Stress, grief, sleep and digital overload – there’s a holiday for that

Jennifer Ennion Jennifer Ennion
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Travel is no longer about ticking off temples or pub-hopping through London. Many of us are looking for experiences that improve our wellbeing, because living longer is not enough; we also want to live better.

Wellness tourism is booming. The sector was worth US$830 billion in 2023, according to the Global Wellness Institute. That same year, the institute reported the ‘Global Wellness Economy’, encompassing tourism, nutrition, exercise, medicine and more, was valued at US$6.3 trillion. The wellness industry is a juggernaut shaping our spending habits and holiday choices.

In the not-too-distant past, wellness was for travellers who frequented luxury resort day spas. The rest of us traipsed to Phuket and Kuta to get massages in ramshackle huts on unkempt beaches. Now, however, wellness tourism has evolved to encompass what we eat, how we move, how we think, our sleeping habits and even how we can slow ageing. Some treatments come with exorbitant price tags and are offered in remote locations, but a growing number are free and can be found in your neighbourhood, allowing many more of us to improve our physical and mental health.

What is wellness travel?

Woman in nature on a Winter Wellness Retreat with Elements of Byron
Winter wellness retreats, like ones offered by Elements of Byron, are one way to embrace the trend.

It sounds straightforward: put wellness and tourism together and you have a relaxing holiday filled with swimming, gold facials and smoothies sprinkled with bee pollen. Essentially, we no longer want to drink ourselves silly in Greece nightclubs or overeat at hotel buffets, preferring to stay in destinations that complement the healthy habits we’ve created at home. That’s why we’re seeing run clubs springing up in hot spots such as Queensland’s Hamilton Island, and why there’s been a 51 per cent year-on-year increase in demand for active trips, based on a 2025 report by Explore Worldwide .

Such growth proves that a wellness holiday does not need to feature a medi spa (spa treatments with medical procedures), state-of-the-art gyms or biohacking (e.g. intermittent fasting). A wellness holiday can be your average trip with a dose of fitness on the side, a ski holiday with daily sauna sessions, or even a staycation where there’s no wi-fi. Women’s health is also a growing segment, with new mums booking themselves into postpartum retreats. Clinical Nutritionist Katherine Hay says the rise in postpartum retreats comes down to one simple truth: modern mothers are stretched thin.

“Postpartum retreats offer mothers the chance to press pause in an environment designed for rest and rejuvenation," says Hay, the founder of Kaptured Nutrition. “Many retreats are now integrating holistic care, from postnatal nutritional plans to counselling, pelvic floor therapy, and even newborn sleep support."

When did wellness travel start?

Woman doing yoga at a Winter Wellness Retreat with Elements of Byron
Wellness travel now embraces a mix of old, like yoga, with the new and trendy.

Travelling to improve our health is not a new trend; we’ve been doing it for hundreds of years. As far back as the mid-1600s, UK doctors prescribed sea air and cold-water bathing as a cure for numerous ailments. Fast forward to the 1970s and a desire for non-genetically modified food started a much-needed examination of industrial agriculture. In the last few decades we’ve seen the rise and fall of resort zumba classes and bootcamps, and celebrity endorsement of cosmetic procedures such as ‘vampire facials’, touted for collagen stimulation. Nowadays, spas and retreats are mixing the old (yoga) with the new (vitamin drips) and the trendy (sleep therapy).

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What’s driving the growth?

Overwater bungalows in Cambodia's Song Saa Private Island Resort
Wellness travel has become a kind of “modern pilgrimage", according to Melita Koulmadas, CEO of Song Saa Private Island Resort (pictured) in Cambodia.

The wellness tourism industry is evolving at an overwhelming rate, most likely as an antidote to a Western lifestyle that values busyness. Melita Koulmadas, CEO of Song Saa Private Island Resort, Cambodia, says the growth of wellness tourism is “a response to disconnection, overstimulation, and the growing realisation that health is not just physical, but deeply emotional, mental, spiritual, and planetary". She says people need more than just rest: “They are seeking remembrance of who they are, of what matters, of how to live in harmony with themselves and the world around them. In that sense, wellness tourism has become a kind of modern pilgrimage."

How is wellness travel evolving?

The new signature treatment menu at Osprey Spa, Elements of Byron, created in partnership with Vanessa Megan.
The new signature treatment menu at Osprey Spa, Elements of Byron, created in partnership with Vanessa Megan.

