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Carolina Malis

Contributing writer for Style by SCMP, specialising in beauty, wellness and lifestyle


For many, a holiday ends with a suitcase full of souvenirs. For a growing number of travellers, however, it ends with skin that looks different – glowier – from how it did at the beginning of the trip.
This is the whole premise behind the glowcation, a term everywhere in recent travel trend reports that describes a very specific kind of trip: one built around a wellness treatment, beauty ritual or very targeted pharmacy haul.
During a normal holiday, many people will squeeze in an odd spa afternoon between museum visits. A glowcation, however, is a trip where the treatment is the entire reason for going – a clinic in Seoul, a hammam in Marrakech, a thermal bath in Germany – for something that cannot be replicated at home.
That is not to say that you cannot get a facial, a skin booster or that same treatment without leaving your neighbourhood, but the real draw is usually something that does not travel well: that country’s fresh water or clay, or a decades-old technique in this country.
That exclusivity means that cities around the world have come to expect these wellness tourists. In Seoul, for example, there are hundreds of clinics fighting for business. With so much competition, this means shorter waits for clients – an appointment that takes months to land at home can be done in the same week you arrive.
According to Skyscanner’s 2026 travel trends report, travel planning and advice conversations within Reddit’s beauty subreddits have grown 215 per cent year on year. That same report says that 27 per cent of Gen Z travellers are seeking treatments or skincare shopping while travelling in 2026, while nearly a third of people now shop duty-free for skincare.
If you are thinking about booking a glowcation yourself, here are some places to go and what makes each worth the flight.
1. Seoul, South Korea

Seoul has spent the better part of two decades building the infrastructure to be the world’s dermatology capital, and it shows the moment you land, with entire buildings on Apgujeong Rodeo Street housing nothing but skin clinics.
Skin boosters are one of the main draws, as well as hydrating injectables like Rejuran and Juvelook, alongside laser toning treatments that Korean dermatologists have been refining for years longer than most Western clinics have offered them, often for a fraction of the cost.
Shopping runs on its own parallel track in Myeongdong, a single pedestrian district packed with so many Olive Young shops and stand-alone K-beauty stores that an afternoon there covers most of what is worth buying.
2. Paris, France

The French capital’s reputation for skincare comes from the pharmacy counter, where dispensing chemists must complete, at minimum, a six-year degree in pharmacology and chemistry before they are ever allowed behind one.
More than a specific pharmacy, the appeal is the density of them: there is a green cross lit up on practically every corner, and each pharmacy is stocked with the same clinical-grade skincare that can cost two or three times as much when shipped anywhere else.
Citypharma in Saint-Germain-des-Pres, spread across multiple floors and stocking practically every French brand under one roof, is the one most people have heard of, but wander into any smaller neighbourhood pharmacy and you will usually find the same brands and a shorter queue.
3. Marrakech, Morocco

Morocco’s beauty traditions include the hammam, a communal bathing ritual that follows the same order it always has. Steam softens the skin before savon beldi, a black soap, is applied and left to sit, after which a kessa glove is used to strip away a full layer of dead skin. The ritual is finished with the application of rhassoul clay and argan oil while the skin is still warm enough to absorb it.
For the fully local version, a public hammam in Marrakech’s medina quarter costs next to nothing and skips every frill, while a private riad hammam adds a massage, mint tea and someone else to do all the scrubbing.
4. Baden-Baden, Germany

Baden-Baden’s whole identity is built around one specific building: the Friedrichsbad, which has been running its 17-stage bathing circuit since 1877 over the ruins of an actual Roman bath discovered mid-construction.
The sequence moves through steadily rising heat, a soap-and-brush scrub partway through, then a cold plunge that resets the whole cycle before it climbs again. All of it is spent completely undressed since the baths operate on a “no-textile” policy most days of the week.
American writer Mark Twain, who bathed there, wrote that visitors lose track of time within 10 minutes and lose track of the world within 20. It seems like that is still the best description going.
5. Beppu, Japan

Beppu, on the island of Kyushu, treats bathing almost like a science. The city is split into eight distinct hot spring districts, each drawing from a different underground source, so the sulphur-heavy water at Myoban and the iron-rich, rust-red springs at Kankaiji can sit 20 minutes apart and leave your skin feeling like it has been on two entirely different trips.
Head spas have built a modern, salon-based ritual based on that same obsession with mineral water, opening with a scalp diagnosis using a microscope camera before moving into a carbonated or oil-based treatment based on the results, with a typical session running 60 to 110 minutes.
6. Blue Lagoon, Iceland

