‘Tis the season for shopworn aphorisms about starting fresh. You know the ones I mean: all those old chestnuts about it being a new year and a new you, about turning over a new leaf, about how, if you can dream it, you can do it. Like so many clichés, they’re easy to dismiss as pabulum, and yet they’ve endured because they contain a kernel of truth.

What does this have to do with travel? you may ask. One of the funny paradoxes of trip taking is that it can be an escape from all the headaches back home and also serve as a means of growing as a person so that you are better able to meet your challenges in the place where you actually live—often at the same time. And I think this beautiful contradiction is especially inherent in wellness travel, which had already taken off like a rocket ship before the pandemic and has only expanded more quickly since the world reopened. Part of that growth is due to more travelers putting value on these kinds of getaways, but another part is thanks to hotels and resorts adding an increasing number of offerings to help their guests do both the escape part as well as the feel-like-a-new-you-at-home part. In this issue’s annual wellness package, we cover a few of the most compelling new trends, including programs that promote gut health; the move toward group wellness itineraries; and the rise of art therapy.

While I’m on the subject of starting fresh, this issue will be my last at Condé Nast Traveler. To dust off another well-seasoned saying (originally attributed, I believe, to the philosopher Seneca), “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” The experience of serving this storied brand, of being inspired every day by the passion of the editors who work here, and, above all, of sharing the magic of travel with you, our readers, will carry me far into my future. Right now, though, I’m going on vacation.

This article appeared in the January/February 2026 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here.