Wellness retreats. Driven to the gate inside your arrival window, however hidden the lane.
Almost every retreat worth going to is somewhere quiet and hard to find, which is rather the point. We plan from the arrival window, brief the chauffeur on the last few miles of lane, and hold every journey of the stay in one place.
- 20+years in private travel
- Ownedchauffeur fleet in London and Manchester, a trusted global network beyond
- 24/7operations desk, one contact
- 3services on one itinerary: car, jet and yacht
In partnership with Harrods Aviation · Signature Aviation · SW Global
The shape of the trip
A week away, and four journeys around it
A retreat stay is usually one arrival and one departure with a fortnight of nothing in between, which sounds like the simplest booking there is. In practice it is four journeys. Somebody goes out on a Sunday afternoon into a fixed arrival window. Somebody else joins on the Wednesday because they could not clear the Monday. Both come home on a Friday, on different flights, and there is a car waiting at an airfield for a landing time that has moved twice.
The other thing people underestimate is the last leg. Grayshott, Tring, Hoar Cross, Mystras, the Douro: not one of them is next to an airport, and the final stretch is a country road that takes twice as long as the distance suggests. A driver who has never been there will find it. A driver who has been told about the second gate and the unsigned turning will arrive at the hour you were asked to arrive.
Our own cars and chauffeurs are in London and Manchester, and a trusted global network covers everywhere else. Elsewhere, cars are arranged through operators we know, and aircraft are arranged for you from operators we work with, with one contact at Odyssey holding the whole thing.
The United Kingdom
Retreats and how to reach them
| Where | Address | Getting there |
|---|---|---|
| Grayshott Spa | Headley Road, Grayshott, near Hindhead, GU26 6JJ | About 1 hour 15 to 1 hour 45 from central London by road. Farnborough is about 25 to 40 minutes away, which makes it the easiest of these to combine with a flight |
| Champneys Tring | Chesham Road, Wigginton, Tring, HP23 6HX | About 1 hour to 1 hour 30 from central London. Luton is about 25 to 40 minutes, so a car and a private terminal work neatly together |
| Ragdale Hall | Ragdale, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, LE14 3PB | East Midlands about 30 to 45 minutes. From London it is a long road journey of roughly 2 hours 15 to 3 hours depending on the hour you leave |
| Hoar Cross Hall | Maker Lane, Hoar Cross, Burton upon Trent, DE13 8QS | Birmingham and East Midlands are each about 45 to 60 minutes. The final miles are lanes, and satellite navigation is not reliable on them |
| Lime Wood and the Herb House | Beaulieu Road, Lyndhurst, SO43 7FZ | In the New Forest. Southampton about 20 to 30 minutes, Bournemouth about 35 to 55, and about 2 hours from London on a good day |
Addresses checked in September 2026. Road times are realistic ranges for planning rather than promises, and the Friday afternoon return to London is the one that regularly runs long. See also long distance and multi day tours.
The last few miles
Why a lane, not a motorway, decides the arrival
Most of these places sit at the end of roads that were not built for arrivals. Hoar Cross is reached through lanes where the signage gives out and the mapping apps offer a shortcut that is a farm track. The approach to Grayshott crosses the Hindhead tunnel and then turns off into a village where the entrance is easy to pass twice. Lyndhurst has a one way system and ponies with the right of way, and in August it has both at once.
The practical answer is unglamorous. We ask for the arrival window rather than the arrival time, we build in a margin for the final stretch rather than for the motorway, and we tell the chauffeur what the turning looks like. On a first visit we would rather leave twenty minutes early and pause in a lay-by than arrive at a gate ten minutes after it was expected. If the journey starts at an airfield, the car is on the apron or at the terminal door before the aircraft is on the ground. See private terminal transfers.
