The Healing Power Of Water: Wellness Retreats & Sacred Springs

Humans have long sought healing in water – it induces a sense of calm and inspires movement. For the latest instalment of our Elemental Wellbeing Guide, we dive into the retreats and rituals that use water as medicine, from Scottish freshwater immersions to Iceland’s geothermal lagoons. Whether you’re after a full destination spa experience, an ancient hot spring, or simply the meditative pull of a rowing boat at sunrise, here’s where to feel the flow.

Our Favourite Water Wellness Retreats

Gleneagles

Scottish Freshwater Immersions

Gleneagles’ new Frandy Water experience takes wellbeing out of the spa and straight into the ruggedness of Perthshire’s landscape, just a ten-minute Defender drive from the hotel. On the edge of the Glendevon Reservoirs, with views across the water and surrounding hills, the shingle-covered, wood-fired outdoor sauna fits up to six guests and forms part of a restorative contrast therapy ritual, complete with a spacious changing area, viewing deck and jetty for cold plunges. Guests can also explore canoeing, kayaking and trout fishing with expert ghillies. Further north, Wildland – the Scottish Highlands conservation mission created by Anne and Anders Holch Povlsen – is restoring vast areas of land, heritage buildings and fragile ecosystems across the Highlands while curating a collection of deeply atmospheric places to stay. Walk, swim, paddle, plant trees, forage, hike waterfalls, enjoy sound bowl healing sessions, and feast on fire-cooked lunches in remote bothies. gleneagles.com | wildland.scot

Euphoria Retreat

Deep Healing

Euphoria Retreat is Europe’s leading destination for those seeking to understand Traditional Chinese Medicine. Inspired by founder Marina Efraimoglou’s own health journey, the elements not only sit at the heart of the programmes – with welcome consultations, turn-down services (a foot bowl with fresh lavender) and advice centred on balancing your dominant constitution – but are literally embedded in the design. The four-storey Byzantine-inspired spa is extraordinary – particularly the sphere pool, which is a literal manifestation of water into which you plunge for an experience of total release and rebirth, with music playing beneath the surface and light to guide you. Try a Five Elements dance class or a massage with orange and cinnamon oils to light your inner fire. No one leaves the same as they arrive. euphoriaretreat.com

Ancient Springs

In the UNESCO-protected landscapes of Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia, Adler Thermae sits just outside the spa hamlet of Bagno Vignoni, where warm, sulphur-rich thermal springs have surfaced for over a thousand years. The spa resort’s steaming pools are fed directly from the natural source and the mineral-rich waters form the basis of its balneotherapy offering. Guests move between thermal pools, saunas, otherworldly steam grottos and an underground salt cave, while Adler Med offers health checks, diagnostics and longevity-focused programmes. adler-resorts.com

Thermal Heritage

The Gainsborough Bath Spa remains one of the few places in the city where guests can immerse themselves directly in Bath’s mineral-rich thermal waters. At the heart of the hotel is the softly lit and cocooning spa where you embark on a self-guided hot-cold circuit, moving between thermal pools, steam rooms, saunas, and an ice chamber framed by Romanesque columns. Invigorating, fun and relaxing, the experience revives the ancient ritual of social bathing – and some of the bedrooms even have roll-top tubs fed directly by thermal waters. thegainsboroughbathspa.co.uk

The Art Of French Thermalism

Water cures are something of a national obsession in France. At Sofitel Quiberon Thalassa, on Brittany’s wild Atlantic coastline, guests can choose from programmes lasting up to six days or dip into a treatment menu of purifying seawater baths, regenerative wraps (mud to relieve painful joints; seaweed to replenish skin) and invigorating group cold water sessions. Days extend beyond the spa into paddleboarding, aqua jogging and long coastal walks, before seafood suppers overlooking the ocean.

Further east, at Evian Resort on the shores of Lake Geneva, the entire spa philosophy is rooted in Evian’s legendary mineral water, filtered slowly through the Alps for over 15 years. Here, hydrotherapy pools, thermal rituals and body-temperature immersion circuits create a gentler, more meditative experience of water and weightlessness.

Meanwhile, in Nice’s Old Town, Hôtel du Couvent – a beautifully restored 17th-century convent – revives the ancient ritual of Roman bathing: guests move between caldarium, frigidarium and tepidarium pools before retreating to rooms that define monastic-chic. sofitel-quiberon-thalassa.com | evianresort.com | hotelducouvent.com

Laugarás Lagoon

Geothermal Bathing

Set within Iceland’s ancient geothermal landscape, the newly opened, mineral-rich Laugarás Lagoon, tucked between Geysir and Gullfoss, is fed by geothermal springs and cooled with glacial water from the Hvítá river. Guests drift between steaming pools, forest-lined saunas and an icy plunge pool, while a hidden grotto offers space for silent meditation. A walk-behind waterfall cuts through the centre. Afterwards, the experience continues at the Ylja restaurant, where chef Gísli Matt cooks over an open fire using ingredients from nearby geothermal farms. Expect the most tomatoey tomatoes you’ve ever tasted. laugaraslagoon.is

Rhythmic Movement

When Country & Town House spoke with rower and double Olympic gold medallist Alex Gregory, he reflected: ‘There’s one thing I miss more than anything else after retiring from competition, and that’s watching my fingertips leave land every morning.’ He described how that simple action can create a powerful sense of physical separation from everyday life – something many of us need. This idea inspired his Mind Body Row Experience, which invites guests to try on-water rowing in Portugal’s Alentejo region. Over the course of a five-night retreat, participants can get to grips with their technique while also benefiting from the meditative rhythmic motion of rowing. mindbodyrowexperience.com