Unwind at Nizuc Resort and Spa, where a new suite of wellness services will be introduced later this year, complementing skincare-brand ESPA’s extensive treatment menu.
One of the treatment rooms at Nizuc Spa by ESPA.
It was a simple operation on his thumb that changed the course of Antonio Cosío Pando’s business. The CEO of Mexico City–based hospitality chain Grupo Brisas was convalescing when his wife suggested an unusual twist in his recuperation. She’d encountered it via the clinics run by startup Neorgana. “We gave him exosomes,” says Neorgana founder and CEO Omar Novelo. “And when he went to his doctor, he asked, ‘What did you do? You’ve recovered 50 percent faster than you should have.’” That highly personal proof of concept was the foundation of a new partnership between Novelo’s firm and the flagship property of Grupo Brisas, Nizuc Resort and Spa, on the Riviera Maya. It will launch a suite of wellness services by year’s end with a brand-new de facto longevity clinic powered by the transformative potential of treatments Cosío Pando knows firsthand.
It’s a timely move. The Global Wellness Institute declared the market it covers exceeded $6.8 trillion last year, and projects it will reach nearly $9 trillion by 2028; within that sector, there’s an emerging niche that emphasizes medicine over massages. The longevity-focused vertical is seeing a notable boom, on track to more than triple in size to $63 billion by 2035. It’s driven by rising consumer curiosity: A recent Booking.com survey showed 52 percent of Americans are willing to pay for vacations “solely to expand their lifespan”—a trend it has since dubbed “The passport to longevity,” though you could also call it the “healthspan holiday.”
One of the latest spots to draw travelers’ attention (and dollars) will be that new spa at Nizuc. Neorgana’s Novelo proudly touts its suite of services, which will be anchored with the use of cells known as Muse (that’s multilineage-differentiating stress-enduring). These were discovered by Japanese scientist Mari Dezawa in 2007; her work has formed the basis of some of the most cutting-edge longevity treatments. Stem cells, of course, are viewed as miraculous for their ability to rejuvenate from the inside out; this particular form of them, Muse, removes one of the small risks from the treatment, claims Novelo. “They don’t express oncogenesis,” he says, “So they cannot become cancer cells.” In addition, Novelo says, the body’s immune response is less likely to be triggered by the appearance of the Muse stem cells, which can often be an unwelcome side effect of many alternative injections. “Ninety-nine percent of patients do not have that immune response, so they feel pretty amazing after therapy,” he raves.
The hydrotherapy circuit at SHA.
Huguett Garcia, Nizuc’s spa director, is just as enthusiastic about the expansion because of the way these treatments work: They focus on more than the surface, in terms of both mindset and metabolism. “You can apply lotions, products, and new devices on your skin, but if you don’t change your mind to be good from the inside, nothing is going to change,” she says. “We’re trying to combine this new opportunity for longevity but not lose the line that we are a resort for vacation and relaxation.”
Evidence of that equal emphasis on indulgence: Following this year’s wellness clinic debut, there will be a new, 9,000-square-foot Presidential Villa (inclusive of sundeck, patio, and outdoor entertaining areas) added to the resort’s inventory in 2026. It’s a smart move, says Kristiana Capati Choquet, a travel advisor with luxury agency Embark Beyond who has carved out a specialty in longevity-focused trips. She reports that these stem cell injections are a major driver for her clients’ travel decisions. Little wonder, given that they’re nicknamed “a facelift without the knife.” “Usually, they’re done in a hospital setting, but my clients want a luxurious experience,” she says, “so they’re always on the lookout for that.”
SHA’s fitness training infinity pool.
Mexico is a particular hotspot for cutting-edge longevity–meets-wellness for simple reasons: The Mexican health authority is nimble and flexible, allowing clinics to offer high-dose, lab-cultured stem cell and exosome treatments, legally, and at dosages far higher than might even be offered in a clinical trial stateside. No wonder that a short drive up the coast from Nizuc, on Playa Azul, you’ll find another high-end entrant in the same sector: SHA. Its offering isn’t centered solely on rejuvenating jabs, but rather on an integrated medical program where stem cells and the like are an optional, but often popular, component.
