Last autumn, Tracey Emin followed up working in the USA with a trip to an Australian detox spa. She lost some weight and gave up alcohol – near impossible in the real world when your social and professional life revolves around a combination of stress and its immediate reliever, the demon drink. Emin, like many of us, didn’t just need a holiday, she needed help. A wellness holiday – be it a yoga weekend or three weeks of serious, almost medical detoxing – is now a regular fixture for many people, who treat it like a socially acceptable micro rehab for modern life. Recently, I took my mother to Kalari Kovilakom , an ayurvedic retreat in Kerala, India, in an old palace in the mountains.

My mother’s generation, no matter how exhausted, did not do spas unless they were princesses or movie stars. Her generation just “got on with things”. Relaxation for them was a stiff drink or a weekend free to concentrate on the garden. My mother had never spent more than an afternoon in a hotel spa, and even that, I suspect, she thought was terribly wasteful financially, and decadent. The stiff upper lip did not require the application of unguents and a dose of eastern philosophy. But I knew that time being thoroughly and thoughtfully cared for would pay phenomenal dividends for her. She wasn’t convinced.

On arrival, we checked in leather shoes, alcohol and cigarettes, and took on a life that my mother – somewhat tight-lipped – described variously as being like prison, school or a sanatorium. She was expecting a few massages and a papaya-juice cocktail and fag on the veranda. Yes, I had lied to her. She wouldn’t have come otherwise. I underwent panchakarma, ayurvedic medicine’s powerful detox process. Rising at 5.30am and slowly getting used to some peculiar elimination techniques, I experienced a powerful transformation in my mind and body. Any element of suffering involved in these kinds of holidays is quickly forgotten when you find a bit of yourself – be it muscle or soul – hidden under layers of accelerated western living.

My mother took a slightly softer, but no less shocking route to wellness. Two months later, much to her surprise, she still looks 10 years younger; she does yoga in the morning and has tools that she can use in her busy life to create some calm for herself. She went in cynical as hell and came out glowing like an angel. “Physically, it was amazing,” she says, “because I had a total rest. But what surprised me more, and what was more valuable, was that I didn’t have to think about anything. The peace and calm allowed me to rebuild an inner self-confidence. I came back like a car with its tank filled up.”

Is it any wonder spas are booming? Once you have experienced the benefit of a great spa trip, it’s hard to go back to the slightly exhausting, cocktail-fuelled holidays of old. As life continues at this BlackBerry pace, with modern medicine unable to treat the malaise we feel, we turn to specific programmes to treat our own self-diagnosed problems. We live in a world where erfection is the desired state of mind, body and soul. A wellness holiday is a sure-fire quick route towards this goal.

Spafinder.com has a spa for people who want to make their bottoms smaller, a spa for people who feel they have adrenal burnout and a spa for people who just want to sleep. Spas provide the week or two of me time that we all feel we so desperately need in our lives. And unless life calms down any time soon, they can only grow more popular.

YOGA

Erich Schiffmann Yoga Retreat, Parrot Cay, Turks and Caicos

Erich Schiffmann is like the dude in The Big Lebowski. A surf bum turned yoga guru, with long silvery hair and a penchant for dubbing things “awesome”, he is also American yoga royalty, a long-time teacher of Ali McGraw and married to Lauren Bacall’s daughter. Unsurprisingly, his week-long retreat at Parrot Cay, the luxury spa resort on the Caribbean island where Bruce Willis has a home, is full of overachievers. At my first class, a mat is laid out for Donna Karan.

Unreconstructed hippie Schiffmann may be, but four hours of his yoga a day is anything but chilled. His method is “deep and slow”. This translated into holding strenuous poses for excruciating periods while he exhorted us to “morph” and “liquefy”, which sounded more like something a drug-addled soul may do on a particularly acid-fried day. For me, a size16 yoga retard, it is relentlessly hard. After session two, I cry; session four leaves me feeling as if I’ve been beaten up. I find myself meditating on how, under its veneer of acceptance, yoga is really about highly competitive, slim women obsessing over their near-perfect bodies. But Schiffmann is good. The last hour sees us “morphing” to Fleetwood Mac’s You Make Loving Fun, which is interesting.