Not only are we seeing more retreats targeting stress, grief, sleep and digital overload, but chain hotels are also integrating wellness into their promotions. Travelodge advertises sleep kits containing ‘pillow mist’ and essential oil, while Hyatt has a Sleep Ritual Pack with an aromatherapy roll-on and herbal tea. It’s not uncommon to see hotel pillow menus and fitness apps for in-room exercise. All of these offerings are a good thing, even if they’re gimmicks created by in-tune marketing teams.

A more authentic wellness holiday is when a resort has a long-time ‘slow stay’ philosophy. This is the case with Elements of Byron, a high-end resort on the outskirts of Byron Bay. Michael Skinner, Elements of Byron General Manager, says wellness travel is shifting away from rigid schedules and intense programs.

“Instead, travellers are seeking environments that naturally support their wellbeing – places where they can move at their own pace, choose what feels good in the moment, and have the freedom to rest or engage as they need," Skinner says.

“Guests are gravitating toward experiences like forest bathing, ocean swims, and immersive nature walks – simple yet powerful ways to de-stress and recharge through the rhythms of the environment."

Guests kayaking while on Tasmanian Walking Company's Bay of Fires Long Weekend
Achievable hiking holidays, like Tasmanian Walking Company’s Long Weekend, blend time in nature with luxury stays.

It’s these kinds of accessible and affordable experiences that are helping to drive the wellness tourism sector, and luxury resorts aren’t afraid to lean into this. In Santorini, the five-star Andronis Concept Wellness Resort has introduced a hands-on ‘henhouse experience’ where guests can feed the chickens and enjoy collecting their eggs for breakfast – a simple pleasure too many of us never experience. Even just walking in nature has wide appeal, and multi-day hiking trips don’t have to be out of reach. Tasmanian Walking Company’s Bay of Fires Long Weekend is the perfect example of this; striking a balance of achievable hiking trails and luxury lodge stays that still deliver wine, dessert and spa treatments.

hen in Greece
Wellness travel can be as simple as doing something you’ve never done before, like collecting fresh eggs for breakfast. (Image: Getty/Pnik)

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The pitfalls of wellness travel

Aside from our need to slow down and switch off, there’s a growing global interest in alternative therapies over Western medicine, as highlighted in the 2025 Netflix show Apple Cider Vinegar. Yet the TV series, which follows the sad stories of two wannabe influencers, also throws the wellness sector into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. The show asks the ultimate questions: Can I trust this treatment and will it work? That’s why long-standing, reputable retreats are worth their weight in gold.

Elements of Byron has been integrating nature with the guest experience since its opening in 2016. Native and locally sourced ingredients are used in the resort’s on-site restaurant, while Osprey Spa offers treatments featuring native botanicals, as well as cutting-edge cryotherapy facials using the recently launched Vanessa Megan Naturaceutical skincare range. There are also sunrise yoga classes and rainforest walks.

Another pitfall of wellness tourism is that it can be confused with medical tourism, that is travelling to Thailand to get dental surgery. Some resorts promote wellness treatments alongside cosmetic surgery, blurring the lines between what is good for us and what most certainly isn’t.

What is the future of wellness travel?

Wategos Beach in Byron Bay
There is a growing hunger for unhurried time in beautiful places. (Image: Wategos Beach/Getty/lynnebeclu)

Wellness tourism is predicted to only get bigger as more of us seek to address mental health challenges, have more meaningful travel experiences, switch off from devices, and ultimately restore balance to our lives. Song Saa’s Koulmadas says travellers are looking for science-backed programs that promote longevity, mental clarity, and physical resilience, combined with rest, beauty, and experiences that nourish the soul.

“There is a hunger for experiences that awaken and integrate, especially when offered in sacred, beautiful places like ours," adds Koulmadas. “A global return to ancient and indigenous healing is redefining what it means to be well."

*To read the latest report from the Global Wellness Institute, go to globalwellnessinstitute.org

Jennifer Ennion
Jennifer Ennion is a freelance travel and ski journalist who loves encouraging people to spend more time outdoors. From snorkelling with belugas in sub-Arctic Canada to hiking the Himalayas, Jennifer is constantly searching for stories that inspire readers to push their boundaries.
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This scenic Victorian region is the perfect antidote to city life

    Craig Tansley Craig Tansley
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    Video credit: Visit Victoria/Tourism Australia

    The Grampians just might be the ultimate antidote for the metropolis, writes one returning Aussie ready to disconnect from the modern world and reconnect to the Great outdoors.

    There are no kangaroos back in Chicago: they’re all here in the Grampians/Gariwerd . In the heart of the Grampians National Park’s main gateway town, Halls Gap, pods of eastern greys are eating grass beside my parked rental car beneath the stars. Next morning, when I see the backyard of my rented villa on the edge of town for the first time, there are kangaroos feeding beside a slow-moving creek, lined with river red gums.