Spend eight days at SHA and expect a dizzying blizzard of a treatment schedule, in between bouts of sunbathing by the pool or walking on the beach. The day might start, as mine did, with 45 minutes on a bed of cold atmospheric plasma, tingling slightly, as the so-called Human Regenerator silently reorders the electromagnetic impulses in my cells. “It’s good electromagnetic energy, like nature,” explains one of the medical specialists, who says this type of session will have the same mental and physical benefits as “walking on grass for six hours.” Then again, it could be a session in the gym with a physical therapist. “You have good form,” my physical therapist tells me, before warning, “But your hip and ankle mobility need work.” Or the day could begin with a quick trip to an onsite clinic for a saline IV, infused with ozone. “It will clean the bacteria and fungi from your body and rejuvenate your cells, so you can recover faster after exercise,” explains the nurse. “You’ll feel tired today, but energized tomorrow.” This comprehensive program isn’t simply a spa break, though: SHA claims that those signing up for its Advanced Longevity program will slow down their cellular aging. Put another way: Those sessions will bolster their chances of living both longer and better.
Euphoria Retreat in the Peloponnese offers holistic healing residencies of up to 21 days.
SHA’s story mirrors that of Nizuc’s new wellness operation. It was founded on Spain’s Costa Blanca just outside Benidorm in 2008 by real estate developer Alfredo Bataller Parietti after his own successful fight against cancer; a second property on the Riviera Maya opened last year, and there will soon be a third site: a standalone private island in the UAE. Others see the potential in optimizing your potential, too: take the 95-room ZEM Wellness Clinic Altea, which recently opened in Alicante, Spain, and offers seven different regimens, including Immune Revitalization; Buff Medical Resort on the shores of Germany’s Lake Constance is another newcomer, with rooms pressurized to simulate the thinner air of higher altitudes, believed to improve longevity. Self-help guru Tony Robbins has partnered with SBE founder Sam Nazarian on The Estate, a series of resorts and longevity centers; the first of them, an urban hub at Century City in Los Angeles where annual membership fees will be $35,000, is slated to open by the end of this year. City center hotel Portrait Milano even turned over its spa operations to biohacking specialist The Longevity Suite, combining conventional offerings like a swimming pool and sauna with detox protocols and cryotherapy.
Wade into the Euphoria spa’s Sphere pool to experience an enveloping, womblike sensation.
Euphoria Retreat in Greece is another entrant. It was her own battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at just 29 that set Marina Efraimoglou on a new path away from her corporate career. “I knew that banking was not my purpose in life, so I decided what I really wanted to create was a healing place to share what I’ve learned for myself and for others,” she says. The result is her property in the Peloponnese peninsula, where she now offers holistic residencies of up to 21 days, and where treatments are devised on the basis of a set of pre-visit biomarker tests, including saliva and urine. “We have a super-personalized program, which includes exercise, biohacking, red light, and cryotherapy,” she says. “We go down to the cellular level to understand why a person isn’t feeling well, without really knowing what was wrong.” This summer, she held the first of a planned series of wellbeing festivals, “Macrozoe, The Greek Path to Longevity,” with guest experts, who included yoga teacher Janet Stone and Oligoscan Creative Director Jeff Lioon.
Yet longevity doctors caution that these healthspan-bolstering jaunts can’t be effective in isolation. Dr. Sabine Donnai runs Viavi in London, one of the world’s top specialist clinics, where annual membership costs up to $69,000. “There’s nothing you can achieve in a week or two weeks, from a health point of view—it’s way too short to reset your physiology,” she notes, though she adds that a detox-focused getaway can be a welcome break from daily stresses and diets. “The vast majority of our clients go once a year to what we call a medi-spa,” she continues. “You could walk away knowing where your weaknesses are and what to do about them,” she says, “but I think where they’re missing is that there’s no follow-up.” One exception that intrigues Dr. Donnai: the recently opened Tulåh Clinical Wellness, an ayurvedic-anchored longevity center in Kerala, India, which will be supported by a series of satellite clinics in major cities worldwide, like Dubai and London. At these satellite locations, clients will continue the treatments they began at Tulåh and have their biomarkers regularly checked. That’s one very welcome way to bring your vacation, quite literally, home with you.
Then again, you could simply look to such treatments to help you feel better while you’re on vacation, per Neorgana’s Omar Novelo. That same treatment he gave to Nizuc’s Pando can work wonders when you land after a long flight, he promises. “If you want to get rid of jet lag, just have some exosomes.” And, perhaps, a really stiff margarita.
