I’ve been to A-lister favourite wellness retreat Mayrlife seven times – here’s what you can expect

As wellness clinics go, this is the one the celebrities all head to for better skin, gut health and improved energy levels. So, what really goes on behind closed doors? Regular Madeleine Spencer reveals all and why she thinks it is worth its reputation

In pursuit of better digestion, better skin and better energy levels? Mayrlife Medical Health Resort believes it has the answers (Mayrlife Medical Health Resort)

My sister Michaela is lying with her head in her hands groaning. I’ve just walked in from a massage (superlative, with a man called Wolfgang who turned my head quickly in his huge hands, deftly releasing tension), and I run through a list of potential ailments: “Flu? Do you want some water? Do you think it’s something you’ve eaten?” At that, her head shoots up, she fixes me with her furious eyes and says: “no – it’s what I’ve not eaten”.

Ah. That list would be long. Unlike me, my sister was not, at the time of our trip to the renowned Mayrlife, an advocate of eating in this fashion, and as such missed consuming and imbibing things from this extensive – but not exhaustive – list: wine, Melt chocolates, the dahl from Dishoom, salty crisps, warm croissants, oat milk flat whites and shortbread.

Mayrlife is situated on the banks of Lake Altaussee in Austria (Mayrlife)

As I said, my day-to-day diet is mostly free from those foods as many of the rules from previous trips to Mayrlife, which is situated on the picture-perfect banks of Lake Altaussee in Austria, have stuck. As a result, my day three was a bit of a breeze, but my poor sister suffered terribly. By day five, though, she joined me in rapturous praise for this unique spot, where the rich and famous mingle with the likes of us in the pursuit of better digestion, better skin, better energy levels – an upgrade of all things body, mind, and, via those two, soul and spirit.

Meals are designed to be thoroughly chewed to aid digestion (Mayrlife)

I’ve been seven times. You may interpret this in two ways. Either the place is so good that I often choose it, which, as a journalist specialising in wellness, is quite an endorsement. Or you may think that needing to return is a problem – why does anyone need repeat visits if The Cure is indeed a cure-all? I will give the same answer to this I give at weddings and dinner parties when probed on these wellness clinics I frequent: our lives change, our challenges change, our bodies change, and as such we periodically, if inclined, benefit from this sort of doctor-led break.

Some big names agree with me, and regularly shuffle through the corridors of the clinic, dressing gown-clad, spending their days having infusions and all manner of treatments followed by tiny, bland, wholesome meals designed to give the digestive system a proper rest. Rebel Wilson, Kate Moss and Sarah Ferguson, to name but a few. A mixed bunch, with over 50 per cent returning, like me, because the place is that damn good.

The clinic believes that most exhausted visitors could do with a big dose of nature (Mayrlife)

Let’s return to my sister on day three, who after snapping at me about the things she missed started to specifically bemoan the lack of anything sugary on the menu. I want to home in on this moment to take you through what happens at Mayrlife in more minute detail because before I went for the first time I struggled to find something comprehensive in their blend of Western medicine, holistic practises and good-sense measures that would tip the scale away from other wellness spots and towards this one.

Here’s what a day looks like, by and large: up at 7am-ish, oil-pull while marvelling at the view of the Austrian countryside and breathing in the pristine air, take a drink designed to flush you out (for me and my sister, the more gentle Magnesium Citrates – Epsoms are rather more dramatic in their effect), stretch either as a group or solo in one’s room, eat breakfast s-l-o-w-l-y. The idea is to chew, chew, and chew some more, thereby allowing digestive juices to be produced to meet the food, as well as manually breaking down each mouthful and allowing saliva to do its thing.

Cryotherapy – marching in a room of -110 degrees for three minutes in your underwear (Mayrlife)

Between breakfast and lunch, all manner of things can happen. You will likely see your doctor for one of the daily sessions of stomach massages (to encourage digestion while they see how things are coming along), you may end up having an infusion of vitamins, perhaps someone like Wolfgang will massage you, maybe you will try something a little more intense: ozone therapy, in which a pint or so of blood is removed and swirled above your head to infuse it with ozone before returning it to your body; cryotherapy, where you march in a room of -110C for three minutes in your underwear; or gong therapy, where your body is covered in gongs that are played while you lie there gently vibrating under them.

Similar things occur between lunch and dinner, but you’ll probably be encouraged to go for a walk because the clinic correctly believes that most exhausted visitors could do with a big dose of nature, to feel the crunch of the forest underfoot and to smell its library of alpine scents as you make your way around the lake. We swam after dinner, but you may also retire to your room, or choose to sit in the tea area and converse (this is not encouraged in the dining room, where they like you to eat your meals in silence if possible).

Take any chatter to the tea area – silent meals are encouraged (Mayrlife)

As for how to arrange your trip, you can opt for a programme, which is essentially a package of treatments (the pricing system here is built with the room and food bills separate from the clinic itself), or allow your doctor to guide you to choose a more bespoke constellation of therapies. Either way, I’ve yet to meet anyone who leaves the clinic not feeling better, and, more importantly, more themselves, as if the frenetic pace of modern life has made them tuck away sections of their being to survive. I certainly have always emerged feeling whole once more.

It is not the intention that you should live as you did at Mayrlife – life creeps in. But my sister has, like me, stuck broadly to its principles and now when people ask how she has so much energy, she tells them with religious fervour about this place in the Austrian countryside where you’re told to chew thoroughly and have daily stomach massages. Some of them don’t get it, but there are a bunch of us who really, truly do, for whom life without little tweaks from the medical team would be much less agreeable.

Read more: This popular Austrian resort is full of wonders beyond the slopes