If you’re wondering what exactly constitutes ’wellness’ as opposed to just feeling and being well, you’re not alone! Wellness these days is a multi-million dollar industry as you’ll find when you visit The Wellness Tourism Association’s page and of course wellness retreats are a large part of that. The idea of a wellness retreat is to reflect on what has come before, be that a holiday or something more onerous, and to restore/prepare oneself for what is to come next. South Africa has caught on to the trend of wellness/self-care as a crucial component of any journey and now abounds with many places to retreat to, with the aim of slowing down and restoring one’s spirit, body and mind. Not all of these locations are places to stay: some are day visits, some are very luxurious, some much less so. What they all share is a total removal of all distractions and interference, a connection to nature and of course, as sustainable as they can be.
What to Expect at Wellness Retreats in South Africa
Wellness retreats in South Africa are almost as diverse as conventional places to stay and visit. You can expect in larger cities to find a wealth of spas and gyms often independent of or connected to larger hotels: these get booked up very quickly and have prices concomitant with the standard of hotel. Independent spas are normally significantly cheaper.
You may of course wish to take advantage of our spectacular South African weather in which case consider beach horse rides, park runs, outdoor gyms and outdoor yoga classes. South Africans are always up very early (6.30 a.m. mostly) and virtually any park, beachfront or public space will have people of all ages meditating, practicing yoga, training on outdoor gyms, cycling, running or riding horses.
Outside of South African cities, the range of what is available mushrooms: this is where wellness becomes much more residential. You can choose from glorious glamping sites, basic eco lodges with chalets (small houses), independent self-catering yurts or huts (or Airstream trailers!) right up to luxurious safari lodges and boutique wellness resorts and everything in between. Of course, the draw of many of these places is the astounding natural beauty of South Africa from the mountain escarpments of the Cape and the Drakensberg to the tropical coastline of Isimangaliso to the rugged clifftops of the Overberg, the sandy beaches of the Cape, desert retreats in the Karoo and Kalahari and of course national parks filled with big game like Kruger, Madikwe and Addo.
At Where It All Began, all the wellness retreats we list and suggest to our clients are inspected for their sustainability and ethicality credentials. We are always most interested in those places that do the hard things well (such as paying living wages, uplifting staff, real engagement with community organisations).
Best Wellness Retreats in South Africa
South African retreats often combine a spectacular nature feature (for example, the Cape Floral Kingdom, big game and wildlife, desert landscapes, our beautiful and varied coastline or the mountain ranges of the Drakensberg) with a range of accommodation standards and activities to accompany them.
Most of these are located nearer to the larger cities where they get a lot of weekend visitors but many are much more far flung.
At Where It All Began, we only list and write about those places that meet our standards of sustainability – more on why that’s so important in South Africa here.
Ixopo Buddhist Retreat Centre – a stunning place to completely unplug from all modern distractions, this vast property set over a series of verdant valleys and rivers about 3 hours away from Durban was named by CNN as one of the top 10 finest meditation sites in the world. Choose from guided fixed date retreats over several days or self retreats. Accommodation is basic (dorms) up to private en-suite bungalows. The BRC combines really well with our KZN self-drive journey or with our African Horseback Safari.
African Soul Surfer – yes, it is possible to retreat within a city: our Soulful Waves Spiritual Retreat is partially hosted at Muizenberg’s African Soul Surfer, an upmarket beachfront backpackers located about 30 minutes outside of the city of Cape Town itself. Offering en-suite rooms at the two-star level, African Soul Surfer combines delightful accommodation, vegan and vegetarian food with meditation, yoga classes and surfing lessons into a splendid low-budget retreat.
Temenos – if mountains are your thing, consider a stay at this wonderful village property in the Riversonderend Mountains about three hours out of Cape Town. Offering a series of self and guided retreats, expect accommodation at the four-star standard with a large residential garden and a swimming pool onsite as well as restaurant Trebaldi’s. Even better the village of McGregor offers classes in meditative things like archery and the walking into the mountains is spectacular. Temenos also forms part of our Soulful Waves Spiritual Retreat.
Sanctuary Mandela – as the name would imply, this was the Father of the Nation’s home following his release from prison, now converted into a boutique hotel. Whilst not technically a retreat, it abounds with small permanent exhibitions to the great man, quiet corners to sit and be at peace and tranquil urban gardens. It’s very much, despite being a hotel, a place of reflection and inspiration owned and managed by the Motsamayi Tourism Group which is South Africa’s oldest Black-owned tourism group.
See later in this article for some ways to combine safari and wilderness experiences with wellness.