What of the resort? I stayed in a vast two-bedroom villa, which had a certain shabby-chic, faux humility about it. This was deceptive because inside, it was all flat-screen television and Lavazza coffee-maker. My personal butler, Candy, was pleasant company – at times, it was lonely in this gargantuan beach hut. Meanwhile, some of my yoga comrades were disgruntled. “In need of a refurb”, “overpriced” and “lackadaisical service”, they claimed. Personally, I found it peerless. As for Schiffmann, he may well have converted me to yoga.

Bethan Cole

Highlight Schiffmann’s inspiring teaching.

Low point The initial yoga sessions were too gruelling.

Did you achieve your goal? Sort of – I began to enjoy yoga.

Is it worth the money? A frill-free retreat may be equally destressing.

Getting there The Erich Schiffmann Yoga Retreat, June 15-21, 2008, costs £3,185pp (based on two sharing), including six nights, full-board, 4½ hours of daily instruction, return flights from London with British Airways and transfers (01244 202000, www.seasonsinstyle.com ).

WHERE ELSE TO GO Inner Safari Yoga, Tumaren Ranch, Kenya (www.innersafariyoga.com ).

LUXURY

Frégate Island Private, Seychelles

I’m not good at doing nothing – I very nearly booked a safari trip for my holiday. But then, I learnt that this would involve 4am starts and I simply wasn’t up to it. I needed rest and absolute peace, with little to do, no social scene and a first-class spa.

Frégate Island Private was to be my refuge. A maximum of 40 guests are permitted on this teeny island. During my stay, I spotted maybe six.

As the name suggests, guests come here for privacy. The huge living space assigned to each of the 16 villas includes a vast sun terrace with 180-degree views of the ocean and a private pool, which makes it the perfect hideaway for publicity-shy celebrities such as Liz Hurley, Emma Thompson and Bill Gates. You even get your own personal assistant.

Some guests never venture out of their villas at all, but that’s a great shame. Aside from its famous beaches, often voted the best in the world and which you have to yourself, what makes Frégate different from the countless other perfect hideaways is its dedication to preserving the natural beauty of the island. There are a number of ecofriendly policies – no pesticides, green guest buggies and recycling. On a typical day, you will come across dozens of geckos, millipedes, rambling tortoises, a couple of snakes and flocks of beautiful, once-endangered birds, and nearly every morsel of food that passes your lips is from the island, not an incoming plane.

This ethos is carried through to the spa, which has ditched the named brands it used to use in favour of natural plants and flowers from the island. If there are no ripe and ready mangos to make up your face mask that day, the therapists use whatever is fresh – chopping, dicing and blending in the customised kitchen. I arrived on the island with flu, and within the hour, a flask of freshly picked and brewed herbal tea was dispatched to my villa. The treatments are some of the best I have ever had, the standard of therapists often surpassing that of a top London spa. And you can have any treatment you want on any part of the island – on a cliff top, in your villa, on your favourite beach.

What do you do when you’re not at the spa? You can eat to your heart’s content, you can dive or fish, you can hike through the jungle, or you can do as I did and make a conscious effort to take in every sight, smell and emotion of the place so that you don’t forget what it’s like to be in a truly toxin-free environment. It was, without exception, the most effective form of mental rehab I have ever experienced.

Catherine Baudrand

Highlight Viewing hundreds of dolphins from my private beach.

Low point The lengthy flight, and, therefore, my carbon footprint. Did you achieve your goal? Yes, and the effects were long-lasting.

Is it worth the money? If you’ve got it, absolutely.

Getting there ITC Classics offers six nights, full board, from £7,337pp, including flights and transfers (01244 355527, www.itcclassics.co.uk ).

WHERE ELSE TO GO One & Only Reethi Rah, Maldives (www.oneandonlyresorts.com).

