Why Abu Dhabi Is The Next Luxury Wellness Hotspot

Abu Dhabi is having ‘a moment’. Visit the city, the capital of the UAE, in 2024 and you’ll see a skyline punctuated with cranes and hi-rises shooting up like exclamation marks. This is a city in rapid development. In fact, the Abu Dhabi Projects and Infrastructure Centre (ADPIC) has recently announced that the Abu Dhabi Executive Council has approved the launch of 144 future projects across Abu Dhabi. “These were approved with a total budget of around AED66 billion (US$180 billion) and will span various sectors, including housing and quality of life, education and human capital, tourism, and natural resources.”

This advancement of the destination’s infrastructure is having a huge knock-on effect on the hospitality industry, with investors and developers clamouring over themselves to have a stake in what is being labelled the ‘next Dubai’. With a line-up of big-name openings on the horizon, it is clear that the Emirate is hoping to carve out a name for itself as the next alluring, luxury destination in the Middle East.

Opening this year, for instance, is Mondrian Abu Dhabi, designed by Tristan Du Plessis, and the first property from the brand in the UAE. Located in the city’s downtown area, alongside the Abu Dhabi canal, the 221-room hotel will also have 80 serviced apartments, six restaurants and bars and a lagoon with ocean views.

Set to open in 2027 is Nobu Hotel Abu Dhabi, found on Saadiyat Island, featuring three restaurants, including its famous namesake eatery, and a rooftop Nobu Villa. Hip beach club and hotel brand Nammos is also getting in on the action, following its popular openings in Mykonos and Greece, it will open in Abu Dhabi in 2025.

Meanwhile, owned by Hilton, LXR Hotels & Resorts is planning to launch an ambitious private island resort on Al Nawras Island, with a planned opening date in 2025. The all-villa resort will offer beach or water villas, as well as a two-bedroom Royal Villa surrounding a state-of-the-art golf course.

Carlos Khneisser, Hilton’s vice president of Middle East & Africa development, said of the Emirate’s hospitality scene: “The UAE’s burgeoning capital has established itself as a global hub in recent years and has seen incredible development in terms of hospitality, sports and tourism. I believe Al Nawras Island will complement Abu Dhabi’s luxury hotel landscape perfectly and we look forward to guests experiencing this unique property.”

Abu Dhabi has also made a name as an authentic cultural hub in the UAE, with the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, in 2017, setting a marker in the sand. Found in the Saadiyat Cultural District, it is also where Manarat Al Saadiyat is found, a community cultural and events centre and home to the Abu Dhabi Art Fair. Most notably, the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum, will soon join the line-up of heavyweight cultural names when it opens its doors in 2025. At 42,000 square metres, it will be the largest of the four Guggenheim outposts.

Next up, however, is Abu Dhabi’s positioning as an accessible wellness destination, with the opening of Kintsugi Space, an inventive new, women’s-only, wellness spa-clinic. Located on Al Reem Island, it marries cutting-edge science with age-old holistic therapies.

Inspired by the ancient Japanese art of repairing ceramics with gold (known as kintsugi), the dusty-pink-painted building is found in the heart of a quiet residential area (look closely and you’ll see a thin gold line painted on the building as a nod to the tradition).

Kintsugi’s core concept is based on the science of quantum healing and has been spearheaded by spa doyenne, Patrizia Bortolin. The spa director is well known for opening some of the most impressive spas in Europe, including at Borgo Egnazia in Puglia, Italy, and for her role as wellness director at Preidlhof in South Tyrol, where she has designed a 360° transformational wellness concept.

Guests can purchase a membership (from three months onwards) or book a six-day retreat, with a highly personalised approach to the care that you receive. Quantum physics is the jumping-off point: put simply, it’s all about your inner energy. You start with a diagnostic session to measure your energy frequencies and inner vibrations, the idea being that to raise these will bring optimum levels for peak wellbeing.

“Quantum diagnostics involves the analysis of subtle energy fields or vibrations withing the body,” explains Patrizia. “Our practitioners use various devices and techniques, inspired by quantum principles, to assess these energetic patterns.”

She continues: “I’ve delved into a lot of different wellbeing disciplines in my time, but I am really excited about kinetic healing and the research happening with quantum science. It actually relates to my other passion—ancient spirituality—because, in essence, we are talking about healing your energy.”

In the diagnostic session, guests are asked to wear a special helmet, which measures brain frequencies; place their hand on a tech-led mat to read their energetic imprint and speak into a microphone that feeds the frequency of their voice into a computer programme. Naturopathic doctor, Kathy Nellikka, also uses the ancient therapy of Su Jok, which sees her roll a small metal baton over your palms and fingers to ‘read’ what is going on in your body.