What is a Healing Retreat?
Healing retreats differ markedly to wellness retreats in that in the former, there is a specific, guided, approach to a particular problem which could be physical (e.g. post surgical) or mental (e.g. trauma/addiction). Wellness retreats are much less structured (if they are structured at all). In South Africa, it’s rare for wellness retreats to also offer healing retreats but the reverse is less true. Here are some places that you can visit and focus on both healing and wellness around the country.
Oppidium Health Retreat, Plettenberg Bay – started by former GP Nicola Whiteman, this farm outside Plettenberg Bay featured in CNN Traveller. The focus is very much on calming the nervous system and better gut health but with wellness being a key feature of that.
A diet for your stay is curated specially for you and after about five days of this bespoke food and enjoying the tranquility of the farm, guests report a strong sense of returning to the self, the abilty to be present and focus on the thing in front of them, be that a tree or a mountain.
Dhama Pataka Vipassana Meditation Centre – located throughout the world but in South Africa’s case near Fairy Glen just outside Worcester, Western Cape, a course in this centuries-old meditation technique is taught over a period of ten days in a totally silent retreat. Costs are very low and accommodation of a set two-star standard with communal ablutions.
Bodhi Khaya – set in the beautiful Overberg region where whales frolicking in the Indian Ocean meet with verdant rolling valleys and ancient forests sits the farmstead of Bodhi Khaya. Offering mainly scheduled retreats (but you can create your own if you like), the accommodation varies from the monastic to the full feature small villa. You’re able to take walks into the surrounding forest, swim in the natural ponds and eat three vegan or vegetarian meals a day, joining classes in breath work, yoga and chi kung.
Luxury Safari Lodge Wellness
With South Africa still being one of the best value-for-money destinations on the whole continent for wildlife, it’s not at all surprising that wellness and wildlife have become firm partners. Nearly all larger safari lodges these days have some sort of spa or gym or pool for use between game drives but many go beyond that to make wellness a focus
Rhino Post – superbly located in southern Kruger Park and a skip away from Skukuza Airport with regular flights to Joburg and Vic Falls, Rhino offers two camps, a low impact Safari camp from which you take game drives every day but also their Plains camp from which you can only take walking safaris of between 5 and 10km per day. Imagine walking through one of the largest transfrontier parks in the world in total silence before dawn and in evening twilight to look for game with a ranger and tracker: nothing returns you to the
Sanbona – this private Western Cape reserve manages to seemlessly blend the timeless history of the San people in the incredible range of rock art, most of it millenia old,to be found on the reserve with big game and upmarket, architecturally stunning, accommodation. Between your game drives you can take walks into the rock art regions where you can be shown the significance of the works and how this ties into the natural world. With opportunities for meditation and yoga throughout the reserve, it’s a grounding and humbling experience.
Thonga Beach Lodge – located in the pearl of coastal reserves, Isimangaliso in KwaZulu Natal, Thonga offers an ultra sustainable and ethical escape to a tropical beach from which you can dive and snorkel over the reefs, relax under palm trees with views of the Indian Ocean or if feeling more active go turtle tracking (in season), paddle on the serine lakes nearby filled with big game and vast flocks of flamingos. It’s very much the antithesis of a resort and more the epitome of a retreat.
Tanda Tula – if budget allows, this five-star plus partially Black-owned lodge in Greater Kruger (Timbavati) is the most perfect blend of wellness and wildlife, and all less than an hour by plane from Joburg. With some of the highest international standards of sustainability and ethicality in the country, Tanda Tula offers a very slowed down but also very curated wilderness experience which originally started with just canvas tents in the bush.
Wellness Retreat Benefits
With travel itself starting to feel like a ‘to do’ list as much as work, slotting a wellness component into an African journey is becoming an important feature of many people’s vacation time. Being able to combine a slower pace of life (even if just for a few days), without moving/packing/organising leads to series of emotional resets and a deeper connection to nature and those one is sharing it with. Longer term, coming home actually rested as opposed to more burned out than when one started travelling has so many long term health benefits.
On your next South African visit, consider combining aspects of one our journeys, such as our Soulful Waves Spiritual Retreat with your city stay, or interrupt your road trip from the Eastern Cape to Durban with a stop off at Ixopo Buddhist Retreat Centre along the way. Overloaded at bit too much on excellent South African wine? You can stay in the Winelands and still go on retreat right there! Don’t feel that you ‘have’ to safari when you could easily turn the safari into a retreat for yourself whilst for your travel companions it’s all dust and dung! Wellness can, and should, be part of any journey back to Africa.