Iceland’s famous outdoor pool started life as waste water from the Svartsengi geothermal plant next door, before people realised what the silica and blue-green algae in it were doing for skin.
The Blue Lagoon conducts its own in-house research and offers treatments for conditions such as psoriasis and eczema through an on-site dermatology clinic that has been running since 1994.
The Sky Lagoon spa, newer and starker, replaces the Blue Lagoon’s self-serve approach with a fixed seven-step ritual: lagoon, cold plunge, sauna, cold mist, body scrub, steam and a final elixir shot of Icelandic crowberry juice to close it out.


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6 ‘glowcation’ destinations for your next beauty and wellness fix, from Seoul to Marrakech

The Friedrichsbad in Baden-Baden has been running its 17-stage bathing circuit since 1877. The sequence moves through steadily rising heat, a soap-and-brush scrub partway through, then a cold plunge that resets the whole cycle before it climbs again. 

K-beauty stores are one of the main draws for people visiting Korea on glowcations. Photo: AFP

The green cross that indicates a French pharmacy can be seen at street corners throughout Paris. Photo: Reuters

A room at a traditional Moroccan hammam.

The Friedrichsbad is a famous spa in Baden-Baden, Germany.

A bathhouse in Beppu, on Japan’s Kyushu island. Photo: Sam Evans

The Blue Lagoon in Iceland started life as waste water from a geothermal plant. 

Why tourists are flocking to South Korea’s pharmacies and wellness services

Customers browse health supplements and skin care products at Ready Young Pharmacy in Seongsu-dong, Seoul. Beauty and wellness tourism is currently one of South Korea’s fastest-growing tourism trends. Photo: The Korea Times

A building directory in front of a building in Seoul lists a range of medical and wellness clinics. Photo: The Korea Times

Customers browse products at Ready Young Pharmacy in Seongsu-dong in Seoul. Photo: The Korea Times

At this stunning Vietnamese mountain resort, luxury meets local culture

Garrya Mu Cang Chai is nestled in a protected heritage landscape of terraced rice paddies in the northern Vietnamese mountains. As well as breathtaking scenery, the luxury resort offers wellness treatments, and food and activities intertwined with the traditions of the local Hmong people. Photo: Garrya Mu Cang Chai 

The lobby area of Garrya Mu Cang Chai highlights the main resort building’s bamboo structure. Photo: Garrya Mu Cang Chai

The resort partners with local tour guides who take guests through nearby villages, where Hmong people lead classes on beeswax painting and other traditional handicrafts. Photo: Lisa Cam

Wok-fried buffalo in a bamboo tube at Garrya Mu Cang Cai. The resort’s executive chef Tran Van Phu incorporates Hmong culinary heritage into his dishes by using indigenous ingredients. Photo: Garrya Mu Cang Cai

The vitality pool in the resort’s 8lements Spa. Photo: Garrya Mu Cang Chai

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Pengembak Beach in Bali is a lesser-known beach on the island’s southeastern coast that will play host to Jia Curated 2026, an international design and cultural event, from August 13 to 17. Photo: Christopher Octav

Tao is a Taoist temple in Taiwan, designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates. Photo: courtesy of Kengo Kuma and Associates

A model of the temple is part of “Architecture in Scale”, an exhibition of architectural models at Jia Curated 2026. Photo: courtesy of Kengo Kuma and Associates

Statues sit among pine trees on Pengembak Beach. Photo: Christopher Octav

Jia Curated co-founders (from left) Budiman Ong, Rudi Winata and Yang Yang Hartono. Photo: Priska Joanne

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A trip built around a wellness treatment, beauty ritual or targeted pharmacy haul, ‘glowcations’ are trending throughout the travel world


A trip built around a wellness treatment, beauty ritual or targeted pharmacy haul, ‘glowcations’ are trending throughout the travel world.


6 ‘glowcation’ destinations for your next beauty and wellness fix, from Seoul to Marrakech

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A trip built around a wellness treatment, beauty ritual or targeted pharmacy haul, ‘glowcations’ are trending throughout the travel world

A trip built around a wellness treatment, beauty ritual or targeted pharmacy haul, ‘glowcations’ are trending throughout the travel world