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This week my winter-sun travel blog meets my enthusiasm for healthcare. I’ve travelled around 70 countries, to numerous hotels, resorts, wellness spas and clinics, and am still as curious as ever to explore and report back. Here's my take on Zem.
None of us know what’s going to take us out. Life’s full of surprises. But we do know that the body starts to degenerate from about age 30 (more cells destroyed than created, barring excess weight gain) and also, crucially, that we can affect the speed of that ageing process.
Timely information and knowledge give us some choices in dealing with the unbalanced nature of decay. Early interventions can mean life or death, but certainly the quality and vitality of later life years. I’d like to die young as late as possible and will take positive actions to help towards that outcome. One of those is an annual health check.
A simple 60-minute appointment in a UK consulting room with various providers is helpful, or much nicer and more comprehensive, at a beautiful wellness clinic like Zem, just a short drive from Alicante airport, where Gaby and I tested a three-day programme.
Technology is ramping up very quickly with AI and diagnostic equipment moving ahead at scale and giving much more information on our state of health. The latest equipment in the clinical areas of Zem being noticeably quicker and more divulging than models from just a few years back: ECG for heart health, body mapping for skin cancer, nutritional assessments, body compositions for localised fat, muscle, water, bone density etc. These tests picked up some known issues and some answers to niggles that I can make some early interventions on.
I don't have time for flowery facts I've heard a hundred times before. The clinicians we met knew their stuff and delivered on point with professionalism and care. Targeted diagnostic tests are balanced with therapeutic spa treatments and gentle relaxation in a luxury space. One test gave us both a metabolic age 15 years younger than our chronological age. So far so good. It does take conscious effort, but mostly, good health practices become habit.
The gym area is divided into five large high-ceiling spaces. One for yoga, one Pilates and three with the latest Technogym equipment and diagnostic machines.
We were tested here for strength, speed, memory, balance etc., and given a clear pathway for improvement.
The beautifully mosaiced Spa area has infra-red sauna and traditional Finnish, hot and cold plunge pools, hydro pool areas, and a snow cabin.
Rows of various showers from tropical storm to actual snow and the ice water bucket, lead to a steamy Hamman with a huge slab of marble centre stage.
The large glass fronted Himalayan salt room affords views across the expansive spa area.
Also known as a halotherapy room, the microscopic salt particles in the air improve respiratory and skin health, including clearer airways and potential relief from skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. The calming atmosphere also helps with stress reduction and improved sleep.
Various other therapies in the well-appointed rooms include body sculpting, the infra-red body dome, hyperbaric chamber, cryotherapy chamber, and Metawell sound waves mediation, along with a host of beauty treatments.
The outside pools and dining area is vast and beautifully landscaped with some thousand-year-old olive trees shipped in from Sicily and sculpted into Niwaki cloud forms.
Food is exceptionally fine and precisely balanced for health and flavour. Much is sourced from their own 18 acre farm a few miles away.
The farmhouse is also used for conferences and a new yoga studio is being built nearby.
Built on a mountainside of Altea overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and across to Ibiza, Zem Wellness Clinic is a no-expense-spared refit of an existing hotel which opened in January 2025, after an eight-year redevelopment, including covid shutdowns. Beyond the beautiful visuals, you feel there’s a soul behind what’s being presented to you, and that this 95-room resort was a labour of love.
The hotel group was built by a local entrepreneurial farmer who entered hospitality in the 1970s as a receptionist at a hotel in the nascent stages of Spanish tourism. He left to start his own successful car hire company before building his first of 25 hotels, including some 1000 room resorts in Mexico. The group also runs hospitals which affords them the latest medical knowledge to bring into Zem.
All programmes combine medical disciplines with regenerative therapies, relaxation and meditation techniques, and nutrition plans carefully tailored to each guest.
Does good health practice cost money? Yes and no. But suffering poor lifestyle induced health issues in our latter years or being the richest person in the graveyard doesn't seem like a successful life strategy. Regular visits like this help support my commitment to good health practices without it going too far off track in the hurly burly of life.
Michael Van Clarke
Introduced by Portuguese merchants in the 16th century, and adapted over time to suit Japanese tastes, this light bouncy sponge is considered a traditional Japanese speciality. More delicate and airy than a regular sponge cake, castella ( カステラ, kasutera) is famous for a fine and moist crumb.
