World’s Best: Five of the Best Luxury Retreats for Detox & Gut Health

Probiotic, prebiotic, microbiome, alkaline… with so much jargon flying around about gut health, it can be hard to know where to start. To kick-start your journey toward optional gut health, The Luxury Spa Edit have selected the very best luxury retreats.

Gut health is a hot topic in wellness circles, and for a good reason. We now know that looking after your good gut bacteria is as crucial to overall health as regular exercise and a balanced diet. A healthy gut can make a substantial difference to your immune system – 70% of our immune system actually resides in the gut – as well as helping control digestion and even balancing hormones. A healthy gut also keeps your mind sharp, your energy levels high, and inflammation in check.

Eating a varied, fresh diet as well as some fermented foods has been proven to help keep your gut bacteria healthy and happy. But what if you want to delve a little deeper? Or address issues like Irritable Bowel Syndrome, inflammation, bloating or weight gain? Enter: the gut health retreat. A growing number of luxury resorts are offering tummy-nurturing treatments and tailor-made programmes designed to help you optimise the health of your gut.

Whether you’ve just started figuring out the likes of kombucha and kimchi or you’re continuing on a journey to gut wellness take a look at our top five luxury gut health retreats.

MAYRLIFE Medical Health Resort Altaussee, Austria

The MAYRLIFE Health Concept is as gut-centric as they come, focusing on regenerating the gut and, in turn, improving your immune system. Located on the shores of Lake Altaussee in Austria, MAYRLIFE employs a blend of medical expertise, cutting-edge tech and countless therapies, all combined with the traditional treatment approach pioneered by Dr Franz Xaver Mayr.

The adapted FX Mayr treatment – called Modern Mayr Medicine – is a detoxification cure to activate your metabolism, strengthen your immune system and increase energy levels, all via better gut health. Purification sits at the heart of the process, and all programmes are crafted to reactivate your body’s self-healing powers.

Daily exercise is also an essential aspect of any stay, so MAYRLIFE doctors will prescribe a tailored exercise routine. Crucially a healthy, alkaline-based, diet is an integral part of the philosophy, aiding the regeneration of your gut and intestines.

Each of MAYRLIFE’s eight medical programmes has gut health at its epicentre and is designed to free your body from pollutants. The MAYRLIFE Classic Programme is the foundation of every stay. Precisely tailored to your own health goals, it includes daily consultations with a doctor to ensure your treatment plan is fully optimised. Special focus programmes include stress control, weight loss, anti-inflammation or healthy ageing. The minimum stay is seven days, to ensure a positive gut healing and regeneration process.

Lanserhof, Austria / Germany

Naturopathy meets cutting-edge medicine in Lanserhof’s three resorts – Lans in Tyrol, Austria, the island of Sylt, and Lake Tegernsee, both in Germany. Lanserhof is a place of deep peace and tranquillity, a place to regenerate and gather strength.

The Lanserhof Concept combines traditional naturopathy with the latest medical findings as well as energy medicine, psychology and chronomedicine all designed to regenerate you physically, mentally and spiritually. The Lanserhof fasting method, known as the Lanserhof Cure, was developed over three decades and is the focal point for any stay, to encourage the thorough regeneration of your gut and intestines.

You’ll begin your stay at any Lanserhof resort with a detailed diagnosis by the medical team. Based on these results, your doctor will determine your treatment plan, focused around sensitive detoxification, purification and deacidification so your body is able to regenerate and reorganise its self-healing powers. The main focus is to use a goal-oriented combination of different therapy options for you, to define your individual path to healing.

All regeneration programmes are supported and accelerated by bespoke exercise therapies, the specially developed Lanserhof Energy Cuisine and an extensive physical therapy programme. If you’re looking to give your gut the five-start treatment, Lanserhof could be the perfect retreat of choice.

VIVAMAYR Medical Health Resort, Maria Wörth, Austria

Another concept based on the traditional diagnostics and therapies of Dr FX Mayr, VIVAMAYR’s Mayr Cure detoxification and regeneration programme aims to optimise your digestive health, boost your immune system and restore your body to balance.

What makes the VIVAMAYR Health Concept so effective is that it’s 100% personalised and individualised, so after a full medical consultation you’ll receive a holistic diagnosis, and a health and dietary treatment plan that’s just for you. Nutrition, movement and mental strength are at the heart of VIVAMAYR so you’ll receive tailored treatment programmes, focused on re-activating your body’s self-healing powers, and always be supported by a team doctors and therapists.

Gut health is the order of the day at VIVAMAYR, so you can select from targeted programmes from weight optimisation to stress reduction, depending on your needs. These are then individually adapted to your needs throughout your journey to ensure you leave feeling healthier and you gut has had some serous pampering.

SHA Wellness Clinics, Spain, Mexico, UAE

SHA’s mission is to help people achieve optimal health, so they can reveal their full physical, mental and spiritual potential. With clinics in Spain and Mexico, and a third site due to open in AlJurf in the Emirates in 2026, SHA offers leading state-of-the-art luxury spa retreats.

But it’s not just about R&R here. The iconic brand offers a series of complex programmes tailored to achieving optimal health, with specific focuses on detoxing, performance, preventative health and longevity.

At the original SHA Wellness Clinic in Alicante, Spain, guests can opt for the extra ‘Gut Health pack’ to restore balance and proper function to your digestive system. The pack includes a detailed assessment of your gut’s current state, followed by specialised treatments including intestinal ozone therapy session, visceral osteopathy session and an emotional eating session. It’s a full intestinal MOT. The pack promises to improve the state of your gut microbiota as well as your emotional system, all through an integrative approach.

Every programme is based on the SHA Method, which is all about, in no particular order, healthy nutrition, natural therapies, preventive and healthy ageing medicine, advanced aesthetics, cognitive stimulation, emotional health, wellbeing and inner balance and physical performance. It’s a no-nonsense, all-encompassing approach and one thing’s certain: it really works.

RAKxa Integrative Wellness, Bangkok, Thailand

More than just a wellness destination, RAKxa offers a map to wholeness, where body, mind and lifestyle come together in perfect harmony. To achieve this harmony, every guest receives a personalised path to enduring wellbeing, created using the resort’s advanced integrative diagnostics.

RAKxa’s programmes are a blend of advanced medical science and time-tested wisdom, technology and tradition with an overall aim of discovering what your brain and body needs to be well. Whichever of the integrative wellness programmes you choose will takes you on an insightful journey to bring you back into balance.

In the seven or 10-night Gut Health Programme, the RAKxa team will focus on the functions of your gut, also known as your second brain, including digestion, nutrient absorption and elimination. Traditional methods such as therapeutic heat, herbal preparation, acupuncture and abdominal massage will be used alongside scientifically proven procedures such as clinical colon hydrotherapy. You’ll receive nutritional cuisine designed to improve gut health, rebalance your microbiome and ‘restore balance through food’. Synbiotics is a key nutritional principle you’ll discover at RAKxa – it refers to a combination of prebiotics and probiotics, working together to aid digestive health.

The Gut Health Programme will address your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs in RAKxa’s three centres of wellness, all overseen by an expert medical team.