Teuscher)

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35. Ayurveda Parkschlösschen, Traben-Trarbach, Germany

There’s a clue in the name. For almost 30 years this manor house in the Black Forest has been offering the most authentic immersion in India’s ancient health system this side of Delhi. Its speciality is its hardcore ayurvedic detox, panchakarma. This entails oil — and lots of it — swilled in your mouth, snorted up your nose and dripped in your ears, all before breakfast. Food portions are tiny and plant-based, but the stewed rosemary celery is delicious. You’ll mainly sip hot water. Gentle massages turn your limbs to string so you’ll barely have the physical wherewithal for the daily yoga classes. It’s an endurance test but results are so dramatic there’s a 60 per cent rebooking rate.

ayurveda-parkschloesschen.de

Ayurveda Parkschlösschen (Michael Berger)

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Additional reporting by Lucy Perrin and Imogen Lepere

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