Now you can expand your world with travel - AND expand your mind.
Bloomberg's reporting “a new breed of retreat” that adds “the spiritual healing and metaphysical self-discovery of guided, plant-based psychedelic experiences” to the lush surroundings and upscale amenities of a luxury vacation.
You might call it a ‘trip.’
Some are even calling psychedelic sojourns a new niche in the wellness travel category. And linking it to a post-COVID craving for people to ‘break free’ of pandemic restrictions - and apparently, the limitations of the conscious mind.
“The wellness industry continues to grow in size and importance in consumers’ lives post-pandemic,” says Joe McDonnell, head of insights at the trend forecasting company WGSN.
“Experiences that adopt holistic approaches to healing—balancing psychedelic experiences with more traditional wellness experiences, like yoga therapy—are gaining popularity as people seek to rebalance after the stresses of two years of lockdown.”
Lots of Shrooms at the Inn
Of course, ‘plant-based psychedelics’ are illegal almost everywhere, so it’s hard to market or even measure this specific travel niche.
The article says that the Netherlands, “where the British Psychedelic Society has been offering psilocybin-assisted retreats since 2016,” and Jamaica are the two top destinations due to their liberal laws.
At Jamaica’s Silo Wellness in Montego Bay, for example, nightly ceremonies led by Rastafarians include psilocybin mushrooms that take participants on “a series of transcendental journeys that might include visions and an altered emotional state.”
While right down the road in the resort community, other travellers are drinking mudslides and eating mushrooms in their all-inclusive’s teppanyaki restaurant. Making jokes about being a ‘fun guy.’ (Get it? Funghi. It’s funnier when you explain it.)
CEO of Silo Wellness, Douglas Gordon, says his retreat reflects changing definitions of ‘luxury.’
“Real luxury is being able to wear flip-flops to dinner,” he says. “It’s not necessarily black tie, you know? It’s about an authentic experience.”
But travellers of the experimental kind can also channel their psychedelic inner child in places that include Mexico, the U.S. and even Canada.
In Vancouver, the founder of the Journeymen Collective says his shroom experience for business leaders and executive teams to help them “align their companies with a greater purpose” is both an easily accessible ‘trip’ - and a more urban luxury experience.
“We want to cradle you, nurture you, and guide you through this process,” he says. “We want people to relax and rest into the medicine, not worry if there’s a tarantula on their face.”
It's not always magic mushrooms, either. Costa Rica’s all-inclusive Soltara Healing Center features a ceremony led by native Shipibo healers and ayahuasca, an hallucinogenic drink made from a local vine. Bottoms up!
No matter how travellers participating in the luxury psychadelic retreat trend experience their 'trip', it’s safe to say they're redefining ‘transformational’ travel.
