January 2026
The Wellness Traveller, a leading online resource for wellness travel insights, has published an in-depth guide to The Great Spa Towns of Europe, offering travellers and spa enthusiasts a rich exploration of Europe’s historic and culturally significant thermal destinations. The guide is now live on the The Wellness Traveller website and is designed to inspire journeys rooted in wellness, heritage and slow travel.
“Today, spa towns are attracting a new generation of wellness travellers. Burnout, overstimulation, and digital fatigue have created a longing for places that do not demand constant engagement.”
Read the full guide — https://www.thewellnesstraveller.co.uk/place/the-great-spa-towns-of-europe/
Why This Guide Matters for Modern Wellness Travellers
In today’s health-aware travel landscape, visitors seek more than luxury facilities; they crave authentic, culturally rich wellbeing experiences. The new 2026 travel trend predictions, recently published in Conde Nast Traveller, highlight how wellness travel has continued to be a top priority for travellers all over the world.
The Wellness Traveller’s guide responds to this by contextualising each destination within its historic and social framework, demonstrating how wellness has long been integrated into European life. The author illustrates what daily life is like in The Great Spa Towns of Europe, and paints an accurate picture of the spa towns today as well as in the past.
From thermal bathing and mineral water drinking to restorative walking promenades and heritage spa buildings, the guide offers practical insights and inspiration for travellers planning wellness-centred journeys across the continent.
“Perhaps this is why spa towns feel like Europe’s most understated luxury… The water does its work quietly, just as it has for centuries.”
A woman receives a massage as a spa treatment in the German spa town Bad Kissingen. (c) Bayer. Staatsbad Bad Kissingen GmbH_Foto Heji Shin
A Resource for Inspired Travel
Available now on The Wellness Traveller website, the guide to The Great Spa Towns of Europe is positioned as both a planning tool for wellness journeys and a cultural exploration of how historic spa towns continue to influence wellbeing tourism today!
The Great Spa Towns of Europe
The Great Spa Towns of Europe is a serial, transnational UNESCO World Heritage Site comprised of eleven spa towns across seven European countries. Together, these towns comprise one ‘property’ .
From the hundreds of spa towns across Europe, these eleven are the most authentic examples of the European spa phenomenon. As epicentres for social, cultural and political innovations, these spa towns shaped architecture, urban design, medicine, health and wellness tourism and modern European identity.
The site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 24th July 2021; the highest international recognition for global cultural and natural heritage sites. The Site is managed by The Great Spa Towns of Europe Association, formally registered in August 2022 in Baden bei Wien, Austria.