The Art of Summer Wellness Travel: Redefining Rest, Recovery, and Movement

At Proper Hotels, our summer wellness travel programming syncs with longer days and lighter mornings. Each stay supports movement, recovery, and rest, encouraging a deeper connection to your surroundings. For guests pursuing intentional travel, this offers a purposeful blend of restoration, care, and place-based design.

From the coastline of Santa Monica to the creative hum of Austin, the revival energy of Miami Beach, the cultural density of Downtown Los Angeles, and the poetic fog of San Francisco, wellness takes shape in distinct ways. But it always begins with the same idea: how you feel shapes how you live.

“We have long envisioned our hotels as reflections of the way we live: creative, connected, and grounded in health.”- Brian De Lowe, Co-Founder and President, Proper Hospitality

The Science of Summer Wellness

There’s a growing understanding that summer shifts more than just schedules. Exposure to morning sunlight boosts serotonin, which supports improved mood, focus, and calm, and helps suppress melatonin during the day. This alignment of circadian rhythms promotes more restful sleep and sustained energy (Harvard Medical School).

According to Stanford researchers, getting natural light in the first hour after waking helps set your biological clock by triggering cortisol release and signaling melatonin suppression, resulting in clearer wakefulness, improved mood, and better sleep onset. At the same time, natural light increases vitamin D synthesis, enhancing immune function and cognitive clarity (NIH Office of Dietary Supplements).

Seasonal thermoregulation benefits also play a role. Contrast therapies, like alternating sauna and cold plunge, are linked to improved vascular function, reduced inflammation, and better stress response. One Stanford-affiliated study notes that cold water immersion can enhance mood, reduce stress, and support recovery across cognitive and physical domains. These practices make the body more resilient and well suited for summer wellness travel.

Psychologically, this seasonal response shows up as motivation, curiosity, and an openness to novelty.

Move with the City

At Proper, movement is influenced by the environment, shaped by the light, the weather, and the character of each city. Rather than being confined to a gym, movement is built into the guest experience and connected to the world outside.

In Santa Monica, mornings begin with beach tennis just feet from the ocean. Padel fundamentals are offered in collaboration with PadelUp. Movement takes place outdoors, with the Pacific providing the soundtrack.

Austin guests rise early to meet the city in motion. Run clubs circle Lady Bird Lake before the heat takes hold. Pilates and mat-based training unfold on shaded terraces. Everything is timed to meet the climate and mood of the place.

Miami Beach brings a coastal boldness. Beach runs begin at first light, when the air is cool and soft. Sunrise yoga, terrace flows, and stretch spaces invite guests to meet the day with breath and awareness.

Across the collection of Proper’s luxury wellness hotels, movement is integrated into the day, not scheduled into it. Classes range from HIIT and mat pilates to water aerobics, Surya Dosha yoga, and gentle rooftop flows. Tennis and padel are growing features, with curated programming offered throughout the season.

New Performance Wellness Rooms, available at Santa Monica Proper, bring movement indoors. Outfitted with Peloton bikes and stretching zones, these rooms are designed for seamless, in-room training. VO₂ Max assessments are available as an optional, add-on service.

Tools for Faster Recovery

Recovery is having a cultural moment. What was once viewed as the domain of injured athletes or clinical rehabilitation has evolved into a lifestyle practice embraced by everyone from CEOs to college students. The shift represents something deeper than wellness trends. It’s a fundamental reimagining of what it means to take care of yourself.

For decades, the culture celebrated “no pain, no gain.” Rest was earned. Recovery came only after burnout. But as stress-related illness surged, the mindset began to shift.

Elite athletes helped lead the way, treating ice baths, compression therapy, and sleep optimization as performance tools. Technology that once lived in training centers made its way into spas, studios, and now hotels.

Cold immersion, such as a five-minute plunge, has been shown in randomized controlled trials to significantly increase heart rate variability, a marker of parasympathetic (vagal) activation, and reduce cortisol compared to passive recovery (National Library of Medicine). This combination helps stabilize mood and support mental and physical restoration.

At Proper, recovery isn’t just rest. It’s the act of returning to yourself mentally, physically, and energetically.

At the core of this philosophy are Recovery Suites, now available in Santa Monica and Austin. These bookable rooms are designed with tools once reserved for elite athletes, offering a private space equipped with infrared and dry saunas, cold plunges, red light therapy, and NormaTec compression.

Santa Monica Proper introduces a deeper layer with the Ammortal Chamber, an immersive, bookable experience that combines infrared heat, PEMF therapy, oxygen enhancement, and red light. This service is available as an add-on for guests seeking an advanced recovery session.

