Long associated as the mecca of health, fitness, and inner peace, California offers some truly luxe wellness retreats to recharge your body, mind, and spirit. Whether it is along the Pacific Ocean or nestled in the beautiful mountain ranges of the Golden State, retreats can be found across the state, offering truly indulgent wellness experiences. Each offering their own unique viewpoint on holistic wellness, they combine everything from a traditional fitness vacation, spa treatments, nutritious cuisine, and thought-provoking lectures for a wholesome experience. So if you are looking to hit the reset button and escape to become a better you, here are some of the best wellness retreats in California.
Cal-a-Vie is a European-style destination health spa nestled away on over 500 private acres in Vista, California, just north of San Diego. Offering a luxe and intimate self-care hideaway, the property is home to 32 private villas and an adjoining Country Club with an 18-hole golf course designed by Ted Robinson Sr. Offering a five-to-one staff-to-guest ratio, the spa is centered around the concepts of fitness, health, and nutrition and presents experiences designed for the mind, body, and spirit. The French Provencal-style retreat offers a range of packages that include healthy cuisine, spa treatments, and wellness programming. Guests who visit the spa can choose to focus their stay on everything from weight loss, fitness, nutrition, or mental well-being with three-, four- and seven-night spa vacation packages. Each package includes over 160 fitness classes, hiking, beauty and spa treatments, mind-body awareness programs, lectures, guest speakers, and accommodations. The starting rate for a three-night package is $5,300 and the health spa will debut three new six-bedroom villas in the fall.
Golden Door
Opened in 1958 as the first destination spa in North America, Golden Door has been a haven creating individualized programs for a healthier lifestyle for its guests in order to take a deep look into their mind/body/spirit connection. Taking inspiration from the Japanese ryokan, guests enter the secluded property through two golden doors and are greeted with pristine landscaping across 600 acres. From fitness classes to spa treatments, workshops, and more, they customize each guest’s stay where no two programs are ever the same. Guests are easily able to relax, restore, and refresh to transform their minds, bodies, and souls on a focused journey. From their exclusive partnership with Biologique Recherche at the spa to new programming such as transformational breathwork classes and sound healing, their healthy food program focuses on seasonal produce and balanced meals that make you feel energized. Through industry-leading group discussions and personalized 1:1 sessions, focusing on not only indulging you during your stay, but on providing the tools for inner reflection, healthy eating, and fitness so that you create long-lasting effects to take away with you when you finally have to leave. Their program runs seven nights and costs $11,950.00 and includes all food and beverages, a list of extensive treatments offered daily along a daily in-room massage.
The Ranch Malibu
Set amidst picturesque landscapes of the Santa Monica Mountains and perched on 200 acres of rugged coastline, The Ranch Malibu offers structured wellness programs designed to rejuvenate your body and mind. The serene haven offers a six-night minimum (along with an eight-night, private, and multi-week option) structured wellness program for a total reset of mind and body. Limited to 25 guests, guests will partake in morning hikes, afternoon fitness, yoga classes to daily massages. Blending indoor and outdoor living, the property features 21 private guest cottages along with The Barn (gym), Massage Village, an outdoor pool, a jacuzzi, and a cold plunge. During their stay guests are presented with an organic, plant-based diet featuring produce from their certified organic garden. The program allows guests to connect with nature’s healing elements along with experiencing more unique modalities including a mid-week, 60-minute sound bath as well as a weekly cooking demonstration and an array of health services and treatments, including IV therapy, cholesterol testing, energy healing, cupping, and infrared and cryotherapy saunas. Prices start at $7,600 per person for double occupancy and $9,200 for a single room for the six-night/seven-day retreat.
Canyon Ranch Woodside
A short 30-minute drive from San Francisco and Silicon Valley, Canyon Ranch Woodside, an all-inclusive retreat is set amidst 16 acres of the Redwood forested hills of Woodside, California. Providing the backdrop for guests to connect on a deeper level, grow, and be surrounded by an immersive wellness experience, the quiet enclave has the ability to host up to 38 guests across 24 luxury treehouses and 14 guest rooms. Covered on all sides by large redwood trees, their curated retreat program provides guests with a stress-free vacation centered around nourishment of the body, mind, and spirit. Encouraging guests to unplug, the resort offers over 35 daily mind-body activities along with wellness presentations and workshops an indoor saline pool and whirlpool, a boutique spa with five treatment rooms, a state-of-the-art fitness facility, and delicious cuisine served at the Hideaway and The Hearth. You are able to choose from a Personal Discovery Pathway to pursue an intention you want to work on with tailored services from Spa & Beauty, Fitness & Movement, Mind & Spirit, and also partake in off-property outdoor adventures like mountain biking and kayaking. The retreat offers packages from two to seven nights starting at $950/night along with an all-inclusive Executive Health three-night program at $2,150/guest.
We Care Spa
The 20-acre We Care Spa desert oasis in Palm Springs is centered around the core principle that everyone has the potential to rediscover the joy of healthy living through guided fasting and holistic spa treatments. Along with 40+ spa treatments, daily nutrition and yoga classes, evening sound baths, and weekly fire ceremonies, guests will partake in the We Care Cleanse which features a nutritive fast with twelve different teas, pressed juices, shakes, soups, and water. Designed to combat toxins, sick cells, and stress, the Cleanse along with breathwork, meditation, and mindfulness is geared to reset emotional blockages and poor diets. We Care Spa now features 28 accommodations, each with deep soaking tubs and a range of amenities across a rich landscape of bougainvillea, lemon groves, statues of Hindu and Buddhist traditions, large crystals, and shaded meditation gardens. The desert oasis is a safe haven for guests to indulge in the many spa treatments, partake in group classes, and learn from facilitators how to create and maintain a holistic life in all areas, including mind, body, and spirit. Retreat options start at $2,019 for two nights, $5,049 for five nights, and $6,149 for seven nights.
Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village
Set amidst 11 acres of exotic gardens, the Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village, a seven-story hotel features 269 rooms and 39 guest suites, along with the largest spa in the Four Seasons portfolio at 40,000 sq. ft. In between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara’s wine country and a short drive from Malibu’s famed beaches, the urban retreat is home to the Center for Health & Wellbeing which incorporates nutrition, fitness and movement, medically sound data, as well as spa and healing therapies. Guests can choose from three retreats (Optimum Performance, Spa & Beauty, and Sustainable Weight Loss) and begin the first steps to achieving their individual goals. Each retreat affords guests one 60-minute spa treatment, one private health consultation with CURE Medical, all meals and snacks daily fitness classes, and unlimited access to the spa and fitness center. Guests can add on a-la-care services through their advanced medical services which include options like a target heart rate assessment, private mental fitness consultation, more than 100 different spa services, and CURE Medical IV drips. Their retreats start at $3,999/person and also include guided hikes through Malibu and the Santa Monica Mountains.
