8 incredible spas for a total body reboot

Tucked away high in the Santa Monica mountains, The Ranch Malibu is purposefully off-grid and sequestered from all earthly temptations. On arrival, you are weighed and measured and encouraged to do an endurance test that calculates your use of oxygen. After a wake-up call at 5:30 am (any later in the day is too hot to hike), you’ll be served a delicious vegan breakfast before driving to the mountains for a four-hour hike. Afternoons consists of three back-to-back, 45-minute classes in circuit training, core strengthening and yoga, before dinner at 7pm and then (in most cases) collapsing into bed. The 1,400 calories-worth of nutritionally dense food is just enough to keep you going and losing a few pounds during the week is normal. You’ll bond with fellow ranchers and, over the course of some 60 miles, reconnected with Mother Earth and the elemental pleasure of heel-toe, heel-toe, with nothing to worry about but scratching brambles and the occasional rattlesnake. The Ranch’s intake includes many return clients, which speaks volumes about the success and pleasure of the program as a useful mind, body and soul reset.

La Reserve’s three- or six-day Nescens Bootcamp begins with a consultation, weigh-in and medical check-up, covering everything from eating habits to joint health. Mornings are spent ‘awakening muscles’ with Pilates-style stretch sessions, but the daily hikes along the picture-perfect coastline, cliffs and rugged rocks are the real challenge to your fitness levels. Each hike varies from two to three hours using Nordic poles to help condition the entire body; expect to walk roughly 10km and burn from 700 to 1,000 calories each time. After a strenuous day, wind down in the sublime La Réserve Spa – up to four treatments a day are included in your program. Open from April to October; program dates on request

This modest residence of 30 rooms has a heavyweight celebrity presence (Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell are among its loyal visitors) who come for the results-driven fasts that aim to help you lose up to 5kg in a week. LifeCo offers the same medical backup as a traditional European medispa, with diagnostics, nutritionists, specialists and targeted treatments, but in a more relaxed environment. The fasts range from gentle (delicious raw vegan meals) to brutal (alkaline water only) , but most people choose the Master Detox Program, which consists of four shakes and two wheatgrass juices a day. There is a menu of activities to help fill your time, from yoga and Zumba to nutrition lectures and film screenings, and staff are on hand to see you through the worst stages of cold turkey. Programs available all year

This year, the famous Vivamayr route to healing and health (involving semi-fasting to rest the digestion, retraining of harmful eating habits, therapeutic medical massages and system-cleansing with Epsom salts) celebrates its 15th anniversary on the shores of Lake Wörthersee. Inside the modern mansion retreat you’ll find sunlit balconied suites, an indoor pool, a garden sauna and an array of wet rooms to induce a heathy sweat, after which you can plunge into the freshwater lake to lower your body temperature. The most recent addition to the treatment menu is Emotional Detoxification with Claudia Kohla – mental health being a key component in the holistic approach to shedding stress. But even a walk through the surrounding woodland, early morning yoga on the pontoon or a cycle around the waterfront will help shift years of accumulated tension in body and mind. Reopens from Jan 6; program dates on request

At Buchinger Wilhelmi, intermittent fasting is the mainstay. Leaving aside the clinic’s cutting-edge diagnostics and its vast repertoire of holistic therapies, resisting food in a controlled environment creates a chain reaction of chemical and psychological effects on the body, which makes expert supervision essential. The support network of medical staff versed in the practice of fasting remains the foundation upon which Buchinger, on the picturesque shores of Lake Constance, has built its reputation over the 50 years since Dr Otto Buchinger developed the cure to fight his own battle with rheumatoid arthritis. Programs available all year