Heckfield Place Opens Nature-Inspired Wellness Space

Posh wellness destinations are blending back-to-basics health interventions with premium amenities.

What’s happening: Heckfield Place, a 438-acre countryside manor house and luxury hotel, debuted The Bothy by Wildsmith, a wellness venue combining outdoor recreation, organic dining, exercise, and holistic spa treatments.

What’s inside. Designed to help guests reconnect with a more natural way of living, the 17K-square-foot wellness space has a range of features and services on offer:

• Circadian rhythm-focused programming, with coordinated activity, light exposure, soundscapes, and aromatherapy
• Six spa treatment rooms featuring Wildsmith skincare products, kinesiologic adjustments, and naturopathy
• Guided sauna and hydrotherapy sessions, along with therapeutic deluge showers
• Wood-accented gym with dedicated group fitness spaces and an 18m chlorine-free pool

What’s outside. The hotel prescribes rural simplicity as medicine.

• Guided experiences for forest bathing, Farm Fit, outdoor meditation, and cold water immersion in the estate’s private lake
• A café and terrace serving plant-based meals sourced from the estate’s biodynamic orchards, gardens, and farm
• A courtyard for guests to explore botanicals in their essential oils and personal products

Remedies for Modern Times

Luxury hotels with robust spa packages aren’t new. What’s more interesting is the number of emerging holistic hospitality venues attempting to slow stressed-out and ailing city-dwellers down:

• The Club by Bamford, a members-only health and fitness destination, opened this spring at the all-organic Daylesford Farm in The Cotswolds.
• Pillar Wellbeing, a wellness hospitality concept centred around high-performance living, is set to debut in both Doha and London this year.
• LA-based wellness social club Remedy Place, which offers functional medicine alongside ice baths, breathwork, and more, expanded to NYC late last year.

Elsewhere, existing wellness venues are tweaking their offerings to follow the trends, with Italy’s Preidlhof, Portugal’s Serenity SPA, and CBD-centred Schlosshotel Zermatt in Switzerland adding programs for burnout, sleep, and unplugging.

Punchline: It doesn’t take an exclusive hotel stay to know that proper rest, movement, and eating work wonders for personal health. But, spaces that repackage ancient practices and common sense cater to a crowd with an endless appetite for both wellness and experiences.