Inside Asia’s Most Underrated Travel Destination For Luxury Wellness

• Hong Kong proves wellness and luxury can coexist, from skyline sanctuaries to quiet rituals designed for modern travellers in need of balance.
• The Upper House leads a new wave of calm sophistication, offering Bamford treatments, yoga sessions and mindful dining above the harbour.
• This is a city where stillness meets style and recovery feels effortless.

Landing at Chek Lap Kok, the first wellness move is not to overcomplicate things after a long flight, so a private transfer is the best way to glide across the harbour, dropping you at The Upper House: a calming sanctuary above that feels more Kyoto than Central.

Once you’ve checked in, dinner is Mediterranean at Salisterra, all seasonal produce and balanced plates. With three days in Hong Kong, there’ll be plenty of time to explore all this city has to offer, so you can’t go wrong with European flavours on the first night, watching the neon-lit skyline slowly fade to black.

Hong Kong may have a reputation for relentless hustle; a financial hub moving at the speed of its markets, bridging Asia with every corner of the globe. And, whether rightly or wrongly, wellness isn’t what most people expect here.

But at The Upper House, it’s been built into the very fabric of the luxury experience; relaxing rituals that help you reset before stepping back into the swathes of activity below.

On the first morning, set your alarm and enjoy all that this design-led luxury hotel has to offer: A 24-hour fully-equipped gym, yoga mats on standby for private flow sessions, and in-room treatments that use Bamford’s organic products, so recovery remains an important part of your routine.

Guests can lean into holistic therapies, meditation, and the kind of slow rituals that counterbalance busier days below. It’s the perfect way to ease into a city of extremes like Hong Kong, where no two days are the same.

Breakfast today could be something light, like a sourdough egg tart and milk tea or a croissant from Bakehouse, but guests can also take advantage of The Upper House’s premier morning offering. Fuel today will be essential for the first activity of a three-day itinerary.

From the shaded Pok Fu Lam Reservoir, this morning’s trail is just a short ride from Central yet feels like an entirely different world, where banyan trees twist over stone paths and the clean green air is abundant.

The trail is wide and well-marked, a mix of dirt paths and old colonial stonework, with occasional breaks in the canopy where you can see the South China Sea flashing between the ridgelines, with the calls of kingfishers and monkeys to gently carry you through.

If you don’t feel like hiking back down, the Peak Tram is there to take you back into Central in under ten minutes, giving you a different angle on the skyline you just conquered.

After freshening up at the hotel, the day turns to evening, and the skyline begins to flicker with the city’s characteristic bright lights. So, for the best views from below, take a trip across Hong Kong’s iconic harbour in one of the city’s most authentic modes of transport, the Aqua Luna.

Also known as junk boats, these wooden sailing boats, instantly recognisable with their eye-catching red sails, have ferried locals and tourists through the port city for centuries, and still exist as an enduring symbol of Hong Kong to this day.

2025’s offerings, however, are slightly more refined, with loungers to relax and recline as the red sails continue to fan against the skyline.

After a traditional Cantonese dinner at T’ang Court in The Langham, we’ll head to Mostly Harmless in Sai Ying Pun, a cocktail bar that specialises in alcohol-free creations.

Drinks are crafted with local produce – think Farm to Glass – that are found on their food menu, making their way into their wet selection for a unique take on a night out. The perfect option for Hong Kong’s burgeoning wellness space.

The next morning, trade sweat for stillness, and enjoy a day of culture at M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in West Kowloon. This is the city’s flagship museum of contemporary visual culture, and one of the most ambitious cultural projects in Asia. It’s the region’s answer to MONA or Tate Modern.

Before even heading in, take a look at the architecture and scale of the Herzog & de Meuron building itself: a minimalist, monolithic slab with a massive LED façade overlooking Victoria Harbour. A must-visit for any traveller arriving in Hong Kong.

After walking through the exhibits, head out on a long urban walk through Yau Tsim Mong, with flower markets, bird gardens and food stalls; proof that wellness doesn’t always have to feature a yoga mat and a dehumidifier.

Sitting at the base of the Kowloon Peninsula, Yau Tsim Mong is one of Hong Kong’s most intense and fascinating districts, with three neighbourhoods stitched together: Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui, and Mong Kok.

It’s where Hong Kong’s grit meets its inherent glamour, shopping for sneakers in Mong Kok in the afternoon, before sipping Japanese whisky at one of Hong Kong’s many award-winning bars, like DarkSide in Tsim Sha Tsui by night.

For dinner this evening, head to Roganic, a Michelin-starred (and a Michelin Green Star) restaurant by Simon Rogan in Causeway Bay. It’s a chef’s favourite.

Here, guests won’t be forced to endure white-tablecloth formality. Instead, it carries Rogan’s farm-to-table, zero-waste philosophy, boasting an ever-changing menu that champions the region’s locally sourced produce, with seafood from southern waters.

Hong Kong is surely a city of contrasts, with fast-paced energy giving way to a relative calm, so the next morning, recovery becomes the priority… and Mandarin Oriental delivers it in layers.

The early gym session will realign the body, a swim will clear the head, and a 90-minute Oriental Qi treatment will reset just about everything else.

Lunch is Cantonese heritage at Yung Kee, an HK institution that has been serving traditional roasted goose, a recipe that has been honed over decades, since 1942.

The afternoon unfolds in Old Town Central, where wellness means moving at street pace, exploring Bauhaus architecture at Central Market, drifting through PMQ’s design studios, inhaling incense at Man Mo Temple, before capping the wander with milk tea at Lan Fong Yuen and egg tarts from Tai Cheong Bakery.

I often find walking through a new city is the best form of therapy, and Hong Kong’s sights and sounds never disappoint. Wellness here isn’t always found in a juice bar tucked away in a shopping mall. It’s found in centuries-old cuisine, hikes that meander through overgrown forest and moon-lit harbour cruises that deliberately take their time.

Of course, spa rituals can tune the body, and of those, Hong Kong has many. But it’s in the ritual of this city where we found a balance, and uncovered a hidden gem just a short flight from home.

Feeling inspired? DMARGE readers can now enter July’s upcoming giveaway to win an all-inclusive $7,500 journey to Hong Kong, complete with July’s signature Classic Checked Set.

Competition runs until 31 October, so if you’ve had Hong Kong on the bucket list for too long, get involved. Good luck.