The Luxury Of Feeling Well: Heidi Grimwood On Wellness Beyond The Spa

An unhurried morning. The freedom to switch off. A sense of being cared for without having to ask. In wellness travel, luxury often reveals itself in the smallest details and in the space they create to feel more like themselves.

For Heidi Grimwood, Senior Vice President of Atmosphere Wellness (ELE|NA), the most compelling experiences reach beyond the treatment room. Drawing on more than 25 years in spa and wellness, she considers what makes a journey genuinely personal, why a destination should shape the experience, and how India’s living wellness traditions can inform a more thoughtful way to travel.

Q. Wellness travel is moving beyond the traditional spa experience. What does this tell us about how we want to live, and what we now consider a luxury?

I think it tells us that people want more from their time away than a beautifully delivered treatment. They want the freedom to step out of their routines, to rest without an agenda and to pay attention to themselves again.

We have become very good at managing full lives but less practised at recognising when we need to pause. A wellness journey offers that breathing space. The treatment remains important, of course, but so does everything around it: the pace of the day, the setting and the feeling that the experience has been considered around you.

For me, luxury lies in that quality of attention. The ambition is not simply for a guest to leave relaxed but to return home with a clearer understanding of what helps them feel well.

Q. India has an extraordinary wellness heritage. What will distinguish its place in the next chapter of global wellness travel?

India’s strength is that wellness belongs to a living tradition, rather than being an idea introduced for the traveller. Ayurveda, for example, offers a way of understanding the relationship between the individual, daily habits and the natural world.

The opportunity is to make that heritage accessible to contemporary guests without simplifying it into a spa ritual or borrowing it merely for atmosphere. That calls for respect, knowledge and care in how traditions are interpreted.

I believe India’s distinction will come from preserving that depth while delivering the consistency and thoughtful service expected of a luxury experience. It has the opportunity to offer more than an exceptional retreat: a perspective on living well that guests can continue to reflect on after their stay.

Q. From Minerals by ELE|NA at Vantara Niwas to ELE|NA Ayur at Ananta Spa & Resort, Ajabgarh, what connects your approach to these different destinations?

We begin with the place, rather than with a concept we want to repeat. Its landscape, cultural traditions and natural pace should all have a bearing on the experience.

That principle connects our work at Vantara Niwas and Ajabgarh, even though each setting calls for its own expression. At Ajabgarh, the Aravalli foothills offer a particularly evocative context: woodland, open horizons and the night sky invite experiences that extend beyond the spa itself.

Our role is to bring those qualities into the guest’s journey with sensitivity. The standards of care should remain consistent; the experience should feel unmistakably of its destination. Our Pillars of Vitality give that consistency its shape, bringing touch, movement, rest and nourishment together as one considered journey, wherever we work. Expansion matters to us when it creates something that belongs, rather than another version of somewhere else.

Q. How do nature and local culture turn a beautiful setting into a meaningful wellness experience?

A beautiful view may draw someone to a destination, but a connection with that place gives the stay its depth. It might begin with an unhurried walk, time spent outdoors or an introduction to a local tradition that offers a different perspective on wellbeing.

The important thing is not to overprogramme those moments. Nature should not become another appointment, and culture should not be reduced to decoration. There needs to be room for curiosity, quiet and personal discovery.

When we approach a destination in that spirit, the surroundings become part of the experience rather than simply its backdrop. The guest leaves not only having stayed somewhere beautiful but also having engaged with what makes it distinctive.

Q. “Transformation” is a much-used word in wellness. What does it mean to you in practice?

I am interested in the quieter changes. A guest may notice that they feel more present, that they have enjoyed doing less, or that they have finally given themselves permission to rest. Those realisations do not need to be dramatic to matter.

A meaningful wellness journey creates the conditions for that awareness; it does not prescribe what someone should feel or who they should become. Each person arrives with a different life, different expectations and a different idea of what they need. That is the thinking behind Wellness Your Way™: the experience adapts to the guest, rather than asking the guest to adapt to a programme.

For me, the truest measure is what they choose to carry home. If the experience helps someone make more room for their own wellbeing in everyday life, its value extends well beyond the stay. That is a far more enduring expression of luxury.