The Six Luxury Retreats That Redefine How We Travel in 2025

Travel, at its best, is a personal renaissance. It awakens our senses, challenges our routines, and invites us to lean into the unfamiliar. Whether you’re photographing pumas in Patagonia, soaking in Icelandic steam, or learning the art of stillness in a Japanese-inspired garden on Long Island, these immersive retreats are invitations to grow. From solo meditative escapes to memory-making adventures with family, each of these six destinations offers something rare: the luxury of transformation.

Best For An Education

Explora Torres del Paine, Chile | Recommended stay: 5 days

Imagine flying to the southernmost point in South America, and then trekking deeper, four hours to Chilean Patagonia with a mission to hone your photography skills. Available to guests of eco-retreat Explora Torres del Paine on select dates, this educational experience for photographers, both amateur and professional, affords the opportunity to take pictures of guanacos and pumas in nature while perfecting camera skills and techniques.

Salto Chico / Photo: Courtesy of Salto Chico

Celebrating 32 years in 2025, the 49-room Explora Torres del Paine is the only luxury lodge in Torres del Paine National Park. Outside of photography, the resort features a selection of more than 40 pursuits, including horseback, overland, catamaran, guided hikes, and lakes, mountains, forests, and glaciers to explore. Explora Torres del Paine even has its own horse stable. Guests spend approximately 5.4 hours a day outdoors as they hike the shores of Mirador Pehoé or ascend Cerro Tenerife with views to the Chacabuco Mountain range.

Best For Solo Exploration

Shou Sugi Ban House, Water Mill, New York | Recommended stay: 5 days

Montauk Highway is paved in golden adventures. Discover the quaint splendor of Water Mill, home to Shou Sugi Ban House, the only destination spa and wellness retreat in the Hamptons, and adjacent to the Parrish Art Museum. Featuring modern beach cottages, an immersive connection to nature, and holistic wellness, this intimate space offers a Healing Arts Barn with tea bar, a treatment spa, open-air Movement Pavilion, ceremonial fire circle, curated library, and gardens.

Watsu pool / Photo: Courtesy of Shou Sugi Ban House

Shou Sugi Ban House represents a different way to explore the Hamptons far from the parties, with two-night, three-day intention-focused retreats created by world-class practitioners, including energy healer Jessica Forsythe and boxing champion Ngo Okafor. And because some journeys are best enjoyed alone, the property’s setting is ideal for contemplation with winding pathways, pools, fountains, and a landscape inspired by Japanese gardens.

Best For Classical Music and Art

Tippet Rise, Fishtail, Montana | Recommended Stay: 3 Days

Fishtail, Montana, seems an unlikely place for modern art devotees, architecture lovers, classical music enthusiasts, and naturalists to converge every year from summer to fall. They flock to Fishtail for Tippet Rise Art Center, one of America’s breathtaking venues, where they can experience everything they love all in one place. Located among multiple ranges with a full view of the Beartooth Mountains and set on a 12,500-acre working cattle ranch, Tippet Rise offers an ideal setting for a transformative experience “anchored in the belief that art, music, architecture, and nature are intrinsic to the human experience, each making the others more powerful.”

Photo: Tippet Rise Art Center. Designed by Arup. Courtesy of James Florio

For outdoor enthusiasts, Tippet Rise opens in June for hiking, biking, tours, and programs showcasing architectural structures. Every year, the concert season runs from mid-August to mid-September, with 16 indoor and outdoor performances over five weekends by some of the world’s top composers. Newly installed, Ursula von Rydingsvard’s Bronze Bowl With Lace stands 19.5 feet tall. It is positioned within a natural bowl, opening to a view of the Yellowstone River valleys.

The Soil You See… (2023) by Apsáalooke artist Wendy Red Star and Crossroads II (1990) by Richard Serra, both installed in 2024, were significant acquisitions for Tippet Rise. Previously displayed on the National Mall, The Soil You See… is a glass sculpture depicting a red thumbprint with swirling ridges inscribed with the names of 50 local Apsáalooke chiefs. Crossroads II consists of massive steel plates arranged at angles and separated by distances.

Photo: Domo with Performer Ensamble Studio. Courtesy of Iwan Baan

The newest outdoor performance venue, The Geode, joins The Tiara Acoustic Shell and The Domo. The Geode consists of four triangular sections, one for performers and three for audience members. The structures, which both project and contain sound, are protected from the sun and wind without obstructing the environment. The venue is made of steel and furrowed wood grain, with each plank burned and brushed using a traditional Japanese yakisugi technique.