“In the Su Jok discipline the palms align with organs and meridians in your body (much like the feet do in Reflexology),” she says, “and when these areas are stimulated, a specialist like me can read if there are any problems.”

These readings then form the basis of your programme of treatments—whether that is oxygen therapy, candle meditation or Chinese abdominal massage, known as Chi Ne Tsang (these are just a small selection of the huge therapies on offer).

“At Kintsugi, we are inspiring people to embrace the perfectly imperfect,” says Patrizia, “and we have brought together a community of wellness practitioners, wellbeing artists, healing souls, progressive therapists and scientists for guests to tap into. There is not one size fits all, which is why each person’s journey here is highly individualized.”

Stretching across seven floors, the space itself is beautifully designed and filled with bespoke, Italian-designed furniture and a variety of art works—most exceptionally a 25-metre installation by British artist Lauren Baker, which takes the form of a giant scroll of paper that falls down the centre of the lofty staircase. The piece, called Letter from the Universe, is painted with gold sound waves to depict the frequencies of the seven chakras—reflecting the Kintsugi concept of ancient wellbeing matched with modern practices.

The tall, thin townhouse seems to be expansive inside, revealing hidden corners and intimate spaces, like velvet compartments of a jewellery box. Each floor is named according to what healing journey you’ll find there: Be, Feel, Do, Love, Power, See, and Kintsugi.

There are zen gardens, one with a pool and an onsen tub, and another tiny roof garden, with a boucle armchair and living wall. There are rooms for sound baths, meditation practices and exercise. There is an oxygen bar and a hyperbaric chamber and even a prayer room, to reflect its place in the Middle East. You can have treatments on a quartz bed or on an LED bed and recalibrate your joints and posture on a metal Keope chair—which comically jostles you around and is surprisingly rejuvenating.

The Activation relaxation area features a library of nature and wellness books, as well as a tiny kintsugi studio, where you can try the Japanese craft of repairing ceramics. The relaxing sound-drenched balcony is dressed with sun loungers and towering bamboo plants, a nod to the biophilic principles found throughout the wellness hub,.

Elsewhere, there are wet and dry facilities, including an infrared sauna, an obsidian crystal sauna and a Hamman room. Days are spent pottering around from one treatment to another, trying the wealth of wellness facilities or, perhaps, just reading an inspirational book or taking time for yourself (it is a no phone zone). Meanwhile, at Kintsugi Kitchen, you can feed your body and soul with the innovative plant-based menu, overseen by chef Emanuele Giorgione, former executive chef at the revered Chenot wellness retreat in Switzerland. There are inventive salads, wholesome soups and vegan pastas as well as bespoke tea blends and—surprisingly perhaps—really good coffee. “I am also a coffee fanatic,” reveals Patrizia. “So that was a must.”

Aside from the beauty and the all-encompassing treatments, Kintsugi’s trump card is surely celebrity facialist Anastasia Achilleos, who has worked with the likes of Kate Moss, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jodie Cromer, as well as elevating the cheekbones for top models for fashion houses, such as Miu Miu, Stella McCartney and Louis Vuitton.

Each guest is treated as if you are just as special as an A-lister, with Anastasia gently probing, feeling your body and getting the measure of exactly what you need. Her technique—which launched in 2016 and is called the Anastasia Achilleos Method—goes beyond traditional beauty practices and incorporates deep tissue massage and lymphatic drainage to lift, sculp and enable emotional release.

“A lot of people hold tension in their jaw and when that is released, their whole face—and even body—changes,” she says. “They look instantly lighter, younger, with better posture and a freshness about them.”

More than just a simple facial, she also incorporates caraniosacral release and realignment of your body in sessions which feel escapist, all-encompassing and during which you seem to float off to a different realm. “Each person is treated individually,” she says. “I can feel what each person needs. Sometimes they don’t even have to tell me anything. Although, quite often people open up to me about what is going on in their lives and reveal all sorts of things. It is like a psychotherapy couch once you are on my bed.”

Kitnsugi embraces streamlined Japanese aesthetics, incorporates a good dose of Italian attitude, especially when it comes to the importance placed on food and design, paired with a holistic approach that combines futuristic know-how and age-old techniques. Soon, the brand will be expanding this philosophy in a line of hand-crafted products, including clothing, beauty (with its own fragrance already developed) and healing products that draw inspiration from what it calls the ‘Kintsugi Wellness Movement’. There are also rumours of a European offshoot set to open next year.

“The aim of Kintsugi,” concludes Patrizia, “is that our guests will find a new, higher frequency where life feels more joyful and nourishing. We want to stimulate the mind to create healthy routines, change perspectives, think less and observe more, care for details and rituals and appreciate the beauty all around. The idea works seamlessly within the context of Abu Dhabi, too, because it is so dynamic here at the moment. It is a place that will charm you, like it has me. I feel a sense of belonging here.”