SHORT HAUL

Four Seasons Resort Provence at Terre Blanche, France

A mere 40-minute drive from Nice, the Four Seasons Resort Provence at Terre Blanche is set back from the coastal madness, in pretty green countryside. As with any world-class resort, there are endless options in terms of food and activities (if you want to gorge yourself on gourmet cuisine or fine wine, you can). But as a self-confessed health nut, I was more interested in having a relaxing golf and spa break.

Besides workouts in the gym, well stocked with state-of-the-art Technogym machines, I jogged around the nearby hills. For my golf swing, I checked into the Biomechanic testing facility to have my body analysed for imbalances. The results were used to create treatments designed to have me swinging like Tiger Woods in no time.

The brochure warns that the rosemary and clove massage with hot volcanic stones is not for the fainthearted, and so it should. Eighty minutes later, I felt as if I had been torn apart and reconstructed – albeit for the better. This was followed by an intensive muscle massage using a sports-specific LPG machine, where electrical currents ease muscle soreness and improve mobility and flexibility.

After my course of treatments, hours whiled away in the slick steam and sauna areas, hearty games of golf and a combination of healthy and regular menu eating (the healthy dishes were excellent), I felt fantastic.

Matt Roberts

Highlight Phenomenal service and just a short hop away.

Low point Not being able to jog on the golf courses.

Did you achieve your goal? Yes.

Is it worth the money? It’s worth forking out for.

Getting there Seven nights, B&B, start at £1,225pp, including BA flights and transfers, with Carrier (0161 491 7650, www.carrier.co.uk ).

WHERE ELSE TO GO Bauer Palladio Hotel & Spa, Venice, Italy (00 39 041 520 7022, www.bauerhotels.com ).

FITNESS

The Island Experience, Ilha Grande, Brazil

I felt a beautiful sort of melancholy after hiking up Parrot’s Peak. Sitting 1,000 metres above sea level, muscles aching deliciously with the effort of the climb, looking down on the dense green canopy of rainforest filled me with a dizzying mix of vertigo and awe.

The Island Experience (IE) has a simple formula of daily yoga, hiking, kayaking, massage and healthy food, a fundamental sort of sustenance for the body while nature takes care of soothing the mind. It is a very physical programme, but because the environment is so stunning, you rarely feel a sense of toil. I came here to prepare for a long-distance swim, so while others kayaked, I swam for one, two, three hours at a time, with a trainer kayaking at my side, carrying bags sweet bananas in case my energy dipped.

Fans of the IE include Lauren Weisberger, author of The Devil Wears Prada: she typifies the stressed, high-achieving but fundamentally robust city dwellers who dig the way IE do things. Many of my fellow guests went for a restricted 1,500-calorie diet and all of them lost weight. I didn’t bother, and ate like a horse. I didn’t lose weight, but my body snapped into taut shape.

Every night, we had an esoteric form of shiatsu massage from a loving local lady. I usually skipped the mellow cultural activities in favour of lying in the hammock and watching shooting stars. In one night, I saw more than I had ever seen in my life; in a week, I lost count.

Kate Spicer

Highlight Being in the thick of nature.

Low point The paper-thin walls between rooms. D

id you achieve your goal? Is it worth the money? Yes - it’s a bargain, in fact.

Getting there Six nights full board at Ilha Grande cost £986 (excluding flights), including six hours of supervised fitness activities, daily yoga, daily massage and transfers from Rio airport (www.lotusjourneys.com ).

WHERE ELSE TO GO In:spa, Tuscany (www.inspa-retreats.com ).

DESIGN

Faena, Buenos Aires

It is possible to combine staying in a fashion palace with getting a spritual kick. Tell any Margiela-clad, Clerkenwell-based art director you’re going to Buenos Aires, and they’ll tell you about Faena. It’s a hotel development, with attached spa, restaurants, theatre, galleries and living spaces, in a former grain warehouse. The hotel and spa are New York-style luxe. Interiors maestro Philippe Starck and owner Alan Faena, a local entrepreneur and friend of Mario Testino, battled it out over art direction - and Starck clearly won.

