I had met the couple two days prior at The Retreat’s daily restorative yoga class and found myself reconnecting with them, and other guests, over mocktails and during hikes throughout my four-day stay. It was a delightful departure from my recent experiences at destination spas where the majority of my interactions were with clinicians and therapists behind closed doors.
After COVID, Diana Stobo, who opened The Retreat in 2016, noticed a lot of pent-up desire for social interaction. Guests would gather to chat on the meditation deck and staff would have to shush them so as to not interrupt spa-goers. “No one hangs out anymore,” Stobo observed. “Everyone is on social media or working alone in a cubicle or at home.” But as she gleaned, guests were craving contact and connection.
So last June she opened Santosha Wellness Club, a $4 million expansion intended to create a sense of community. Set below the main hotel, the new open-air clubhouse includes 10 guest lofts, a gym and yoga studio, an infinity pool, and two restaurants led by acclaimed Costa Rican chef Pablo Bonilla. While the resort’s original spa and restaurant areas were intended for quieter, more introspective moments, here guests can mingle over cocktails and live music.
When longevity entered the zeitgeist a few years ago, it sparked an obsession with life-extending hacks like intermittent fasting and sessions in hyperbaric oxygen chambers. A new wave of high-tech diagnostic-driven spas followed. In 2023, the World Health Organization declared loneliness a global health concern. “People forget that longevity isn’t all about what you eat or do but also who you surround yourself with,” Stobo told me. “What’s the point of living to 102 if you’re lonely?”