    Five hundred metres up the road, 50 or so of them are eating by the side of the road in a paddock. I pull over to watch and spot three emus. Yellow-tailed black cockatoos fly overhead towards the tall green mountains just beyond town.

    ‘Kee-ow, keee-oww’… their calls fuse with the maniacal cackle of a kookaburra (or 10). Gawd, how I’ve missed the sound of them. Far above, a wedge-tailed eagle watches, and there you go: the ‘great birds of Australia’ trifecta, all half a kay from the town limits.

    Exchanging city chaos for country calm

    kangaroos near Halls Gap, Grampians National Park
    The park is renowned for its significant diversity of native fauna species. (Image: Visit Victoria/Robert Blackburn)

    I’ve come to the Grampians to disconnect, but the bush offers a connection of its own. This isn’t just any bush, mind you. The Grampians National Park is iconic for many reasons, mostly for its striking sandstone mountains – five ridges run north to south, with abrupt, orange slopes which tumble right into Halls Gap – and for the fact there’s 20,000 years of traditional rock art. Across these mountains there are more than 200 recorded sites to see, created by the Djab Wurrung, Jardwadjali and Gunditjmara peoples. It’s just like our outback… but three hours from Melbourne.

    I’ve come here for a chance at renewal after the chaos of my life in America’s third-largest city, Chicago, where I live for now, at the whim of a relative’s cancer journey. Flying into Melbourne’s airport, it only takes an hour’s drive to feel far away from any concept of suburbia. When I arrive in Halls Gap two hours later, the restaurant I’m eating at clears out entirely by 7:45pm; Chicago already feels a lifetime ago.

    The trails and treasures of the Grampians

    sunrise at Grampians National Park /Gariwerd
    Grampians National Park /Gariwerd covers almost 2000 square kilometres. (Image: Ben Savage)

    Though the national park covers almost 2000 square kilometres, its best-known landmarks are remarkably easy to access. From my carpark here, among the cockatoos and kangaroos on the fringe of Halls Gap, it only takes 60 seconds’ driving time before I’m winding my way up a steep road through rainforest, deep into the mountains.

    Then it’s five minutes more to a carpark that serves as a trailhead for a hike to one of the park’s best vantage points, The Pinnacles . I walk for an hour or so, reacquainting myself with the smells and the sounds of the Aussie bush, before I reach it: a sheer cliff’s edge lookout 500 metres up above Halls Gap.

    walking through a cave, Hollow Mountain
    Overlooking the vast Grampians landscape from Hollow Mountain. (Image: Robert Blackburn)

    There are hikes and there are lookouts and waterfalls all across this part of the park near town. Some are a short stroll from a carpark; others involve long, arduous hikes through forest. The longest is the Grampians Peaks Trail , Victoria’s newest and longest iconic walk, which runs 160 kilometres – the entire length of Grampians National Park.

    Local activities operator Absolute Outdoors shows me glimpses of the trail. The company’s owner, Adrian Manikas, says it’s the best walk he’s done in Australia. He says he’s worked in national parks across the world, but this was the one he wanted to bring his children up in.

    “There’s something about the Grampians,” he says, as he leads me up a path to where there’s wooden platforms for tents, beside a hut looking straight out across western Victoria from a kilometre up in the sky (these are part of the guided hiking options for the trail). “There are things out here that you won’t see anywhere else in Australia.” Last summer, 80 per cent of the park was damaged by bushfire, but Manikas shows me its regrowth, and tells me of the manic effort put in by volunteers from town – with firefighters from all over Australia – to help save Halls Gap.

    wildflowers in Grampians National Park
    Spot wildflowers. (Image: Visit Victoria)

    We drive back down to Halls Gap at dusk to abseil down a mountain under the stars, a few minutes’ walk off the main road into town. We have headlamps, but a full moon is enough to light my way down. It takes blind faith to walk backwards down a mountain into a black void, though the upside is I can’t see the extent of my descent.

    Grampians National Park at sunset
    Grampians National Park at sunset. (Image: Wine Australian)

    The stargazing is ruined by the moon, of course, but you should see how its glow lights up the orange of the sandstone, like in a theme park. When I’m done, I stand on a rocky plateau drinking hot chocolate and listening to the Aussie animals who prefer nighttime. I can see the streets of Halls Gap off in the distance on this Friday night. The restaurants may stay open until 8pm tonight.

