Inside The New Koh Samui Retreat Pairing Reformer Pilates With Private Snorkelling Trips

Out with the beer buckets, in with the Yin yoga. Wellness tourism is taking off. Travellers are turning away from sticky clubs and poolside hangovers and embracing health and healing. Whether it’s yoga retreats, meditation camps or treatment spas, people want to feel genuinely better when they get back from getaways. They want to connect with themselves and others and explore nature more deeply. 

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What’s Unique About Upstate Travel Retreats?

Upstate has been taking curious travellers on retreats since 2018. These experiences offer more than copious cocktails and catching sunburn on the pool lounge (although a swim is absolutely still on the cards for your R&R). It’s all about energy, invigorating workouts and movement that makes you feel alive, with daytrips taking in natural wonders and local flavour. Welcome to wellness with a spark of adventure.

Discover Thailand (And Yourself) At Absolute Sanctuary In Koh Samui

If you feel drawn in by the White Lotus fantasy, you’re not alone. Koh Samui offers that dizzying escape from reality into an almost dreamlike tropical beauty. While hordes of tourists have flocked to the glamorous filming locations, Upstate Travel Retreats attracts people seeking more meaningful encounters than the excess and intrigue of TV drama. 

Koh Samui is known as the island of healing for a reason. Upstate’s seven-day Thailand immersions pull you from dreary June winter into pure tropical joy. Your home for the week is Absolute Sanctuary, a wellness resort that lives up to the name. This powder-pink palace of peace is your secluded hideaway, your own space of understated luxury set in the vibrant green of wide lawns and leafy trees. Here in the tranquillity of the island’s northeast corner, you’ll unplug, rejuvenate and connect with like-minded wellness-lovers. 

Invigorate, Replenish, Repeat

The workouts are key to the enjoyment, and you can tailor your Koh Samui wellness adventure around the three daily classes: a morning reformer, an evening Yin, and Power Flow or Mat in between. Lock in for all three, or just a couple. After all, it’s your retreat. But once you’ve done yoga in an open-air shala with ocean views, it’ll be hard to miss out. Your inclusive meals in the breezy Love Kitchen are composed around fresh, delicious nourishment rather than screw-it-I’m-on-holiday decadence. No booze or smoking either: everything is made for you to feel your absolute best (but you can head offsite for a Margarita at one of the nearby bars, if desired).

Dive Into The Real Natural Wonder Of Thailand

Take a speedboat snorkel day trip to Mu Ko Ang Thong National Marine Park, with secret pockets of tropical paradise to explore by kayak and hike. Sink into nature with snow-white sands and clear waters, lush greenery and waterfalls. Enjoy a sunset seaside celebration dinner back at the resort, and maybe even book an on-site spa treatment (Upstate guests get a nifty little discount).

Travel Further: Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Greece And Bali

Thailand isn’t Upstate’s only destination for 2026, but what each of these global retreats shares is the spirit of movement and rejuvenation, and an immersion in the local environment. While Upstate’s Sri Lankan beachside jungle retreat is already booked out for May, spots for Vietnam are wide open in July (that is, if daily massages, onsen bathing and farm-to-table dining are your jam). Then in August, they hit the sunny shores of Greece and the island of Amorgos, a white-walled dream in the Mediterranean sun. Bali is the final trip for the year, with October retreats in Keramas near Ubud, surrounded by verdant trees and surf beaches with on-site spa treatments mixing Balinese tradition with modern practice.

If you’ve been keeping an eye on tourism trends, you’ll already know that these holiday spots have seen a huge boom in 2025. In part, it’s due to easier flight connectivity, but also the opportunity to chase the endless summer in idyllic, unique locales around the world via these new experiences. As they shift from being “party” destinations to hubs of wellness and considered, environmentally aware travel, we’re predicting a 2026 with fewer raging all-nighters and more sunrise Pilates.

The future of travel is feeling good.

Book your experience via the Upstate website here.

Want to get ahead of the biggest travel trends for 2026? Look no further.