In Thailand, eco wellness isn’t something you just schedule between sightseeing. Yes, that is certainly a part of a trip here – who wouldn’t love a post-supper massage, a therapist stretching out the tension in your shoulders after months of sitting at a desk at home? But wellness here goes far deeper. For many Thai people, it’s woven into the texture of daily life. It’s in the food they eat, the rituals they take part in, the unhurried pace that allows the brain time to process and the body time to heal.

For you, as a traveller, it’s an opportunity to embrace this more thoughtful lifestyle, but also go further – perhaps it’s trying out traditional healing practices and or taking part in new experiences, surrounded by nature, that will immediately lift your mood and improve your wellbeing. From eco hotels and retreats to yoga, mindfulness and food, taking a trip to Thailand with eco wellness at its heart may just be the route to rejuvenation that you never knew you needed.

Find calm in the city

Your trip to Thailand is likely to begin in Bangkok, a city you may associate with busy streets and thousands of people. But even the world’s busiest cities have peaceful pockets of calm – especially Bangkok, a city that’s home to some 30 parks and Bang Kra Chao, Bangkok’s “green lung”, where elevated walkways curve around canals, temples and markets. Surrounded by nature, a morning here will give you an immediate sense of peace, the whirring of your brain easing and your breath slowing.

Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen in Bangkok

But in the city, too, you can experience an incredible quiet – if you know where to find it. Brilliant day spas dot the streets – Divana being one of the favourites, with its seemingly never-ending menu of facials and massages – but for something more unusual, you may prefer a Thai massage to follow your sightseeing at Wat Pho temple. Choose from a traditional Thai massage that will stretch, pull and release, or a shoulder and neck massage that uses beautifully scented herbal balms and compresses to ease muscle tension.

Away from the capital there are also plenty of healing moments to be found in the other parts of the country that are popular with travellers, whether it be the countryside of Chiang Mai, and the quieter, jungly interiors of Phuket and Samui, simply spending just a few hours surrounded by nature – hiking barely trodden paths – embracing a more gentle rhythm to your day that may feel very different to the pace back home.

Soak, steam and slow down

Let that jungle hike be just one element of a more wellness-focused escape in Thailand. Hot springs aren’t just a tourist site, but the earth’s own medicine. Thailand holds over 100 natural hot springs, many of them dotted across the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Pai, along the Andaman Coast in Ranong and Krabi, and scattered across lesser-known regions in between.

Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai

Long before wellness was a ‘thing’, local communities understood the profound benefits of bathing in mineral-rich waters. The immediate relief for tired muscles, the speedy healing of skin conditions, the restorative power of being warm all prove to be as important today. There are dozens to visit on a trip to Thailand, spending on the setting you are craving. In Pai, hot springs are hidden in forested settings, steam rising amongst the leaves.

In Ranong, the springs are packed with mineral salt from deep beneath the ground. In Krabi, there are purpose-built wellness spaces like Wareerak Hot Spring & Wellness, where natural hot springs are made more accessible, and just one element of a day here, with yoga classes, massages and even longer de-stressing retreats available to book.

Laem Son National Park in Ranong

Taste wellness through Thai food

Healing from the outside is all very well, but so much of the time it’s what we put into our body that dictates how well we feel and are. Thai food is packed with flavour, colour and fresh, fragrant ingredients. From brothy soups to spicy salads, to teas and smoothies, a meal here is big on unprocessed ingredients, with meat and veg often grown or reared locally and organically.

A Thai cooking class is one of the most relaxing ways to spend a morning, plucking produce from stalls at a local market and then learning how to make something fresh and fiery to recreate back home. More focused Thai cooking classes can also explore how food is medicine, and how the right choices play a bigger part in day-to-day wellness. Perhaps it’s the galangal that’s a brilliant anti-inflammatory, or the nutrient-rich lemongrass that can lower cholesterol and aid digestion, or the immune system-supporting compounds in fresh chilli – all found in a classic Thai dish of tom yum soup.

Edible flowers at Na Sook Wellness Resort

Stay where wellness feels rooted in place

Whether it’s firing up the immune system, regulating moods or addressing hormone imbalances, Thai food and ingredients can play a huge role, and there’s no better place to dive a little deeper than Na Sook’s herbal tasting workshops.

Slower, more sustainable farm-to-table dining is another way to be more considered in your food choices while visiting, and to go even further, how about a vegetarian detox retreat?  Vegetarian and plant-forward eating have deep roots in Thai Buddhist culture. Many Thais adopt a vegetarian diet for the three-month period of Buddhist lent, and Na Sook Wellness Resort’s retreat gives a taster of this – with meals mingled with yoga classes, sea swims and sound healing sessions.

Na Sook is just one of dozens of truly incredible places to stay that put wellness at the centre of their experience. Some are beautiful boutique hotels, where slowing the pace is easy to do thanks to sublime beachside settings. Devasom, on the golden shores of Khao Lak, is a boutique hotel with the most mesmerising golden hour sunsets and a spa set high above the hotel’s pretty gardens. The Sarojin, also in Khao Lak, is similarly special, with an open-air spa that gazes out over a coconut grove to the Andaman Sea. The treatments are inspired by ancient healing techniques and performed as an act of ‘metta’ – an act of loving kindness.

Phang Nga National Park

Further south in Phuket, and set inland, is Keemala, which has made a name for itself not just for its very cool design, but for its chemical-free products used in its spa, and its one-to-one wellness sessions, like reflexology and yoga, all focused on creating physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Chiva Som, south of Bangkok in Hua Hin, is the biggest name in the wellness space and has set the benchmark for holistic spas for over 30 years.

Meanwhile, Kamalaya on Koh Samui is a place where Western medicine and Eastern techniques are blended to create healing programmes for guests, anything from sleep retreats to detoxes and ‘embracing change’ programmes, which include talking time with life-changing Life Enhancement Mentors. On the same island, the Absolute Sanctuary leans into holistic wellness with a dose more exercise (think boot camps, pilates and more) while Rakxa is an all-villa retreat on the edge of Bangkok, run by a team that believes that rest is the core pillar of wellness and longevity, and helps you get to that peaceful rest state faster than you thought possible.

Look beyond the obvious wellness map

While the palm-fringed islands and cosmopolitan city of Bangkok may be the more obvious wellness destinations in Thailand, there are also plenty that are unexpected.

The Soul Resort, located at the foot of the sacred mountain of Saraburi in upper central Thailand, is one such place, where walking meditation and mindfulness dining are core elements of your stay. Elsewhere, THANN wellness destination, Atutthaya, the old capital of Thailand, is a retreat from THANN, the leading natural skincare and aromatherapy brand in Thailand. Here, therapists encourage guests to make active choices to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.

Just booking a stay is part of that, but beyond that is a comprehensive list of wellness activities to take part in, from yoga and spa treatments to body composition analysis and salt therapy.

In slow Sampran, a 90-minute drive from Bangkok, is RXV Wellness Village, a more affordable spin-off from RAKxa medical resort. The focus here is on holistic wellness for guests of all ages, with nobody considered too young or old to learn to live well. Wherever you choose to stay, Thailand’s abundant greenery, healing therapists, healthy cuisine and unhurried pace is just what you need to live well – very, very well.

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^{All photos: ©Thailand Tourism}