What was once the stuff of Silicon Valley ambition is now becoming a travel trend: elite longevity clinics blending science, luxury and lifestyle in Alpine resorts, beachfront hideaways and private medical retreats.
Welcome to the next chapter of wellness, where bespoke treatments, wearable tech and cellular rejuvenation meet spa robes and Michelin-star dining.
Leading the way is Buff Medical Resort: a glamorous new clinic on the banks of Lake Konstanz, where sci-fi tech meets scenic luxury.
Launched in March 2025 and located in Germany on the Swiss border, Buff is the latest addition to the area’s budding wellness clinic scene, alongside the Swiss Center for Health and Longevity and Lanserhof Lans.
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“Buff is one of the largest wooden structures in the whole of Germany, if not the world,” says Jean Jacques Buff Medical Resort, deputy CEO and son of the eponymous founder Michael Buff. “Yet, encased in this entirely organic wooden shell, are some of the best health technology facilities you can find.”
The contrast and harmony between old and new epitomises what Buff is all about: guided by the fundamental principles of FX Mayr—an Austrian physiologist who over 100 years ago preached the importance of diet, fasting, and gut health for longer life—yet utilising forward thinking, futuristic facilities.
“One of the technologies used at Buff, which is entirely unique to our resort, are the high altitude simulators,” says Dr. Sepp Fegerl. “Rooms are effectively a sealed chamber—though we don’t like to use that word because it sounds claustrophobic—so we can control the pressure depending on how high the guests want to simulate, this can be up to 5,000 metres, which is roughly the same height as Mont Blanc.”
By pressurising their rooms, the air thins, pushing guests’ bodies to burn more calories and respire more efficiently. A 2023 study linked it to longevity, showing high altitude triggers Hypoxia-Inducible Factor (HIF)— a process that boosts cell repair, energy use, and blood vessel growth.
Also on offer at Buff is Medicine 360, a comprehensive update of the well-fabled Medicine 1.0, 2.0, 3.0: a popular theory surrounding the history of health prevention, which argues for a more anticipatory approach to health rather than reactionary.
“Medicine 360 marries the knowledge and wisdom from ancient Mayan medicine with cutting edge technology,” says Dr. Fegerl. “This involves mimicking Mayan diets of maise, fasting regularly, and paying close attention to circadian rhythms, but also employing forward thinking tech, such as MRI and AI driven diagnostics, creating an entirely personal map of each individual guest.”
Buff’s facilities are second to none, but it’s certainly no outlier in the wellness resort space.
Here are three more destinations boasting sci-fi levels of health tech.
SHA Wellness Retreat, Spain and Mexico
With locations in Alicante, Spain, and a new branch in Cancun, Mexico, SHA has earned an excellent reputation in the longevity retreat scene, hosting the likes of Lily James, Poppy Delevigne, and Kate Beckinsale. Besides the dreamy locations and design of SHA, their latest programme, Tailor-Made, has been raising eyebrows and standards in the longevity community through their pioneering “smart algorithm”, powered by OpenAI, no less.
“This is a programme entirely unique to SHA and to you,” says the Vice President of SHA Alejandro Bataller.
“Guests are asked a series of questions about their physiology and life and the algorithm builds an individual health profile of them, utilising our 17-year old database, which is from over 100,000 individuals.” SHA was already one of the most premier longevity retreats on the planet, Tailor-Made has now given it a technological edge.
Clinique La Prairie, Switzerland
One of the oldest longevity clinics in the world is anything but dated. This classy Swiss joint has been leading cellular repair for almost 100 years and continues to do so, hosting the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, and Winston Churchill in its time. One recent innovation is their beauty stem cell programme, allowing you to reinject your own younger cells into your face to rejuvenate your looks — Clinique La Prairie will bank your cells for up to 30 years.
In 2024, the clinic also launched a longevity technology investment fund, demonstrating their commitment to this new frontier of the industry. This venture improves the customer’s experience too, with companies from the fund being used for patients, such as Geknowme, who perform epigenetic testing with unusually fast results, so visitors can receive their data within days rather than months.
Palazzo Fiuggi, Italy
Built in an old Italian spa town in the Lazio region’s hills near Rome, Palazzo Fiuggi has a timeless grandeur. But go beyond Fiuggi’s impressive neoclassical façade and you’ll find one of the most high-tech wellness treats on the market.
One of the Fiuggi’s technological USPs is its futuristic Fitness Lab — also known as the gym. Guests can experience the latest in fitness technology, from Icarus VR Machines — headsets that turn gym workouts into immersive, full-body experiences — to Reaxing Training, the world’s first method of motor stimulation.
This includes flashing lights and unconventional equipment like the Reax Board, a motion-sensitive panel that responds to your movements to enhance balance, metabolism, and muscle reactivity. Alongside the health facilities you would expect from a wellness clinic — Fiuggi’s approach to fitness tech is groundbreaking and earns its place on this list.