    What else is on offer in The Grampians?

    a boat travelling along the Wimmera River inDimboola
    Travelling along the Wimmera River in Dimboola. (Image: Chris McConville)

    You’ll find all sorts of adventures out here – from rock climbing to canoeing to hiking – but there’s more to the Grampians than a couple of thousand square kilometres of trees and mountains. Halls Gap may be known to most people, but what of Pomonal, and Dimboola, and Horsham? Here in the shadow of those big sandstone mountains there are towns and communities most of us don’t know to visit.

    And who knew that the Grampians is home to Victoria’s most underrated wine region ? My disconnection this morning comes not in a forest, but in the tasting rooms and winery restaurants of the district. Like Pomonal Estate, barely 10 minutes’ drive east of Halls Gap, where UK-born chef Dean Sibthorp prepares a locally caught barramundi with lentil, pumpkin and finger lime in a restaurant beside the vines at the base of the Grampians. Husband-and-wife team Pep and Adam Atchison tell me stories as they pour their prize wines (shiraz is the hero in these parts).

    dining at Pomonal Estate
    Dine in a restaurant beside vines at Pomonal Estate. (Image: Tourism Australia)

    Three minutes’ drive back down the road, long-time mates Hadyn Black and Darcy Naunton run an eclectic cellar door out of a corrugated iron shed, near downtown Pomonal. The Christmas before last, half the houses in Pomonal burnt down in a bushfire, but these locals are a resilient lot.

    The fires also didn’t stop the construction of the first art centre in Australia dedicated to environmental art in a nature-based precinct a little further down the road (that’s Wama – the National Centre for Environmental Arts), which opened in July. And some of the world’s oldest and rarest grape vines have survived 160 years at Best’s Wines, outside the heritage town of Great Western. There’s plantings here from the year 1868, and there’s wines stored in century-old barrels within 150-year-old tunnels beneath the tasting room. On the other side of town, Seppelt Wines’ roots go back to 1865. They’re both only a 30-minute drive from Halls Gap.

    Salingers of Great Western
    Great Western is a charming heritage town. (Image: Griffin Simm)

    There’s more to explore yet; I drive through tiny historic towns that barely make the map. Still part of the Grampians, they’re as pretty as the mountains behind them: full of late 19th-century/early 20th-century post offices, government offices and bank buildings, converted now to all manner of bric-a-brac stores and cafes.

    The Imaginarium is one, in quirky Dimboola, where I sleep in the manager’s residence of an old National Australia Bank after a gourmet dinner at the local golf club, run by noted chef and teacher, Cat Clarke – a pioneer of modern Indigenous Australian cooking. Just south, I spend an entire afternoon at a winery, Norton Estate Wines, set on rolling calico-coloured hills that make me think of Tuscany, chit-chatting with owners Chris and Sam Spence.

    Being here takes me back two decades, when I lived here for a time. It had all seemed as foreign as if I’d driven to another planet back then (from Sydney/Warrane), but there seemed something inherently and immediately good about this place, like I’d lived here before.

    And it’s the Australian small-town familiarity of the Grampians that offers me connection back to my own country. Even in the better-known Halls Gap, Liz from Kerrie’s Creations knows I like my lattes with soy milk and one sugar. And while I never do get the name of the lady at the local Ampol station, I sure know a lot about her life.

    Kookaburras on a tree
    Kookaburras are one of some 230 bird species. (Image: Darren Donlen)

    You can be a local here in a day; how good is that? In Chicago, I don’t even know who my neighbour is. Though each day at dusk – when the kangaroos gather outside my villa, and the kookaburras and the black cockatoos shout out loud before settling in to sleep – I prefer the quieter connection I get out there in the bush, beneath these orange mountains.

    A traveller’s checklist

    Staying there

    Sleep beside the wildlife on the edge of Halls Gap at Serenity .

    Playing there

    abseiling down Hollow Mountain
    Hollow Mountain is a popular abseiling site.

    Go abseiling under the stars or join a guided hike with Absolute Outdoors . Visit Wama , Australia’s first environmental art centre. Check out Dimboola’s eccentric Imaginarium .

    Eating there

    steak, naan bread and beer at Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap
    Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap serves a great steak on naan bread.

    Eat world-class cuisine at Pomonal Estate . Dine and stay at much-revered icon Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld. The ‘steak on naan’ at Halls Gap brewhouse Paper Scissors Rock , can’t be beat.

    Dunkeld Arboretum in Grampians National Park
    The serene Dunkeld Arboretum.

    For Halls Gap’s best breakfasts head to Livefast Cafe . Sip local wines at Great Western’s historic wineries, Best’s Wines , Seppelt Wines and Norton Estate Wines .

    two glasses of beer at Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap
    Sink a cold one at Paper Scissors Rock.