Europe
Two that people ask for by name
| Where | Address | Getting there |
|---|---|---|
| Euphoria Retreat | Mystras, near Sparta, Peloponnese, Greece | Kalamata is the close field, roughly 50 minutes to 1 hour 15 by road. From Athens it is about 2 hours 30 to 3 hours across the Peloponnese |
| Six Senses Douro Valley | Quinta de Vale Abraão, Samodães, 5100 758 Lamego, Portugal | Porto is the airport. The drive up the valley is about 1 hour 15 to 1 hour 45, and it is the sort of road where nobody wants to be driving themselves after a flight |
Addresses checked in September 2026. Cars in Greece and Portugal are arranged through operators we know, and aircraft are arranged for you. The other European destinations we are asked for most often have pages of their own, below.
Destinations with their own pages
Where else we are asked to go
Switzerland
- Swiss clinics and wellness staysThe four Swiss clusters, which airport serves which valley, and what the transfer really takes.
- Montreux and the eastern lakeClarens, Vevey and Montreux, about an hour from Geneva along the lakeside motorway.
- Weggis and Lake LucerneThe northern shore beneath the Rigi, reached from Zurich down the A4.
- Bad RagazThe Rhine valley in St Gallen, where the choice of airfield changes the day.
Germany and Spain
- Baden-BadenThe old spa town on the edge of the Black Forest, with Stuttgart and Strasbourg either side of it.
- SyltThe North Frisian island, where the causeway and the ferry decide the timetable.
- TegernseeAn hour south of Munich in the Bavarian lakes.
- Alicante and the Costa BlancaThe coast north of Alicante, and the transfer from the airport to it.
What helps
Five things to tell the desk
Nothing clinical, and we will not ask. All of it changes the plan.
- The arrival window the property has given you, not the time you would like to leave. We work backwards from the window
- The exact address including the village, and any note they sent you about the approach. Half of these places send one, and it is usually right
- Who is travelling on which day. Companions arriving midweek and leaving early is the normal pattern, not the exception
- How much luggage there genuinely is. A fortnight away produces more than a week away, and a saloon with two large cases is full
- Whether you want a car kept locally for the stay. For anything over a week it is usually calmer than booking journeys one at a time
Our part in the stay
We look after the travel, door to gate
We provide the cars and arrange the aircraft, with one contact holding every journey of the stay. This page is about non-medical retreats and spa stays: we describe no treatment, make no health claim, and do not book, work with or recommend any property named here.
Around the trip
Related pages
The cars
Request a quote
Tell us the property and the arrival window
Where you are going, the dates, the arrival window you have been given, how many are travelling and on which days. We reply with the cars, the aircraft options where a flight makes sense, and an honest transfer time for the last few miles. Nothing is booked or charged online.
Prefer to talk? +44 2030 048300 or WhatsApp, at any hour.
Questions people ask
About retreat travel
Do you book the retreat as well?
No. We arrange the travel only. We have no relationship with any of these properties and we do not take a view on which one you should choose.
Is it worth flying privately to a UK retreat?
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on where you start. From London to Grayshott or Tring a car is usually quicker door to door than any flight. To Leicestershire or Staffordshire from Scotland or the continent, a short flight into East Midlands or Birmingham and a car at the other end makes obvious sense.
Can a car stay with us for the week?
Yes, and for a stay of a week or more it is usually the calmer arrangement. See multi day tours and dedicated chauffeur.
Someone is joining halfway through. Can you handle that?
Yes. It is the most common request on this kind of trip. A second arrival midweek, a separate flight, a different airport, and the same desk holding all of it.
Are the cars in Greece or Portugal yours?
Our own cars and chauffeurs are in London and Manchester, and a trusted global network covers everywhere else. In Greece and Portugal the cars come through operators we know, and one contact at Odyssey holds the itinerary.
Is any of this a medical service?
No. It is a chauffeur service with aircraft arranged alongside it. We bring no medical staff or equipment, give no care or advice, and make no claim about what a stay might do.
One contact, wherever you are