Trend: Wellness Ships, Wellness Trains
With people embracing slow travel, both cruise and train travel are booming. From train “spa cars” fit for a wellness resort to more wellness resort brands launching cruise ships, a new era of ships and trains is bringing more wellness onboard and offboard, while even introducing a new type of wellness real estate: longevity residences at sea
By Jane Wilson
Our 2025 trend, “Wellness on the Line,” explores how—with more people hungry for slower, more experiential “calmcations” where a meditative journey is the “wellness”—both cruises and train travel are seeing record demand. And both are bringing far more wellness on board, while also immersing people in local wellness experiences when they disembark. Ships and trains are rolling out a host of holistic wellness programs, resort-level facilities, on-board health experts, and wellness-and nature-focused excursions on land, replacing the old practice of storming off to buy souvenirs.
Both cruises and luxury overnight train trips are attracting a whole new demographic, and wellness is one of the reasons. For instance, a study from ABTA just found that people aged 25-35 have now surpassed those over 65 as the leading cruise bookers!
So much has happened with this trend since we released it in early 2025…
The big ships are offering more full-blown wellness retreats at sea. Cunard just announced new multi-day wellness journeys, featuring yoga and meditation, acupuncture, breathwork, personal training, wellness masterclasses, and more. Established cruise lines are partnering with celebrities like Deepak Chopra and Dr. Andrew Weil to help create their wellbeing experiences.
The big trend: smaller ships that can go to more far-flung, less touristy places and offer a more intimate social experience. As part of this emerging trend, a growing number of wellness resort brands––including COMO, Aman, Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton and &Beyond—are jumping into the wellness cruise/yacht market. COMO’s first “Journey into the Arctic” combines adventurous excursions with COMO Shambhala wellness experiences. Four Seasons’s first super-yacht Luminara launches in 2026, featuring a big spa, gym and hammam on the fourth floor, along with advanced well-tech, including cryo and infrared chambers.
Cruises are leaning hard into “scientific citizen” expeditions. &Beyond’s new eco-cruise gives passengers a deep, hands-on education in nature conservancy on its expedition yacht through the Galápagos.
We’re even seeing new floating wellness real estate. The new Blue World Voyages is part vacation cruise and part residences, entirely dedicated to sports and wellness, and featuring the kinds of technology––from air and water purification systems to circadian lighting––you see in sophisticated wellness real estate projects. Storyline Cruises plans to launch a wellness-residences-at-sea and floating longevity clinic concept in 2027 (more below).
Trains on board with wellness:
New, spectacular multi-night train journeys are launching all over the world, suddenly attracting younger and more diverse guests as they answer the call for slow, social, and sustainable travel.
There’s much more wellness on board, such as the new dedicated Dior spa carriages with sophisticated wellness programming on Belmond’s fleet of luxury trains (more below). Excursions for train travelers increasingly offer guests the opportunity to get immersed in local wellness traditions, from wild swimming in Scandinavia, to gathering medicinal plants with a Mayan shaman in Mexico, to soaking in onsens in Japan. A new generation of trains is letting travelers discover Europe’s historic thermal towns—all accessible by rail—and visit the bathhouses, grand hotels and promenades that set the scene for 19th-century wellness journeys. Intrepid’s new sustainable train voyage from China to Mongolia has passengers exploring the steppes of Khustai National Park and the spiritual wonders of Sainshand.
As trends like astrotourism and silent tourism surge, rail and ship travel—which can transport guests far away from light and noise pollution—are capitalizing on these trends.
Slowing down and experiencing the moment is exactly the kind of wellbeing our stressful times call for. For that reason, we expect more innovative wellness on cruises and trains chugging forward.
This is just one of ten in-depth trends in the GWS’s The Future of Wellness: 2025 report. Purchase it here.
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