Usher in a year of wellness and happiness on the coast!

With fun water sports, exhilarating cliff walks and the healthiest sea food, the coast is a spa like no other and best of all, it’s completely free 

Beach saunas have been popping up all round the coast; the combination of deep heat exposure with cold sea immersion presses the pause button on the stresses of modern life, perfect against a backdrop of amazing sunrises and sunsets. 

Join a group of friends or socialise with like-minded individuals; if you haven’t tried it before, this year embrace this ancient custom at a sauna near you

The Saltwater Sauna on Sandbanks Beach, Dorset has been operating at full stretch since opening three years ago, becoming one of the south coast’s top wellness destinations. Following its success, it has now opened The Saltwater Sauna at Avon Beach in Christchurch offering two contemporary Nordic saunas, changing room and optional sea plunge. The founder’s say the ‘response has been overwhelming’. Wellness seekers can choose from a private 65-minute group sauna of up to seven people for £70 or 65-minute communal sauna for a maximum of six for £15 pp.

New this year will be a third Saltwater Sauna at Lulworth Cove, one of the Jurassic Coast’s most iconic settings and world-famous for its unique geology and crystal-clear waters. Bookings are set to open in March 2025. 

Rebels Dover is a workshop and coffee shop workspace with dawn to dusk saunas, so ideal for early morning walks or sauna before switching on the laptop. Premium membership gives anytime and unlimited sauna sessions for £40 per month. Walk-in sessions are available 8am to 6pm, £10 for 60 minutes.  

Seascrub Saunas Margate offer traditional Nordic Barrel saunas and Electric Steam Sauna, claiming to be the first commercial Saunum Cube Sauna in the UK giving a more comfortable heat than the intense heat of a barrel sauna. Set on Margate’s sands, the sauna offers changing room and four cold plunge whisky barrels as well as wellness events, prices from £15 for a one-hour Nordic Barrel sauna with the option of a scrub for an additional £5. 

In Brighton, BEACHBOX offers a year-round wood-fired sauna spa on the beach. Two converted cosy, horsebox trailers can accommodate up to 12 with panoramic ocean views. Facilities include outdoor seating, picnic table, changing rooms, freshwater showers, chilled steel tub, plunge pool and slipper bath for cooling off with upgrades to in-sauna body treatments and separate spa menu. 

Stay in a treehouse, try forest bathing or book a spiritual retreat, a walk in the forest or by the sea restores mind, body and soul 

Reset and refocus at the start of the year, Durham’s coast offers breathtaking scenery and accessible walking routes for buggies and wheelchairs. Explore part of the 11-mile Durham Heritage Coastal footpath from Seaham to Crimdon featuring dramatic coastal views to the North Sea, stop off at Blast Beach for fossil hunting.  

Focus the mind by taking part in a Drum Circle, Sound bath or Mindful Morning at Dalton Moor Farm. This vegan fruit farm and School of Sustainable Living and Wellbeing offers a wide range of health and healing events close to the coast. 

Few stretches of coastline are better for pulling on the walking boots and striking out than the North York Moors National Park, with 26 miles of stunning coastline with accessible walks for mobility scooters, pushchairs and wheelchairs.  Slow down and switch off with Adventures for the Soul based in the Park, gaze at star-studded Dark Skies, take mindful walks in pine-filled woods, decompress with a yoga retreat, toast marshmallows around a campfire and soothe the soul. 

Stay in a log cabin near Whitby at Yoga and Spice, a mini retreat centre, soak up nature in your personal area of woodland on the edge of the National Park, join in meditation and plant-based cooking sessions. Or head to the Tree Relaxation Retreat in the peaceful village of Rosedale Abbey in the heart of the Park, immerse yourself in yoga, meditation, delicious vegetarian food and holistic treatments. 

With 350 miles of coastline, Essex has an abundance of nature reserves. Take the kids to Mersea Island’s Cudmore Grove for a great sandy beach and impressive display of winter wading birds including wildfowl, flocks and brent geese. Packed with historic features like WWII pillboxes, the cliffs here have produced 300,000-year-old fossils of monkey, bear and bison. There’s also a play area for little ones.  

As an added reason to visit, Mersea Island is known for its oysters so dine al fresco at any one of its great seafood shacks. 

On a crisp winter’s day there is nothing more fun than packing up a warming flask of soup and wraps and heading outdoors at Morecambe Bay. 

Grange-over-Sands is wonderfully unspoilt spot with easy walks, benches and the first shoots of flowers from mid- January. At the far end of the prom for energetic family members, there’s a park filled with attractions. 

For aficionados of forest bathing, the Isle of Wight is a perfect escape. Known to reduce stress, boost the immune system, improve concentration and provide a sense of calm, experts have picked their top spots, choose from Firestone Copse with paths winding down to Old Mill Pond and Wootton Creek, Quarr Wood in Ryde with the backdrop of Quarr Abbey or Brighstone Forest, the largest forest on the island, laced with paths and bridleways and boasting dramatic views of the cliffs.  

Dorset offers superb choice for a detox, digital retreat. Mallinson’s Woodland Retreat, north of Lyme Regis and Charmouth, offers three award-winning luxury treehouses for a perfect adult-only escape.  Each features private deck, en-suite flushing loo, hot tub and wood-fired pizza while the Woodman’s Treehouse also features its own sauna.  

Loose Reins, near Blandford Forum, is a dog-friendly glamp site with cabins, rustic chalets and lodges for two to six people. It’s on the edge of an International Dark Sky Reserve, so be sure to bring binocluars. And for a spiritual retreat, head to The Greenhouse Christian Holiday Retreat in Poole, offering 22 rooms and outdoor pool to improve physical and mental wellbeing.