Best For The Beauty Aesthete

The Reykjavik Edition, Iceland   | Recommended stay: 4 days

According to market research, both domestically and internationally, cosmetic procedures, treatments, and products have seen rapid growth within the wellness tourism industry, projected to reach $1.35 trillion by 2028. The best countries for beauty retreats include South Korea, Switzerland, and Iceland, where you can experience their alchemy in practice. The Nordic island consistently ranks among the world’s most beautiful landscapes, ranging from glaciers and volcanoes to fjords and lava fields. Imagine bathing in Iceland’s lagoons and then drenching your skin in local beauty rituals. The Reykjavik Edition wants you to do just that as the city’s first true luxury retreat with the best products and near the healing waters of Sky Lagoon.

Sauna Sea / Photo: Courtesy of Reykjavik Edition

The hotel uniquely introduces a social wellness program centered around a spa living room with a standing bar. Intimate with only three treatment rooms, this sanctuary with a hammam, sauna, and hydrotherapy plunge pool. The property is also one of the only places to get beauty treatments from the magical Icelandic brand Bioeffect, which uses biotechnology to create products containing a plant-based epidermal growth factor, a protein that stimulates cell growth. They offer two beauty treatments addressing fine lines, dehydration, and uneven skin tone.

Photo: Courtesy of Reykjavik Edition

The Bioeffect Glacier Glow helps slow aging, while the Bioeffect Volcanic Radiance deeply hydrates and keeps skin radiant, youthful,l and healthy. The Edition is steps away from the Bioeffect flagship, which offers skin analysis using a Visia machine. From the face to the body, no beauty trek in Iceland is complete without a trip to Sky Lagoon, a 230-foot infinity-edge oceanfront geothermal lagoon. Indulge in the resplendent sauna featuring Iceland’s largest single-pane glass window with an indescribable view of the Atlantic Ocean.

Best For An Epicure

Milios at Sea, Greece | Recommended Stay: 8 Days

A dream for those who love to dine at Estiatorio Milos, Milos at Sea combines the celebrated culinary artistry of Costas Spiliadis’ lauded restaurant with some of the world’s most picturesque scenery in the Greek Isles. This chartered experience departing from Athens is completely customized to host up to 10 guests aboard a 113-foot yacht owned by the restaurant empire and serviced by a seven-person crew. Experience firsthand the health benefits of adopting a Mediterranean diet as your chef prepares fresh-caught fish from Greek fishing boats and other dishes straight from Milos’ menus.

Docked in the Aegean Sea / Photo: Courtesy of Milos at Sea

What emerges from the kitchen is created using Milos’ principles, methods, and techniques, focusing on quality raw materials sourced from the surroundings. Experience wild greens and vegetables from local farms, feta from Santorini, honey from Kythira, goat yogurt from Crete, extra-virgin olive oil from Olympia (produced by Spiliadis’ sister), and a vast selection of Greek wines. While at sea, get an education in Greek wine and cheese, test your fishing skills, and spend time swimming and sunbathing—just a few of the many activities available onboard.

Photo: Courtesy of Milos at Sea

The captain can suggest the route, or you can chart the course. If you are looking to explore a new side of Greece, forgo the Cyclades Island range (Mykonos, Santorini, Paros and 200 more) and cruise around the big island of Crete and the stunning enclave of Elounda, which has been a best-kept secret by celebrities for years for its private beaches, luxury boutique resorts and laid-back vibe. It will rise in visibility on the global scene when 1 Hotel & Homes opens in 2026.

Best For Fun In The Sun With Family

El Encanto, Santa Barbara, California | Recommended Stay: 4 Days

Santa Barbara has long been a playground for those who want to live the California dream of surf, sand, and sunshine. A landmark for more than 100 years, Belmond’s El Encanto makes the dream a reality. The resort features 90 cottages and bungalows cascading over seven acres of terraced gardens with sweeping views of the American Riviera.

El Encanto / Photo: Courtesy of El Encanto

The setting is ideal for a family retreat, as El Encanto offers extensive programming and access to a wide range of experiences for all generations—and is spread out so it feels like your own private estate. Wine tasting, surfing, picnicking, sunning by the zero-edge saline pool, ocean-inspired spa therapies, fitness workshops, and horseback riding are all part of the ranch-to-Riviera experience, and it is impossible to get bored. Gather your group and learn to sail on a charter sailboat with a captain, or cruising the seas viewing marine life and the coastline.