Travelling for health

JUST as Julia Roberts popularised the whole idea of soul-searching journeys in Eat, Pray, Love, travellers continue to follow in her footsteps, except that their objective isn’t so much romance but personal health and well-being.

While Covid-19 had plenty to do with increasing the awareness for self-care and healing, the fact that wellness tourism is still on a strong upward trajectory shows that a lot more people are heading to the likes of Bali for sunrise meditation, or doing yoga in the serene hills of Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

In this week’s BT Lifestyle, we find out why more travellers in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific are moving beyond shopping and eating trips in Japan, and prioritising wellness breaks instead. If you’ve ever returned from a holiday more exhausted than before you left, you can see the appeal of vacations spent on rest, relaxation and reconnection.

Meanwhile in Design, we visit a house designed around a courtyard, with plenty of lush landscaping to soften its hard architectural edges. In Arts, the National Gallery presents a solo exhibition of the late artist Fernando Zobel. And for your reading pleasure, we spotlight some new non-fiction books that might strike your fancy.

In Dining, the Japanese restaurant fad doesn’t seem to be abating. We check out the new Keijo, a mid-priced sushi eatery that replaces the former Shinji outlet at Carlton Hotel, to see how the rebranded eatery measures up.

For all this and more, don’t miss this week’s BT Lifestyle.