As travelers increasingly seek deeply transformational wellness holidays, winter is emerging as a natural season for restoration. Across Preferred Wellbeing, the global wellbeing designation from Preferred Hotels & Resorts, hotels are embracing the season through thermal bathing, targeted recovery, nature immersion, and more personalized approaches to physical and mental restoration.
Launched in May 2026, Preferred Wellbeing encompasses more than 70 independent hotels and resorts from Preferred Hotels & Resorts’ global portfolio, each going beyond the traditional spa to integrate wellness[SD1] more meaningfully into the guest journey. From rest and movement to nourishment, connection to place and environmental responsibility, the program reflects a more holistic approach to how travelers experience wellbeing.
This winter, Preferred Wellbeing hotels around the world are demonstrating how the season can become a catalyst for renewal, whether recovering after an active day outdoors, reconnecting with nature, or simply creating moments to slow down.
Recovery Becomes Part of the Winter Adventure
For active travelers, recovery is increasingly becoming part of the experience itself, with targeted treatments and technologies helping guests restore tired muscles and recharge for another day outdoors.
At Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, post-mountain recovery goes beyond the traditional massage. Spa Edgewood incorporates NormaTec air-compression therapy into its Boots Off Recovery Package, alongside a revitalizing foot treatment and leg and foot massage, while guests can also recharge at the resort’s Oxygen Bar. For targeted muscle recovery, the Après Mountain Recovery Massage is designed to alleviate muscle soreness, restore mobility, and ease tension following a day outdoors. [SD2]
Meanwhile, Montage Big Sky in Montana brings a performance-focused approach to its mountain setting. Its Peak Performance Recovery treatment combines assisted stretching techniques with Hyperice Normatec dynamic air-compression therapy, perfect for post-outdoor adventures. Customized IV treatments promote deep restoration and hydration, while amenities like steam rooms, whirlpools, relaxation lounges, and a heated indoor pool allow for more immersive relaxation.
Thermal Wellness Turns Up the Heat
As temperatures fall, heat and water take on renewed appeal, with thermal bathing, saunas and hot-and-cold experiences transforming age-old wellness practices into immersive winter rituals.
At 7132 Hotel in Vals, Switzerland, the experience centers around its renowned thermal baths designed by acclaimed architect Peter Zumthor. Mineral-rich thermal water from a local spring fills the striking quartzite structure, turning the simple act of bathing into an immersive day-to-night experience shaped by water, architecture, and its Alpine setting. Beyond bathing, the hotel’s Modern Alchemy spa program draws on ancient traditions and rituals through three treatments designed around balance, tranquility and renewed vitality, extending the experience from physical recovery to a more holistic sense of restoration.
In Austria’s Grossarl Valley, Das Edelweiss Salzburg Mountain Resort offers a different interpretation through its extensive five-level mountain spa that caters separately to adults and families. The adults-only area pairs panoramic saunas and relaxation spaces with hot-and-cold experiences including an icy plunge pool and outdoor brine pool, while the dedicated Family Mountain Spa features pools, textile saunas, and wellness treatments for younger guests. For a more contemporary approach to recovery, the resort also offers an Alpine Cellular Recovery Ritual using CELLTUR IHHT technology, which alternates oxygen phases while guests rest.
Wellness Gets More Personal and Proactive
Wellness travel is also moving beyond short-term relaxation towards more personalized experiences that can provide deeper insights into individual wellbeing and encourage longer-term lifestyle change.
At Preidlhof Luxury Dolce Vita Resort in Italy, nine curated Transformational Wellness Retreats bring together medical insights, advanced diagnostics and Heart Rate Variability monitoring with holistic practices supporting physical and emotional wellbeing. Its broader wellness offering, including a six-floor Sauna Tower and 14 pools, provides a setting for travelers to use the slower winter season as an opportunity to pause, take stock and reconnect with their personal wellbeing.
Embracing Nature’s Rhythms
Elsewhere, hotels are looking to winter itself for inspiration, developing experiences that encourage guests to engage with the changing season through mindful movement, time outdoors, and moments of reflection.
At The Lake House on Canandaigua in New York’s Finger Lakes, the Winter Solstice Retreat (from 18–19 December 2026) marks the arrival of the season with two days of restorative yoga, sound bathing, nature immersion, creative sessions and a talk exploring seasonal nutrition shifts. The hotel continues the theme into the new year with a New Year Wellness Retreat (from 2–3 January 2027), designed around starting the year with greater intention and a renewed perspective. Beyond the retreats, the lakeside Willowbrook Spa complements the hotel’s seasonal wellness offering with massages, facials, and body treatments alongside outdoor barrel saunas overlooking Canandaigua Lake, a heated pool, and hot tub.
At The Brush Creek in Saratoga, Wyoming, winter wellness takes a more active approach, using the ranch’s expansive natural surroundings as the setting for movement and restoration. Winter experiences span yoga and fitness classes, Snowga, snowshoeing, sound healing, and spa treatments, alongside healthy cooking experiences. The ranch also brings these elements together through dedicated winter wellness programming combining practices such as sound healing, guided outdoor exploration, journalling, stargazing, and massage.
At Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo, winter wellbeing is shaped by a distinctly Japanese connection to nature and the changing seasons. The hotel’s expansive Japanese garden offers a tranquil counterpoint to its urban Tokyo setting, with winter bringing its own seasonal scenery, while YU, THE SPA combines hot springs, sauna, and treatments inspired by both traditional principles and contemporary techniques. Its signature Japoneira Body Treatment, inspired by the hotel’s emblematic camellias, uses Japanese camellia oil to create an experience that connects wellness with the property’s sense of place.
