No-one wants to live forever, but this famous Swiss health clinic specialises in living well for longer …
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Increasingly, we’re using our time off to take years off. There’s a growing trend for health and fitness travel, with “wellness tourism” becoming a huge market as travellers increasingly prioritise holistic wellbeing, sleep and recovery. Forget sangria and sunburn – we want to come home rested, calm, revived and restored.
Can a Swiss health clinic offer the ultimate reset? Clinique La Prairie is the famed choice of the famous (and certainly rich) for over 90 years. Founded by Swiss surgeon Dr Paul Niehans in the 1930s, it has welcomed everyone from Charlie Chaplin, who lived nearby for many years, to Richard Burton. If you were in the restaurant in the 1950s, you could be sipping your soup alongside Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Winston Churchill and Pope Pius II. But what’s it like for a mere mortal?
The clinic is on the shore of Lake Leman, surrounded by snow-capped blue-grey mountains, in Montreux, less than an hour from Geneva airport. It’s like being transported to the pages of Heidi. I stayed in the original 1930s building, which looks like something out of a Wes Anderson film. You choose from a range of programmes, from Detox to Brain Potential, based around four pillars – medical, nutritional, wellbeing and movement, all using the latest diagnostic technology. I was there for four days of the Longevity Programme, which assesses your metabolic age and outlines ways you can reverse it. The ultimate personal NCT, if you like.
“Longevity is not increasing life, it’s increasing the time we are healthy.”
A recent WHO study found that global life expectancy rates have dropped, with obesity a key factor. As CEO of Clinique La Prairie, Simone Gibertoni, explains: “There is no magic pill. We all know what to do – we all know that we need to walk, eat salad, don’t drink. The question is, why don’t we do it? You need a human to change a human.” He points out that 90 per cent of medicine is focused on sick people, rather than investing in preventative measures, and this is what Clinique La Prairie addresses. The clinic has its own private hospital on site, with 50 specialists, plus a lab for immediate test results. It’s expanding abroad, with Longevity Hubs in urban centres including Madrid and Bangkok, and a new health resort in Shanghai.
At a time of endless generic “self-care”, a science-based, proactive medical approach is a breath of fresh air. There is something reassuring about handing yourself over to experts. On the first morning a nurse takes your blood, blood pressure, weight and height, and over the following days, sophisticated medical screenings are applied to every aspect of you, from body composition to the levels of metals in your blood. A daily programme is left at your door overnight. With a maximum 55 guests in just 38 rooms, Clinique La Prairie offers a properly personalised approach, and this is what you’re paying for.
Submitting to a sugar and dairy-free eating programme in the land of Gruyère and Toblerone might sound brutal. But the atmosphere means you slot into the routine easily. Food is a highlight, with creative, colourful and anti-inflammatory food by French chef David Alessandria, including soups, flavoursome green curries and lots of veg done in dazzling ways. There’s no butter and cream, but no deprivation either. You become accustomed to the quiet, sedate pace of meals. Caffeine withdrawal is not strictly necessary, unless you’re on the detox programme; I was relieved to spot an espresso machine.
In the state-of-the-art gym, the Huber 360 machine – used by professional athletes – offers a fascinating way to assess your balance, stability and strength. A breathing session with expert Phil Simha, a free-diving instructor, was fascinating; he outlines the myriad benefits for your mind, sleep and stress levels from just ten minutes a day of conscious breathing. You’ll see everyone from a nutritionist to a doctor, who analyses your test results.
Beyond the pool and hammam lies a long corridor of doors. And behind each lies a treatment more extraordinary than the last, like a spa version of Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, from cryotherapy to targeted LED. Highlights included a superlative Thai massage on a padded bed on the floor, which transported me straight to Koh Pha-Ngan in the 1990s. And the experts, at the very top of their game, are the crux of why those who can afford to return year after year do. Every one you talk to has an empathy that cannot be faked. They’re the crème de la crème.
After just a few days here, you feel different. As you’d expect after supremely healthy food, zero stress and gallons of crystal-clear Swiss water, I felt immeasureably lighter (well, a few kilos), calm and warm inside in the way you can only get from clean living. Buoyed or dismayed by your metabolic age readings, you leave with a blueprint on how to live well, and strong motivation to invest in your own health. Though it is inevitably harder to maintain angelic habits when you’re back home.
I loved the walk around the lake into Montreux, where Queen owned a studio for years. Located inside a seedy casino, the studio displays the drumkit played at Live Aid and handwritten lyrics scribbled by Freddie Mercury, who recorded his last vocals here. As he put it, “If you want peace of soul, come to Montreux”. On the last evening I walked in the rain to see the local market sputter into life as white mists swirled. I felt truly energised from inside out, ready to face anything. A feeling that money can’t buy. Except that – for a lucky few – it can.
Rue du Lac, Clarens-Montreux, Switzerland; www.cliniqueprairie.com. From €12,133 (for the five-day Detox Reset programme).
TAKE HOME WITH YOU: Holistic Health Longevity supplements continue the good work at home; www.cliniquelaprairie-hh.com. The Oura ring (Gibertoni swears by it) helps to track your sleep and heart rate (€279; www.ouraring.com). Swiss-made Puralpina Arve room spray, with Swiss pine, lavender and patchouli, captures the clean air, from €19; www.kukui.ch.
