Urban parks, wellness centres and slow living: How to have a calmcation in the city

So-called ‘calmcations’ have been all the rage recently as travellers choose to focus on resting and resetting rather than action-packed trips or high-energy sightseeing.

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The trend centres on spending time in nature, digital detoxing and participating in wellness practices like yoga and wild swimming.

If you’re spending the summer in the city, it might sound like the kind of holiday that would be tricky to pull off. But having an urban calmcation is easier than you think.

Escape to nature in the city

Connection to nature is key to a calmcation. Fresh air and green spaces bring myriad health benefits, like reducing stress, lowering blood pressure and boosting your mood.

Parks abound in big cities, and some can even be quite wild. In Edinburgh, you can take a bracing hike up Arthur’s Seat and lose sight of the urban sprawl completely at some points.

In Paris, the Petite Ceinture is a rewilded railway line that makes you feel transported to the countryside despite being right next to the capital’s ring road. The green corridors dotted around the city feature natural trails, urban farms and plenty of wildlife.

London may be a massive metropolis, but it is home to dozens of parks. Richmond Park covers a whopping 2,500 acres and features groves of ancient trees, expansive grasslands and herds of wild deer.

Embrace slow living

Avoid the usual city activities like crowded shopping streets or hotspot attractions and seek out low-key alternatives.

Coffee shops in peaceful locations are good spots to spend time reading, journaling or listening to music – especially as part of a digital detox.

Cafes in parks are a good choice, such as Venice’s Serra dei Giardini inside a 19th-century greenhouse or Das Café in der Gartenakademie in Berlin’s botanical gardens.

When it comes to shopping or doing the groceries, opt for independent stores in close-knit neighbourhoods rather than supermarkets and major commercial zones. Head to Florence’s Oltrarno (literally across the Arno River) or Barcelona’s redeveloped waterside district, Poblenou.

Seek out urban wellness

The wellness industry has exploded in recent years and not just within high-end hotels or luxury spas. You can now find plenty of local leisure centres that have installed saunas or run yoga classes, while in plenty of destinations in Europe, treatments and practices are already part of the standard culture.

Last year, the Terme de Montel opened in Milan, becoming Italy’s largest urban thermal water park. Housed inside historic stables, it has 10 indoor and outdoor pools, four saunas and 10,000 sqm of courtyards and green space.

Tampere in Finland is considered the sauna capital of the world, with more than 50 public saunas, including smoke and lakeside options. Oslo in Norway is popular for its harbour-side saunas, including Sørengas Badstue, while visitors to Istanbul should seek out its many hammams for vigorous body scrubs and massages.

As for cold-water swimming, you can dip into London’s many lidos, including Brockwell Lido, Parliament Hill Lido and Hampstead Heath Swimming Ponds. In Munich, you can plunge into the Isar River, while in Zurich there are plenty of lakeside swimming spots, including Seebad Enge.