Top Wellness Travel Trends for 2014

Grocery stores are getting healthier, as are school lunches and even some fast-food joints, so why not travel and leisure? According to research firm Wellness Travel Worldwide, sectors of the travel and leisure industry are working hard to make everything from the bed you sleep on to spa treatments healthier, and even promote family bonding. Here are three of their trend picks for 2014, along with NVL-curated examples of where you can experience them. 

Health-Focused Hotels

Hotels have realized that there’s an unmet need for guests to maintain their health during travel that goes beyond gyms, pools and spas. To meet this need, some hotels are designing rooms to reduce jet lag, induce better sleep, provide in-room fitness equipment, supply purified water and air, and more. Here’s a look at two hotels making wellness a priority:

MGM Grand, Las Vegas

The Stay Well Rooms at this Vegas hotel offer guests amenities to antidote overdoing it and to promote wellness. Designed by experts at the Cleveland Clinic and holistic-health authority Dr. Deepak Chopra, in addition to a bed in these rooms you’ll find vitamin C–infused showers, dawn-simulating alarm clocks, melatonin-producing lighting, and healthy food menu options. Guests can access in-room fitness equipment and healthy lifestyle education as well as take-home tips, programs and wellness apps.

EVEN Hotels, Multiple locations

Although the first EVEN hotel isn’t set to open until spring 2014, we had to mention this innovative new family of health-and-wellness-focused hotels owned by the InterContinental Hotels Group. The entire midrange-priced hotel is designed to bring a sense of wellness and serenity to guests from the moment they walk in and are offered a warm or cool towel and a beverage. Rooms will have training zones with yoga mats, balance balls and other equipment. For the business traveler who doesn’t want to work at a traditional desk, there’s a clutter-free rolling desk, standing-desk options and ergonomic chairs. Food choices will include items like kale salads and chicken atop quinoa, along with options for special diets. The chain just announced a new coming location in Brooklyn.

Intergenerational Family Travel

More grandparents are connecting with grandchildren in a distinct way—by traveling. Many of today’s grandparents are active and fit and want experiences that take their family relations from cyberspace to real space. The travel industry is responding with programs to bring families together to learn, love and play. Here are two programs for grandparents and grandchildren.

Road Scholars

An adventure-and-learning-based trip organizer, Road Scholars has plenty of varied-activity-level programs designed just for grandparents and grandchildren. Among the trips offered is learning and experiencing the history, mountains and adventure of Colorado’s Old West, or learning animal tracking and appreciation skills in Oregon. International programs send participants to exotic locals like the Galapagos Islands or more cosmopolitan settings like Paris.

Banana Courtyard, New Orleans

This bed-and-breakfast offers two-night packages in New Orleans. Trips to museums and attractions are included, and the children get to sleep in a Pirate’s Attic room adjacent to their grandparents.

Indigenous Healing Traditions

As the world has become more globalized, many spa brands have gone the way of Starbucks—predictable. A growing number of spas are looking to differentiate themselves by offering traditional healing practices that originate in the spa’s region. For example, in the Southwest, spas are offering services that incorporate Native American healing rituals and even use ingredients sourced from local resources. Travelers seeking health-and-healing traditions at their place of origin contribute to cultural conservation and sustainability, in some cases stimulating economic growth and breathing new life into long-forgotten, ancient or undervalued rituals. Here are three spas offering indigenous-inspired services.

Aji Spa and Salon, Chandler, Arizona

This spa’s Indigenous Collection of products and services was created with the help of descendants from the region’s Pima and Maricopa Indians. Among the treatments offered is the Pima Medicine Massage, which incorporates ancient techniques passed down for generations from Pima medicine healers. The Nahtogig (Four Directions) exfoliating body treatment uses indigenous ingredients like pomegranate, salt, honey and blue cornmeal to represent the elements of sunset, illumination, sandstorm and water.

Aspira Spa, Elkhart, Wisconsin

Situated on the shores of the Elkhart Lake, this spa’s signature cedar treatments feature cedar balms that are collected from area trees prior to each service. Oils are also made from the cedar trees. The cleansing and purifying properties of the cedar imbue the spa’s cedar massage and wrap treatments with the plant’s healing properties.