Food That Feels Good

Something is shifting in American kitchens. Ingredients that were once considered staples are now under closer scrutiny. Seed oils like canola, sunflower, and soybean, long viewed as neutral, are being reexamined by functional medicine experts, food scientists, and even home cooks who are paying more attention to labels and sourcing.

The shift isn’t just about one type of oil. It represents a broader awakening to food transparency, a growing understanding that how food is processed affects how it makes you feel. Industrial food production, designed for shelf stability and cost efficiency, optimized everything except the human experience of eating.

This awareness has moved beyond wellness circles into mainstream hospitality. Travelers increasingly expect to know not just what they’re eating, but how it was grown, processed, and prepared. The farm-to-table movement was just the beginning. Now guests want to understand the oils used for cooking, the sourcing of proteins, the methods employed to preserve nutrients.

The “food as medicine” philosophy has evolved from alternative health concept to luxury hospitality standard. It’s no longer enough for hotel food to taste good. It must support how guests want to feel during and after their stay.

In spring 2025, Proper became the first national luxury hotel group to fully remove seed oils from its kitchens. This shift is not symbolic, it is structural. No canola, no sunflower, no soybean. In their place: olive oil from family groves, avocado oil for its high-heat stability, and Zero Acre’s fermentation-based oil in our fryers, chosen for sustainability and health.

Each kitchen at our wellness hotels interprets this sourcing philosophy in its own way. In Austin, The Peacock serves bold Mediterranean flavors using Texas-grown produce. In Santa Monica, Palma and Calabra lean into vibrant coastal ingredients, paired with natural wines. At Villon in San Francisco, the approach is elevated yet approachable, reflecting Northern California’s agricultural roots.

Menus now feature regenerative grains, grass-fed meats, wild-caught seafood, and fermented foods like housemade kimchi, miso, and yogurts. Cooking methods like sous vide, steaming, and slow-roasting preserve nutrient density and flavor.

The result is dining that feels luxurious, not heavy.

The New Luxury: Sleep

Sleep has become a modern marker of wellbeing. It is no longer taken for granted but tracked, optimized, and increasingly prioritized. The pandemic reframed rest as essential rather than indulgent, sparking a cultural shift and giving rise to what many now call sleep tourism.

Today’s travelers are beginning to choose where to stay based on sleep quality, not just design or location. Circadian lighting, cooling mattresses, and acoustically tuned spaces are becoming part of what defines a more restorative and wellness-focused stay.

At Proper, sleep has always been part of the wellness conversation. In Santa Monica, that philosophy comes to life through spaces and rituals designed for real rest. The approach is intuitive, the tools are restorative, and the experience is deeply considered.

The new Restorative Wellness Rooms are sanctuaries of circadian alignment. Each room features an Eight Sleep Pod, which adapts in real time to your temperature cycles throughout the night. Jaspr air purifiers, Filterbaby water systems, Loftie sunrise alarms, and Slip silk masks create an environment where the body can truly let go.

This isn’t just a luxury. It’s a commitment to your nervous system. To your quality of thought the next day. To how you feel when you check out, not just how you sleep when you check in.

These tools are available exclusively in Santa Monica for now, but the thinking is already influencing rooms and rituals across the wellness travel portfolio.

Where Culture Meets Connection

Wellness isn’t just physical. The most sustainable practices happen in community, where shared intention creates momentum that individual willpower cannot sustain alone. Travel amplifies this. People become more open to new experiences when away from familiar routines and social expectations.

Modern wellness travelers seek more than services. They want temporary tribes formed around shared values. Group classes feel less intimidating. Shared meals become conversations. Cultural experiences provide the intellectual stimulation and beauty that nourish in ways supplements cannot.

This summer’s Proper Presents series brings that connection to the forefront. Guests can expect rooftop DJ sets, artist conversations, sensory workshops, natural wine tastings, and sound baths.

Each Proper destination curates its own lineup. In Miami, programming ranges from fragrance sessions to beachside flows. In Austin, events are intimate and artist-led. In San Francisco and LA, the calendar is alive with music, talks, and culinary expression.

A Better Way to Travel this Summer

At Proper, wellness travel is not a program. It is a lens through which everything is considered. Every mattress. Every menu. Every architectural choice.

We are not adding wellness to luxury travel. We are removing what never belonged and surfacing what always has.

This summer, across five Proper destinations, experience wellness travel where movement is purposeful, rest is restorative, and food is made to support how you feel.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before beginning any wellness practice or treatment.

Summer Wellness Travel at Proper – FAQ