Europe's leading wellness retreats – Lanserhof, Buchinger Wilhelmi, Chenot and SHA explained

A wellness retreat in the European sense is closer to a clinic than a hotel. Guests arrive for a set number of nights, see a doctor at the start, and follow a programme – a diet, treatments, exercise, often tests – under medical supervision. The tradition has deep roots in German-speaking Europe, where fasting and digestive cures were practised long before wellness was a word, and four houses stand out today. They differ more than their brochures suggest.

A note before booking: these are medical programmes. Discuss them with your own doctor, particularly if you have a health condition, and read each clinic's medical information carefully. For spa hotels built on thermal springs, see our separate guide to Europe's great spa hotels.

Lanserhof: the Mayr cure, modernised

Lanserhof takes its name from the village of Lans in the Austrian Tyrol, where a cure centre based on the principles of Franz Xaver Mayr opened in the 1980s. Mayr (1875–1965) was an Austrian physician who linked chronic illness to an overburdened digestive system, and the Lanserhof method is a modernised, integrative version of his cure: a full medical assessment on arrival, digestive detoxification and nutritional re-education, therapeutic nutrition, movement and work on the nervous system, all supervised by a medical team. Beyond Lans, Lanserhof opened at Tegernsee in Bavaria in 2013 and on the island of Sylt in 2020, with Marbella announced for 2027.

Buchinger Wilhelmi: a century of therapeutic fasting

The German physician Otto Buchinger (1878–1966) left the navy in 1917 because of rheumatism and, after conventional treatment failed, completed a 19-day fast in 1919 that he credited with restoring his health. In 1920 he opened his first clinic in Witzenhausen, moved to Bad Pyrmont in 1935 – the year he published The Therapeutic Fasting Cure – and in 1953 opened a clinic on Lake Constance at Überlingen with his daughter Maria and her husband Helmut Wilhelmi. A second clinic in Marbella followed in 1973. The family, now in its fourth generation, still runs the business, and therapeutic fasting remains its core.

Chenot: from Cannes to Merano and Weggis

Henri Chenot first applied the Chenot Method at the General Hospital in Cannes in 1974. In 1984 he established his Espace at the Palace Merano in South Tyrol, and in 1999 he founded an academy to study physical and psychological ageing, which he called biontology. The flagship Chenot Palace Weggis, in Weggis on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, opened in June 2020.

SHA Wellness Clinic: macrobiotics on the Costa Blanca

SHA is the newest of the four. It opened in 2009 at El Albir, on the Sierra Helada cliffs, about 45 minutes by car from Alicante airport. It was built by the Bataller family on land where they had spent summers, after Alfredo Bataller's recovery from illness. Its programmes are built on macrobiotic nutrition, with diets tailored to each guest, alongside exercise, aesthetic and relaxation therapies and natural medicine consultations.

How to choose

Start with the method, not the view. If you want a structured fast, Buchinger Wilhelmi has a century of practice behind it. If digestion and a medical check-up are the priority, Lanserhof's Mayr-based approach is built for it. Chenot has its own method and two grand settings, and SHA builds on macrobiotic nutrition. Ask each clinic about minimum stays, what a programme includes and what is charged separately. More on health in our health section, more travel in our travel section and on metromode.co.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.