The spa emphasises holistic beauty care, unusual in a country keen on cosmetic surgery. I submitted to the full La Prairie Caviar Firming Facial first, because it is, famously, one of the poshest available. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it ? having your face smothered in expensive creams is hardly taxing, and my skin was notably glowier afterwards ? but it did cost £85. That said, I would probably book in for a repeat session of what followed. I had never had Pranic healing before and, gosh, it was wonderful. A system for “diagnosing, cleaning and energising the places of the body that have energy deficiencies”, it involved lying on a giant floor cushion while a therapist used her hands to clear the space above my body, and I tried not to peek lest I giggled. There is a grating contradiction in paying £60 to have your soul cleansed; however, lying there, wrapped in white robes in a sunlit room, I was prepared to overlook that.

Afterwards, I sweated out more of my evil toxins in the hammam, then dedicated the rest of the evening to retoxing in the ornate white restaurant with a bottle of decent malbec.

Jessica Brinton

Highlight The surprisingly effective spiritual cleansing.

Low point Boredom during the facial.

Did you achieve your goal? in a hedonistic city break.

Is it worth the money? I’d have the facial again if someone else paid.

Getting there British Airways flies from London to Buenos Aires from £872. Rooms from about £150pp (00 54 11 4010 9000, www.faenahotelanduniverse.com ).

WHERE ELSE TO GO Hotel de Rome, Berlin, Germany (00 49 30 460 6090, www.hotelderome.com ).

HELISKI

Fairmont Banff Springs, Canada

People might assume that all adrenaline junkies like to chill out with a pint after their exertions, but I’m not the only woman who enjoys a spot of pampering after going hard at it on the slopes. Heliskiing is definitely not for the fainthearted, nor is it particularly good for your skin. The air in the mountains dries it out, the sun is intensely powerful, and that’s not to mention wind burn or dehydration. Exhilarating though it was, by the end of a day spent jumping out of a helicopter into a pure white wilderness, despite factor 25 on my face, I had broken capillaries and dried-out cheeks.

Or so my pampering guru Jill at the five-star Willow Stream spa in the Fairmont Banff Springs told me the next day when I met her in the fabulously decadent spa. I’m not good at lying still for long periods, so the 45-minute fix-all facial she prescribed - using an enzyme peel to lift the dead skin away - wasn’t easy.

The Rockie Mountain revival massage, however, was an altogether different experience. Designed for muscle-weary skiers who may need help to get them back on the slopes, it started with a head-to-toe exfoliating lavender scrub and ended with a temple massage, with a lot of muscle-warming oil in between. Afterwards, I padded through the snow to soak in the outdoor hot tub and revel in the stunning scenery.

Alison Thomson

Highlight Watching others exerting themselves on the slopes while relaxing in the spa.

Low point Lack of intimacy - the hotel has more than 700 rooms.

Did you achieve your goal? Yes. Who says you can’t combine an extreme sport with girlie pampering?

Is it worth the money? Yes.

Getting there British Airways flies from Heathrow to Calgary from £330 return during winter. A night at the Fairmont Banff Springs costs from £144; www.fairmont.com . Heliskiing: www.rkheliski.com .

WHERE ELSE TO GO The Lodge, Verbier, Switzerland (0800 716919).

HOLISTIC

Shanti Ananda Maurice, Mauritius

After several serious life changes, I needed a break, the chance to recoup my energy levels away from the relentless pace of urban life. So I embarked on a week-long ayurvedic rejuvenation programme at Shanti Ananda Maurice, sister to the Ananda in the Himalayas, which has a reputation for nurturing exhausted westerners back to sanity.

Comprising 55 suites in thatched-roof villas that snake around the seashore, the resort is worthy of any design magazine. But what sets it apart from the island’s other five-star hotels is the spa, a truly peaceful haven with an embarrassment of authentic ayurvedic therapies. On my first day, I met the ayurvedic doctor, who diagnosed my dosha (body type). Being mainly vata (air) with a touch of kapha (earth), I have a tendency to overanalyse things, so needed treatments and cuisine to provide some mental grounding.

