When I first started traveling in the 1960s, the goal was simple: see as much as possible, as cheaply as possible. Europe on $5 a Day was my bible. I wasn’t asking whether the trip would make me healthier or help me find my life purpose.
Today, that’s exactly what many of you (and me) who listen to The Ageless Traveler podcast are asking of our travels. Our desire for more healthy years, personal transformation, and giving back is driving the hottest travel trends today.
Each trend has a name: wellness travel, regenerative travel, and transformational travel. I speak about them on cruise ships, and I’m always asked, “Aren’t they all the same thing?” No. Here is how I tell them apart.
1. Wellness travel asks, “How do I feel?” The goal is simple: you come home feeling better than when you left. It’s about your body, mind, and spirit. Think thermal springs, spa therapies, longevity retreats, healthy cuisine, and finally getting a good night’s sleep. (Sleep, by the way, is one of the real keys to longevity.)
2. Regenerative travel asks, “Is this place better because I came?” This is where it goes beyond sustainable travel. Sustainable tourism asks, “How can we reduce the harm tourism causes?” Regenerative tourism asks, “How can tourism actively improve this place and the lives of the people who live here?” Your trip helps restore a farm, a forest, a reef, or a village tradition.
3. Transformational travel asks, “Who will I become?” These are the profound journeys: a pilgrimage like the Camino, a meditation retreat, a solo adventure, a voluntour. You go with intention, keep a journal, and come home changed. Viktor Frankl, whose Man’s Search for Meaning I reread often, loved Nietzsche’s line: “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.” Transformational travel is how many of us find our next why.
So wellness is about you, regenerative is about the place, and transformational is about who you become. The best trips do all three.
In our usual sections this week are devoted to these types of travel, we cover:
Ask Adriane: What Is Regenerative Travel?
News You Can Use: Which Exercise Really Protects Your Brain, and a New Way to Measure Your Cells’ True Age
Culture Vulture: Bathhouses, Herb Tours, and Wellness Through Culture
Luxury Travel for Less: An Exclusive 10% Walking Holiday Discount, Plus the World’s Top Longevity Spas
This week on The Ageless Traveler podcast, I welcome travel writer Irvina Lew, author of Forays in France. She is nearly 88, has had knee and hip replacements, and is still sipping her way through Europe’s finest spas. She’s living proof that all three kinds of travel are for every age.
Never stop traveling
Cheers,
Adriane
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This Week’s Highlights
On This Week’s Podcast
Top Spa Adventures in France and How To Afford Them Plus The Need for TOUCH
As she approaches her 88th birthday, award-winning travel writer Irvina Lew shares how she keeps embracing life and travel, no matter her age or physical limits.
Irvina is candid about her need for touch now that she is widowed and how massage experiences are for health and beauty, but also about the sensation of touch.
She takes us into the luxurious world of spas and wellness retreats. You’ll discover vinotherapy, thalassotherapy, and mineral springs, where treatments pamper the body and promote health and longevity.
I had the privilege of speaking at HD Design Conference on Longevity Design for Spas and Hotels. Here are some wellness experiences that are top of the line… not budget, but they are value for the money.
Corvas Brinkerhoff has created a 20,000-square-foot bathhouse that blends immersive art with ancient thermal bathing traditions and neuroscience. Its scientific advisors include experts from Johns Hopkins and UC San Francisco. “I wondered if immersive art could make people feel good,” he says. Art and hot water? Count me in.
Zoey Gong bridges Western nutrition and traditional Chinese medicine through food therapy, herb tours, and cooking classes. “I want people to start incorporating TCM in their everyday lives and understand their body more,” she says. It’s a perfect learning journey for the curious traveler.
Founded in 1940, Rancho La Puerta is one of the original destination spas. It offers hiking, fitness classes, organic gardens, and cooking school, all just over the border from San Diego. Look for its seasonal specials. The founder is named Deborah Szekely and is 104 years old.
Wellness Close to MY Home: Desert Hot Springs, California Some of my favorite wellness is in my own backyard. The natural mineral springs of Desert Hot Springs, near Palm Springs, offer spa soaking at a fraction of resort prices. Historic Two Bunch Palms is the splurge. Smaller spa motels nearby deliver the same healing waters for much less.
Regenerative: Earthwatch Expeditions Join real scientists on field research, from counting wildlife to monitoring ecosystems. You’ll travel with purpose, learn from experts, and your work feeds real conservation.
Luxury Travel for Less
EXCLUSIVE: 5% Off Ramble Worldwide Walking Holidays You read about my 52-mile Allerdale Ramble (and the cake!). Now Ramble Worldwide is offering Ageless Travelers 5% off all of their trips, anywhere in the world. Just tell them Adriane Berg sent you. It’s wellness, regenerative, and transformational travel in one: a nonprofit that puts part of what it earns back into the outdoors, and these walks empower you to walk more everyday. Explore Ramble Worldwide
Food as Medicine at Palazzo Fiuggi, Italy Palazzo Fiuggi, near Rome, has teamed its medical staff with three-Michelin-star Chef Heinz Beck for a Food as Medicine Detox Retreat of 7 to 14 nights. It includes nutrient-dense organic meals, epigenetic testing, Fiuggi’s mineral waters, spa treatments, and a personal movement program. Learn more
The Longevity Spa at The Lake Como EDITION This spa blends anti-aging science and biohacking with ancient rituals. They call it “high-tech meets high-touch.” It has an indoor pool overlooking the lake. Visit the spa
Unusual Spa Treatments Want to splurge just once? Fodor’s picked the best luxury spa treatments in the world. They include a wave-motion waterbed massage in Austria, Mayan cacao ceremonies at Rosewood Mayakoba in Mexico, and a honey detox made with the hotel’s own bees in Vancouver.
Friends Meeting Friends
Please check out the wonderful podcast Dementia Decoded, with host Jennifer Fink.
Loving someone through cognitive decline or chronic illness shouldn’t mean losing yourself. On Dementia Decoded, caregivers find practical strategies for everyday communication, coping with anticipatory grief, and making self-care non-negotiable. It’s an essential listen for anyone supporting a spouse or loved one while still striving to live a full, intentional life.
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