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The Glow-Getter’s guide to travel's hottest trend
The Glow-Getter's guide to travel's hottest trend. We're going for glowcation in 2026. Are you ready to glow away?
Words by Sanna Fischer Nordström
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Forget sightseeing. Forget the museum queues and the obligatory tourist attractions. In 2026, the most lusted-after souvenir you can bring home isn't a piece of ceramic or a bottle of local wine — it's the Glow. I'm ready for this. A glowcation with my girlfriends is top of my list this year — a moment to properly wind down and focus on nothing but health sounds like a dream. So I dug into the concept, and my own trip research just got started.
The concept is simple: instead of squeezing in a spa afternoon, the glowcation puts skincare first. Destinations, hotels, daily schedules — all built around treatments and the pursuit of better skin. The travel industry is paying attention. Booking.com's 2026 travel trends report found that 80 percent of global travelers are now open to building their holidays around beauty and wellness.
If one city is synonymous with glowcation culture, it's Seoul. What was once a niche obsession among skincare insiders has exploded into mainstream travel motivation, with visitors flocking to Gangnam's dermatology clinics for facials and laser treatments at a fraction of home prices.
The city's beauty pharmacies, stocked floor-to-ceiling with serums unavailable elsewhere, have become pilgrimage sites of their own. Seoul doesn't just sell you skincare. It sells you a lifestyle. What makes the glowcation more than a trend is what it says about how we think about self-care now. The old model was resting because you needed it. The glowcation is rest and reset in one — an investment in yourself, not just a break from your life. In 2026, the most glamorous thing you can do on a trip isn't to be seen at the right restaurant. It's to come back glowing
Europe's glowcation map
You don't have to fly to Seoul to get your glow. Europe has quietly built one of the world's most compelling wellness landscapes, and I've gathered some of the most talked-about spa destinations to check out. Welcome to the era of glowcation.
The Retreat at Blue Lagoon, ICELAND.
The icon. Set in a lava field on the Reykjanes Peninsula, Blue Lagoon's mineral-rich geothermal waters have drawn skin-obsessed travelers for decades. The real upgrade is The Retreat, a subterranean spa carved from volcanic stone, with private lagoons, float therapy, and facials using serums developed in the resort's own lab. The signature ritual — silica mud, algae, mineral soaks — is as close to a skincare ceremony as travel gets. For an urban take, Sky Lagoon in Reykjavik offers the same magic with ocean views.
Therme Vals, SWITZERLAND.
Designed by Peter Zumthor and built entirely from local quartzite, Therme Vals is as much an art installation as a spa. Nestled into the Alps, the thermal pools feel carved from the mountain itself. Book months ahead — you'll leave wondering why you don't live there.
Octant Furnas, The Azores, Portugal.
Europe's most underrated glowcation. The Azores' volcanic springs produce mineral-rich waters in extraordinary hues, and Octant Furnas builds the full experience around them — sauna to Turkish bath, aromatic showers, jet pools, treatments with local pineapple, brown sugar, and sea salt. Deeply restorative, genuinely unlike anywhere else.
Budapest's thermal baths, Hungary.
Budapest has called itself the city of spas since 1934. Sitting on more than 120 thermal springs, its bathhouses deliver mineral-rich water for a fraction of resort prices. Széchenyi and Gellért are the grand originals — ornate, atmospheric, unmissable. For the glowcation traveler on a budget, still one of Europe's great steals.
Glowcation Essetials
The Well, Oslo
Fifteen minutes outside Oslo, the largest spa in the Nordics — 20,000 square meters of pools, saunas, and stillness, surrounded by forest. Eleven pools, a cold plunge, fifteen saunas and steam baths, a hammam, an onsen, a rhassoul clay bath. The guided sauna ceremonies — heat, scent, sound — have a cult following. Longevity is the whole point: heat and cold, rest and stimulation, on repeat.
Hagastrand, Stockholm.
And the best, if you live in Sweden. By the still waters of Brunnsviken just outside the city, Hagastrand has quickly become one of the Nordics' most talked-about wellness destinations. Designed by Wingårdhs for Marriott's Autograph Collection, it feels considered rather than corporate — harder to pull off than it sounds. The concept is "social wellness": a lively lounge with food and drinks, and a sensory thermal journey through herbal sauna, hammam, snow room, and neuroacoustic massage beds with red light therapy. The 18-metre pool has underwater music — sounds gimmicky until you're in it. A sauna master leads ceremonies for up to 60 people. For the skin, there's a group facial using organic products developed exclusively for Hagastrand. Basically a glowcation in a single afternoon.