Mild vegetable curry for breakfast seemed strange at first, but, a couple of delicious mouthfuls in, I was converted. Slightly more challenging was a light supper, to ease my disturbed sleep. The flavours were varied, and I still felt satisfied; I even managed to stop my chocolate cravings.

I began each day, dressed in my kurta pyjamas – a spiritual-looking white outfit that unified the guests and obliterated clothing dilemmas – with yoga at sunrise, which made me feel bendy and carefree. Afternoons were spent having ayurvedic treatments and dips in the spa pool. The treatments were first class – as you would expect when most of the therapists are from the original Ananda. The Choorm Swedna, in which two therapists massage your body using heated herbal bags, turned me to putty. Seminars on vedanta, an Indian philosophy, prompted me to muse on the spiritual shortfalls of my everyday life.

By the end of the week, I had fewer worries and felt more spritely; my digestion was running like clockwork and, although my weight didn’t budge, I swear the yoga had made my legs leaner. I already knew I wouldn’t be able to whip up the recipes at home, nor munch on curry before work, but as an intensive blitz, this spa works.

Helen Brown

Highlight The authentic ayurvedic treatments.

Low point The stray dogs on the beach.

Did you achieve your goal? Yes. It was a real mind/body treat.

Is it worth the money? For a spa of this standard, a treatment package offers good value for money. Getting there Seven nights, B&B, in a Junior Suite Ocean View, including flights from London with British Airways and transfers, costs from £2,160pp (01244 202000, www.seasonsinstyle.com ).

WHERE ELSE TO GO The Ayurvedic Penthouse at the Oriental Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand (01244 897506, www.mandarinoriental.com ).

WINTER SUN

The Chedi Muscat, Oman

Among Condé Nast Traveller types, Oman is one of the hip destinations, and it’s easy to see why. With a population that is 70% native, 30% expat, it is not overrun by flash Wags and out-of-control tourists, but is a sedate and interesting principality in its own right. Geographically, the country is awesome, with the majesty of the desert mingling with the overlooking mountains. At the spa, you find yourself sandwiched between the two, with the coast keeping everything civilised.

The spa hotel is spread out lavishly along the beach, lending it a spiritual, relaxed air, with the minimalism of the desert reflected in its furnishings. Two pools (one adults only), a fitness centre and library, as well as several bars and restaurants, should keep you occupied when you’re not on your sunlounger. Otherwise, you can go diving, sailing, deep-sea fishing, whale- and dolphin-watching, take dune-buggy rides, or go on a trip into the desert and stay overnight with a Bedouin tribe.

The spa is staffed by Indonesian therapists, who are, for the most part, exemplary. It offers six types of massage (some of the best I have ever had), plus several body Elixir treatments, including facials, scrubs, baths (clay, floral, milk), wraps, toning and purfiying treatments alongside the usual mani-pedi fare. The food is also outrageously good. With Arabic buffets, poolside barbecues and a French patisserie, you can forget about losing any weight.

As for the clientele, it is a good mix, with families, gay couples, honeymooners, old, young, Euro, Middle Eastern and native all present. If your batteries are low, it’s winter and you fancy a bit of a luxe-out, it’s hard to see how this could be beaten.

Tiffanie Darke

Highlight The Balinese massage. Expertly administered.

Low point The sea could have been a bit cleaner (it is close to a port).

Did you achieve your goal? To treat myself? Absolutely.

Is it worth the money? Yes.

Getting there Seven nights, B&B, in a Chedi deluxe room, including British Airways flights from London and transfers, cost from £1,005pp with Seasons in Style (01244 202000, www.seasonsinstyle.com ).

WHERE ELSE TO GO FOR WINTER SUN The Kempinski Hotel Ishtar Dead Sea, Jordan (00 800 4263 1355, www.kempinski-deadsea.com ).

