The Rise of Sanctuary Travel

I’ve just come home from our retreat in the Lake District, and all week I found myself thinking about why more and more women are choosing to spend their precious time away on a retreat rather than a packed holiday. The travel world has started calling it sanctuary travel, and it’s especially popular with women over 50: slow, restorative travel built around rest, space and nature, where the aim is to come home feeling better than when you left.



We’ve been doing this at Zest Life for over a decade and have always simply called it retreating, but I like the idea of sanctuary travel. A sanctuary is somewhere you feel safe, looked after and able to put everything down for a while, and that’s exactly what we try to create.

Many of the women who come to us are 55 and over, and I’ve noticed something. The older we get, the more life seems to hand us. Maybe you’ve realised you’ve spent too many years in a relationship that stopped making you happy. Maybe a job slowly wore you down until you had to step away for a while. Maybe you’re caring for ageing parents while your own children still need you, or they’ve flown the nest and the house feels very different. None of this arrives neatly or one thing at a time.

Restorative travel and the seven types of rest

So many of us are natural nurturers. We can’t seem to help it, and sometimes it’s to our own detriment. By midlife, many of us have burnt out a little and need that pause.

Travel for burnout recovery looks very different from a sightseeing holiday. That’s why women are choosing slow travel and small retreats where they can find deep rest. And when I talk about rest, I mean far more than sleep. Physician Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith describes seven types of rest, and the beauty of a retreat is that you get all seven. Here’s how they showed up for us in the Lakes this week.

Physical rest. Afternoon naps, massages, slow evening yoga and proper nights of sleep in a quiet house.

Mental rest. Nobody had to plan a meal, check a timetable or remember what came next. We think of everything so you don’t have to, and that frees up an enormous amount of headspace.

Emotional rest. Time in a place where you don’t have to hold it together for anyone else, and can simply say how you feel.

Social rest. A small group of women whose company fills you up, long conversations over dinner, and the freedom to slip away and be on your own whenever you want.

Sensory rest. We turned off our phones for a proper digital rest. No notifications, no screens, just the sound of the lake and the birds.

Creative rest. We listened to beautiful music and let the landscape do the work. Being surrounded by that much beauty refills something that everyday life slowly drains.

Spiritual rest. This one found us by the water, in the sheer beauty of being in a part of the world so unspoilt that its beauty beats in your heart.

And through all of it, there was water. We swam every day, sometimes three times a day. We bathed in nature, sat in the sauna and dipped in the lake, and felt that clear, bright calm that only cold water seems to bring.

At home, most of us are lucky to manage one or two of these kinds of rest in a good week. On retreat, they happen together, quietly, without you having to organise any of it.

What I see on retreat

Rest is only part of the story, though. What I see on retreat, with my own eyes, is women in need of connection.

You may have come across the idea of the six human needs, popularised by Tony Robbins. We all need certainty, the feeling of being safe and knowing what’s coming. We need uncertainty too, in the form of variety, newness and a little adventure. We need significance, to feel that we matter. We need love and connection. We need growth. And we need contribution, the sense that we’re giving something beyond ourselves.

Every one of these matters, but as we get older I think we realise that growth and connection are a massive part of what makes life tick. The connection built on retreat is so strong. We have one group of guests returning to the Lake District year on year; the same group, the same week, drawn together to have a few days of freedom where the only decision to be made is to nap or swim!

Of course there’s a shift with each age and season of life. As you move into the autumn of your forties and fifties, and the winter of sixty and beyond, there can be a feeling of this is it. You start to question what’s really important. Is it the job that takes me away from my family? Or is it time with family and old friends, and the chance to make new ones?

I see women who know they need something a little different. It might be a big shift or just a small nudge. Often they’re not quite sure what it is they need, or how to get there. What they do know is that by coming away, and stepping out of their everyday responsibilities, they get time to reflect. They get to focus on themselves, for once.

That, I think, is why sanctuary travel for women over 50 is growing. Women aren’t looking to fill their time away. They’re looking to be restored by it, and to come home a little more connected to the people they love and to themselves.

If you recognise yourself in any of this, our winter retreats in the Lake District and North Wales are built around exactly this kind of deep, restorative rest, with cold water, walking, yoga, good food and a small group to share it with.

→ Explore the Lake District winter retreat January 2027
→ Explore the North Wales walking retreat November 2026
→ Explore the North Wales cold water and breath retreat November 2026

Laura Bell is the founder of Zest Life and has been leading yoga and wellness retreats in the UK and abroad for over a decade. A qualified yoga teacher and experienced retreat leader, she designs and hosts small group retreats rooted in nature, movement and genuine care. Laura also works with organisations to design and deliver bespoke corporate wellness programmes and retreats — bringing the same standards of quality and thoughtful facilitation to workplace wellbeing.