The Five Best New Year Retreats

2. Incosol Hotel and Medical Spa, Spain
Quitting cigarettes for the New Year? Make it easier with a five-star spa break. A giving-up-smoking package is on offer at this medical spa in Marbella, with luxurious treatment rooms tropical gardens, Moorish patios and elegant pools, not to mention a hammam, sauna, Jacuzzi and ice rooms.
Incosol Hotel and Medical Spa, Urbanización Golf Rio Real, Marbella, Malaga, Spain (00 34 952 86 09 09; www.incosol.net). Doubles from €178 (£127), room only. The seven-day givingup- smoking package costs €1,371 (£979), including half-board accommodation, a consultation, medical analysis, five onehour psychology sessions, three acupuncture sessions and spa treatments, four neuro-sedative massages, a facial, and use of the spa hydrotherapy circuit

3. Hakone Ginyu, Japan
Since it was featured on a Japanese travel programme over the summer, this ryokan, or inn, is harder to get into than Tokyo’s most fashionable restaurants. Built on a mountainside at the gateway to the richly forested Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, it is the definition of serenity, with an almost Shinto-like reverence for nature. Located one hour south-west of Tokyo by vertiginous mountain train, journeying there alone is enough to encourage meditation on the beauty of nature. Each guestroom has at least one ofuro (traditional wooden bath) on its decked balcony. The public onsen (baths) available to guests comprise two infinity pools and hot tubs high above the deep Haya river gorge. Here, you can enjoy a purifying dip in the natural hot springs.
Hakone Ginyu, 100-1 Miyanoshita, Hakone, Kanagawa, Japan (00 81 3 5368 0790; www.hakoneginyu. co.jp). Doubles from Y60,000 (£264), room only

4. Body & Soul Adventures, Brazil
This bikini boot camp, popular among A-list celebrities, is set in the coastal rainforest of Paraty, Rio de Janeiro. Where others use a kid-glove approach, this rustic spa puts the boot in: no alcohol, no meat, no caffeine, no calories (OK, some calories, nominally 1,500 a day). Add to this a daily exercise routine that involves sunrise yoga, hefty mountain hikes, ocean-kayaking trips and lifting more forkfuls of tofu than the Dalai Lama, and you have a detox programme that has got the likes of Cameron Diaz back in her bikini and in front of the cameras. Between activities there is time for first-rate massages, snorkelling, diving or simply chilling out on Paraty’s talcum-white beaches.
Body & Soul Adventures, Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (020-3002 0936; www.bodyand souladventures.com). Six-day boot camp from $2,000 (£1,000), including meals but not flights 

5. Shanti Ananda Maurice, Mauritius
Return to good health with an Ayurvedic wellness course, the ancient Hindu system of healing that is said to prolong life. Focusing on nutritional cooking using local ingredients, the approach may be scientific but the setting is far from clinical. Shanti Ananda is surrounded by 36 acres of tropical gardens on the island’s south coast, with soul-stilling views of the surrounding wooded hills and Indian Ocean coral reefs beyond.
Shanti Ananda Maurice, Rivière des Galets, Chemin Grenier, Mauritius (00 230 603 7200; www.shantiananda. com). Doubles from €650 (£464), including breakfast. The seven-night Ayurvedic Rejuvenation Package costs 4,730 (£3,379) per person, and includes accommodation with breakfast, consultations, reiki, reflexology, yoga, Ayurvedic therapies and meditation, but not flights