Destination Deluxe Awards 2026: The World's Best in Wellness Travel, Ranked

The wellness world’s most serious honors night just wrapped. The Destination Deluxe Awards & Wellness Summit 2026 concluded on the evening of September 23 at the Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok on the Chao Phraya River — its eighth year, more than 200 attendees, and 25 categories spanning wellness, luxury travel, spa, beauty, longevity, and regenerative tourism.

Here’s how the hardware shook out.

The headline winners

Wellness Retreat of the Year — Aro Ha Wellness Retreat, Glenorchy, New Zealand. The evening’s most coveted distinction went to the Southern Alps retreat, beating Ananda in the Himalayas (2nd) and Zulal Wellness Resort by Chiva-Som in Qatar (3rd).

Hotel of the Year — The Datai Langkawi, Malaysia. The rainforest icon in Langkawi took the top hotel honor over Lefay Resort & SPA Lago di Garda in Italy and Miraval The Red Sea in Saudi Arabia.

Longevity & Biohacking Facility of the Year — SHA Mexico, Costa Mujeres. The newcomer on Mexico’s Caribbean coast took the category ahead of Chenot Palace Weggis in Switzerland and Layan Life by Anantara in Phuket — a signal of how fast longevity programming is traveling beyond Europe.

Spa of the Year — ESPA at Pical, Pical Resort 5, Valamar Collection, Poreč, Croatia.* Croatia’s Adriatic spa beat Nao Longevity Hub at Minos Palace in Crete and The Sukhothai Spa in Bangkok.

The summit behind the ceremony

The awards were the capstone of a two-day gathering, and the program reads like a briefing on where the industry thinks it’s headed. Three principal panels — “Beyond Longevity: The New Human Performance Era,” “The Rise of Purpose-Led Travel Experiences,” and “Designing for Transformation: The Next Era of Wellness Hospitality” — drew voices from GOCO Hospitality, the Global Wellness Institute, Mandarin Oriental, and Four Seasons, among others. Experiential programming ran from morning yoga to a floating sound bath, plus an experiential workshop led by Aro Ha’s co-founder — a fitting victory lap for the evening’s top winner.

Destination Deluxe’s founder framed the awards as recognizing “the people with the courage and imagination to move our industry forward,” and the winners list backs the rhetoric: a more purposeful, human vision of wellbeing, with the hardware spread across five continents.

The rest of the top shelf

• Longevity Brand of the Year — Clinique La Prairie, retaining its grip on the sector, over Fountain Life and Metawell by Gharieni.
• Wellness Brand of the Year — ELE|NA, ahead of Manduka and Dagsmejan.
• Spa Skincare Brand of the Year — VOYA; Clean Skincare Brand of the Year — Subtle Energies; Performance-Driven Skincare Brand — 111SKIN.
• Urban Wellness Retreat of the Year — RAKxa Integrative Wellness, Bangkok.
• Wellness Architecture of the Year — tulah Clinical Wellness, Kerala, India.
• Regenerative Wellness Travel Destination of the Year — Song Saa Private Island, Cambodia.
• Wellness Cuisine of the Year — Kamalaya Koh Samui, Thailand.
• Wellness Program of the Year — Integrated Wellness – The Longevity Retreat, Preidlhof, Italy.
• Eco-Spa of the Year — Spa L’Occitane en Provence, Le Couvent des Minimes, France.
• Group Retreat of the Year — Golden Year Program, Absolute Sanctuary, Koh Samui, Thailand.

The people’s picks

Twenty-two of the 25 categories were decided by a panel of 21 industry judges; three went to public vote. The People’s Choice awards landed on Aman Nai Lert Bangkok (Travel, Hotels & Retreats), BDMS Wellness Clinic (Spas, Clinics, Programs & Treatments), and Biologique Recherche (Wellness Brands & Skincare).

Why it matters

The awards are a map of where wellness travel’s money is moving: longevity programming going mainstream in Mexico, regenerative travel centered in Southeast Asia, and a clear Asia-Pacific tilt across the judging. The Destination Deluxe Summit panels — “Beyond Longevity: The New Human Performance Era,” purpose-led travel, and designing for transformation — read like the industry’s next three years of homework.

What did we get wrong?

Did the judges get the top four right — or did Lefay, Ananda, Chenot, or someone else deserve the hardware? Tell us in the comments on Instagram, and follow @thepassnews for the openings, rankings, and debates shaping where you eat and stay.