WEIGHT LOSS

The Viva Centre for Modern Mayr Medicine, Lake Worth, Austria

Supposedly, people head to the Viva Centre to clean out their digestive system, but the guests I met seemed to be united in a single aim: to lose weight, and fast. I knew people who, after their visit, had dropped several dress sizes and, while I didn’t have a huge amount of weight to lose, the prospect of being bikini-ready within a week was too tempting to turn down.

On arrival, you’re assigned to a doctor who creates your dietary and treatment programme for the week. After a cup of Epsom salts first thing to kick-start my “movements”, my day revolved around running to the loo and obsessing about meals – or lack of them. These consisted of sheep’s yoghurt and rock-hard spelt bread for breakfast, then spelt bread again for lunch. Other than that, there was just herbal tea and see-through broth.

My day was taken up with colonic irrigation, massages, body wraps and kneipping (bathing your feet and arms in warm and cold water). My energy levels were so low, I couldn’t use the gym or pool. I felt starving. When I wasn’t being manhandled, I retreated to my room, a small, austere space, where I was in bed by 9pm every night.

For the first part of the week, I was obsessed with food and felt faint. But as the days wore on, I began to feel better. Morning dips in the freshwater lake, 12 hours’ sleep a night and afternoons soaking up the sun on the lawn made me more relaxed than I had been in years. Best of all, it worked: I lost half a stone in six days.

Gemma Soames

Highlight Rapid weight loss.

Low point Feeling faint with hunger.

Did you achieve your goal? Yes.

Is it worth the money? Sort of, but they sting you for every single extra.

Getting there Ryanair flies from Stansted to Klagenfurt. Full board at the Viva Centre starts at £110 per night, including two fitness sessions a day (00 43 42 733 1117, www.viva-mayr.com ). Medi treatments from £40.

WHERE ELSE TO GO Espace Henri Chenot at the Palace Merano, Italy (0039 047327 1000, www.palace.it ).

ANTIAGEING

Regina Isabella, Lacco Ameno, Ischia, Italy

If you’re looking for a spa to help you fight the ravages of time, you want treatments that work, luxury accommodation and good food – and no energy-sapping, dehydrating, long-haul flight. At Regina Isabella, on Ischia, in the Bay of Naples, you get five-star beachfront luxury; gorgeous rooms, some with their own outdoor thermal spa baths; outstanding food; excellent spa treatments; a crystal-clear Med to swim in and a friendly village – the perfect Med holiday then. And all within a two-hour flight from the UK and a 45-minute ferry ride from Naples.

Treatments here are built around thermal mud prepared for the spa with water from its own mineral-rich springs. The antiageing progamme, however, goes one step up with “plastic dermatology”. After a basic medical check-up – blood pressure, heart rate, flexibility and so on – one of the spa’s four medical practitioners analysed the hydration, elasticity, sebum and pH of my skin. I was then set a programme of thermal mud treatment for my back and knees, followed by a massage. The next day, I had a top-to-toe Tui-Na massage, based on Chinese techniques, then a mud face mask, which was removed with a blast of high-pressure water. Thus prepared, it was back to the doctor on day three for a session of picotage, micro-injections of hyaluronic acid to improve moisturisation of the skin. (No, it didn’t hurt.) On day four, it was time for biolifting, shallow injections of phospholipids to stimulate skin regeneration. Did it work? Yes, although the best results, they say, are achieved by a course of treatments.

Denise Boutall

Highlight My private outdoor spa bath with views over the Med.

Low point: Some might be put off by the ferry journey from Naples.

Did you achieve your goal? Yes. My ever-sceptical husband was very impressed and the effects have been long-lasting.

Is it worth the money? Yes. Getting there EasyJet flies from Stansted to Naples. Double rooms with garden view cost £178 per night (00 39 081 994322, www.reginaisabella.it ).

WHERE ELSE TO GO Purescapes retreat, the Algarve, Portugal (020 3239 9670, www.purescapes.com ).

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