From Elective MRIs To Week-Long Walks, Wellness Travel Will Reach New Heights In 2024

One morning this past June, I woke up to the sound of birdsong in my cabin at Wildflower Farms. Outside, the sun was rising behind the Shawangunk Ridge, casting a soft glow over the creek just beyond my door. Though I was in a hotel just 90 minutes from New York City, I could have been camping—my soundscape was unpolluted; the view before me betrayed no evidence of the 65 nearby guest rooms. 

A meandering footpath led me to the open-air lobby. Knee-high grasses grew unabated, careful landscaping allowing the land to look untouched. The whole place felt more outdoor than in. 

I collected eggs at the chicken coop for breakfast, and pulled sweet and spicy turnips from the ground before lunch. In the afternoon, I wound down with a sound bath, the swelling vibration of Tibetan singing bowls fading into the babble of a stream. My day was full but unrushed. Though I was technically working, I returned from my short stay at Wildflower Farms feeling restored. 

On vacations past, I left my good habits at home. A trip offered a temporary break not only from work but discipline at large. I was transported to a life in which I ate pastries for breakfast and chose sightseeing over sleep. It felt good, this temporary transportation, but I’d come home exhausted and desperate for a vegetable. 

I know I’m not alone—but travel is changing. Where they once sought escape through indulgence, today’s tourists seek restoration. They want to come home well rested, not in need of a detox. In their annual trend report released in June, Amex named wellness as one of the four forces shaping travel this year. The Global Wellness Institute predicts that the wellness tourism industry will grow more than 20% in each coming year, reaching a value of $1.1 trillion by 2025. 

Rest and recharge—that’s what the majority of participants in a Hilton survey named as their number one reason to travel in 2024. “Most respondents see leisure travel as a break from overstimulation and multitasking,” says Audrey Hendley, President of American Express Travel. And there’s good evidence that taking a trip can accomplish this. 

A study published in the Psychosomatic Medicine Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine1 found that participation in leisure activities, including vacation, was linked to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. A novel setting provides the opportunity to step away from your phone, computer, and day-to-day routine, and become immersed in your surroundings, says Xinran Lehto, Ph.D., professor at the White Lodging-J.W. Marriott, Jr. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Purdue University, who studies how tourism can enhance consumer well-being. 

Today’s travelers aren’t just sipping frozen cocktails by the pool and hoping that helps them feel rested and restored. They’re optimizing their time away for maximum health benefits. In a recent Amex survey, 75% of respondents said they planned to cut back on screen time while traveling in an effort to better their mental health. Another 68% said they’d seek mental clarity by spending time in nature. 

By this logic, it makes sense that interest in outdoor recreation peaked as people began to travel post-pandemic, popularizing destinations like Jackson Hole, Lake Tahoe, and the Grand Teton National Park, says Wes Espinosa, Executive Director of the Center for Responsible Travel. 

Now, many Americans are discovering the time-hallowed tradition of walking vacations: multi-day treks on well-worn paths with deep cultural, if not spiritual roots. 

In Spain, the Camino De Santiago takes travelers on a series of winding paths culminating at the shrine of the apostle James. Google searches for the route doubled between the end of 2021 and mid-2023. In Italy, visitors flock to the Dolomite mountains, where long-distance hiking trails wind through limestone cliffs and around glistening glacier lakes. In 2022 34 million tourists visited the region.

Intrepid Travel, an agency that specializes in small group trips, saw a 445% increase in walking and trekking trip sales in 2023, says President of the Americas Matt Berna. Top destinations spanned Peru, Nepal, Spain and Jordan. New trails are also emerging to cater to the walking tourist. The 250-mile Trans Bhutan Trail opened this fall, tracing a path used for centuries to connect the country’s 9 provinces.  

Lehto sees the surge in this kind of vacation as a reaction to widespread inactivity and surging loneliness. These trips combine three aspects of well-being: movement, time outside, and connection. And the last two points are interconnected—yes, walking vacations offer a group setting, but there’s also evidence that nature alone can fight loneliness simply by creating connection with the earth and a sense of community. 

Of course, rising tourism leaves its mark. In Tahoe, Espinosa saw issues with trash, noise pollution, and unauthorized campfires. The region encompassing Italy’s Dolomites implemented limits on visitors and banned new accommodations after the number of Airbnbs increased 400% in just five years. “Nature can't sustain high volumes of people and high usage in specific areas. There has to be infrastructure, limits, and better visitor behavior,” Espinosa says. 

Travelers are reaching for active time outside in smaller doses, too. Espinosa sees hotels in Patagonia increasingly marketing themselves via the ways they can facilitate outdoor adventure. At the Stanford Inn By The Sea in Mendocino, California, guests can take gardening classes. Even in midtown Manhattan, where nature can feel far away, the Aman Hotel offers guided morning walks through neighboring Central Park.

For the longevity-obsessed, travel can offer access to experts and their cutting-edge treatments. Luxury properties catering to this crowd treat health and wellness as the ultimate amenity. Here, the traditional hotel spa is reimagined as a boutique preventative medicine clinic. 

At Clinique La Prairie, a hotel, spa, and medical center overlooking Switzerland’s Lake Léman, guests undergo CT scans to assess heart attack risk, epigenetics testing that measures biological age, and MRIs of the brain. During the signature full check-up program, guests check into the onsite clinic for round-the-clock nurse care, ultrasounds, electrocardiograms, labs, and consultations with pneumologists, cardiologists, rheumatologists, ophthalmologists, dentists, and dietitians. 

Elsewhere, different kinds of expertise are on the menu. At the Ibiza outpost of Six Senses, a “longevity club” features protocols developed by celebrity functional medicine doctor (and chief medical officer) Mark Hyman, M.D. Cryotherapy, body composition screenings, nutritional consultations, and more are offered in 1-7 day packages. 

Retreats and group trips that focus on a particular health or longevity theme are also increasingly popular. The Wise Women retreat at the Canyon Ranch Lenox Massachusetts campus brings together women entering midlife and menopause for group sessions and one-on-one consultations with an OBGYN. Next year, LA-based travel agency FTLO travel, which specializes in group travel, is launching a series of phone-free trips to places like Oaxaca, Mexico and Havana, Cuba. Participants will forgo digital directions, translation services, and even alarm clocks in the name of ditching distraction and connecting with the people and places around them. 

Big-ticket amenities like MRI screenings and cryotherapy treatments represent one end of the wellness travel spectrum. And while new (and expensive) extremes are sure to be reached in 2024, more accessible and affordable options will also go mainstream.  

Travelers can now find Peloton bikes in all US Hiltons, cross-training equipment at their Sedona property, and on-demand CorePower classes at New York’s Beekman Hotel. When mindbodygreen editor Carleigh Ferrante stayed at the The Westin Chicago River North before running the Chicago marathon, she had a Hypervolt massage gun and Hyperice normatec go compression boots brought to her room. Guests can also request workout bands, bala weights, and other equipment via the gear lending program. 

The urge to get away is a natural human impulse. By setting out for unfamiliar surroundings, we often find more clarity on life back home.