If just being in the beautiful outdoors in the Hudson Valley, Adirondacks, central Vermont or the Berkshires in western Massachusetts weren’t spirit boosting enough, these wellness-focused resorts have unique therapies, great farm-to-table food, sports and soothing spa treatments, all wrapped in good old fashioned fresh air and nature’s inspiring eye-candy.
The year-old Miraval Berkshires Resort and Spa in Lenox, Mass., comprises 380 acres of manicured grounds and includes a Zen garden, outdoor pool deck, an in-door Olympic lap pool, equine center, an activities center, indoor class rooms and a very, very big spa — the brand’s largest at 29,000 square-feet and 28 treatment rooms.
Launched Memorial Day, Miraval’s new Summer Camp, is a whopping month-long experience with four free nights (book 30, pay for 26), a $175 nightly resort credit, and a complimentary signature relaxation massage.
Believe it or not, it’s unlikely you’d run out of wellness activities even during a month stay.
Classes run from kickboxing to kayaking to the spiritually expanding equine meditation with magnificent rescue horses, saved from slaughter.
Each day, dine on three delightfully flavorsome and splendidly nutritious three-course meals in the big barn-like restaurant, Harvest Moon, which has lots of outdoor dining space.
Rates for the 55 Lee Road resort start from $599 per person, per night, all-inclusive. Summer camp is $20,800 per person, per month.
Nearby, the grandaddy of American health farms, Canyon Ranch, also in Lenox, Mass., is ground zero for fitness and weight loss. It doesn’t hurt that its Lenox location, which opened in 1989, is set around a gorgeous Gilded Age mansion.
Canyon Ranch’s Pathways regimes are built around expert-designed, health-focused food menus and prescribed exercise. Choose from three- to seven-night programs with five to 10 specific services and activities — from hypnotherapy meditation to neuromuscular therapy, and don’t forget to book a super soothing massage.
This summer, a new Pathways program focuses on post-COVID-19 recovery, useful for anyone who took a little slip into unhealthy habits or weight gain during COVID confinement; or for just resetting for the return to so-called normalcy.
Rates at the 165 Kemble St. resort start from $2,550 per person for three nights, all inclusive.
Last fall, Troutbeck in the Hudson Valley continued a three-year conversion into a country retreat with the addition of its health focused complex, the Barns. There’s the Tall Barn, where studio classes ranging from yoga to tai chi are held; the Long Barn, which houses the Technogym fitness center, spa treatment rooms, sleek pine-clad locker rooms and detoxing saunas; and a seasonal, open-sided Pole Barn for outdoor classes.
While the corporeal gets a good going-over in the Barns, the natural grounds feed the soul. The incredibly picturesque manor house rooms are spacious and simple, and surrounded by mighty trees. The filled stone building dates to 1920 when it was built along with an idyllic walled garden near the secluded Garden House, which is where recharging celebs choose to stay.
There’s also the small 250-year-old Century Lodge, originally a tavern and now rooms, or bookable as a whole home-from-home complete with kitchen and living room.
Troutbeck has lots of playful activities, including those designed for children. There are lawn games, two tennis courts, an outdoor pool with food and drinks service, hiking and walking trails through the 250 acres. Not to mention bikes.
Hire a tennis pro, book a tailored massage, or consult a trauma and stress combating Somatic Experiencing expert. And lets’s not forget that great wellness activity: hammocking.
Lie back amidst the beautiful natural landscape, soothed by birdsong and the busy waters of Dunham Creek and the Webatuck Creek working up an appetite for a tasty meal inspired by local and on-property foraged ingredients.
Rates from the resort at 515 Leedsville Road, Amenia, New York, start at $240 per night, use of amenities included.
Set on 300 acres, with meadow to mountain views, the all-inclusive Twin Farms, a luxury rural resort in Barnard, Vermont, centers around a Federal-style 1795-built farmhouse, once a private rural retreat.
You can bike to Silver Lake (four miles) where Twin Farms’ private waterfront houses canoes and kayaks; play croquet, badminton or tennis by the beautiful wild flower-lined Copper Pond; or relax in the gorgeous Bridge House Spa.
This summer, Bodhimaya founder Cornelius O’Shaughnessy will lead a special Farm-2-Soul Retreat based on Bodhimaya’s meditation and nutrition program, which aims to correct root causes of ill health.
Rates from the 452 Royalton Turnpike-set start at $2,000 per night. Farm-2-Soul Retreat: Sept. 9 to 15, $250 per person.
The point of the Point is getting away from it all and recharging the batteries in a remote, peaceful former Rockefeller camp in Upper Saranac Lake, New York, in the Adirondacks.
An incomparably soothing location accessed by a long dirt road through remote woodland, simple restorative activities and fabulous farm-to-table food is the healthy recipe here. The all-inclusive resort’s pampering first-class service doesn’t hurt.
The Point is all about swapping competitive urban hustle for playtime among an unspoiled natural landscape: This summer’s activities number hiking, lake swimming, water-skiing, wakeboarding, kayaking, tennis and badminton.
There are no TVs in the spectacular, individually designed rooms, but there is one in the fabulous pub/clubroom, which has billiards and darts, too. In-room massages are coordinated upon request and cost extra. If ease of living relieves stress, then this is the place to unwind and get that chi flowing.
Rates start from the resort at 222 Beaverwood Road start at $1,750 per person, per night.
