Eleven Life retreats take guests out of their comfort zone with tough physical challenges and activities for mental stimulation. The result? They leave happier and healthier than ever before, apparently. Olivia Palamountain reports

Luxury, boundary-pushing, adventure company Eleven Experience is launching its extreme wellness concept, Eleven Life, at Colorado’s Taylor River Lodge.

Following the same principles as the Eleven Life experience at Deplar Farm in Iceland, retreats are centred around a challenging, innovative and science-based approach to wellness and fitness.

The thinking is that small science-based adjustments can easily be incorporated into daily routines, which in turn will help guests eat smarter, sleep better, feel healthier and exercise more effectively, improving their overall wellbeing for years to come.

Not for the faint-hearted, this is a wellness concept that aims to push guests to test their limits and challenges them to think outside the box.Eleven ExperiencesTaylor River Lodge is a natural partner for the Eleven Life offering: a low-tech, intimate retreat designed to take guests back to basics in style.

Taylor River LodgeEach guest will receive a consultation and an ultra-personalised plan that incorporates Eleven Life’s key principles: aggregated gains and stimulating wellness challenges, outdoor adventure, spa therapies, fitness and nutrition.Eleven ExperiencesThe programme combines physical outdoor adventures and invigorating activities for mental stimulation, all inspired by the lodge’s remote surroundings – think “snow cave yoga nidra”, “fire yoga”, “forest bathing”, and “snow shower hydrotherapy”.

In the quest for everlasting health, wellness trends are becoming increasingly extreme. By 2022, the Global Wellness Institute predicts that wellness tourism will become a US$900 billion industry. This is up from US$640 billion in 2017.

Globetrender has reported on everything from a Dutch retreat using psychedelics to improve wellbeing and a ‘longevity’ IV drip bar in Bangkok to a €23,000 weight loss bootcamp in Portugal.

We are also seeing wellness tourism grow into a form adventure travel, with the likes of ultra-sports members club Somerton, that gives fitness-obsessed adventurers that chance to train with hundreds of elite athletes from across the globe and Cookson Adventures series of “Breathe” themed trips in which participants get to go deep-sea free-diving or learn martial arts in Japan.

Taylor River LodgeA typical day begins with a functional fitness warm up that covers primary movement patterns before guests partake in a variety of stimulating adventures that embrace the winter elements and challenge perceptions of a standard wellness retreat.

Next up are games based on holistic principles but inspired by scientific studies designed to test guest’s sensory perceptions, ability to focus and stamina levels.

Finally, guests can slip into the spa (or enjoy an in-room experience) of bespoke treatments such as the Taylor River Lodge Winter Signature Massage, which uses smooth local river stones to treat aches and pains.Taylor River LodgeWinter rates for Eleven Life at Taylor River Lodge (December 14, 2020 – April 5, 2021) start from US$800 per night based on double occupancy.

The price includes wellness-focussed and guided activities, all necessary gear, pre-arrival planning with an Eleven Experience manager, meals, beverages and in-room minibar. The lodge and is available for buyout for 24 guests or by room reservations.

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