Press Release
The goop List: 12 Exceptional Destination Spas and Wellness Retreats
Costa Rica’s Talamanca Mountains are home to two-toed sloths, vibrant pink hummingbirds, and hill after hill of coffee farms—and Auberge resort Hacienda AltaGracia. You could, if you wanted to, come here just to enjoy the resort’s leafy, vivid-green surroundings. Unlike many of the other spas on this list, Hacienda AltaGracia is a resort first and foremost. But we’d argue no trip here is complete without clocking serious hours at the destination-worthy spa: The Well.
Your wellness journey starts in Casa de Agua, the glassed-in bathhouse with a sumptuous thermal circuit, the centerpiece of which is a gigantic heated marble slab where a spa attendant slathers you in hand-harvested clay. From there, guests might find themselves in Ashtanga yoga postures, release blocked emotions in a craniosacral therapy session with a master practitioner, or cleanse their aura in a river-fed pool. The coffee scrubs, herbal baths, energy clearings—it’s all to the end of finding a sense of peace, and it’s hard to imagine spending a day here without achieving exactly that.