Running away won’t solve your problems. The Asaya Lodges at Rosewood Hong Kong show that wellness isn’t something found far away, but right here at home
There’s a joke among locals that one of the best things about living in Hong Kong is how easy it is to leave. With travel being so accessible, we’ve become a city of professional escape artists, addicted to disappearing whenever the mood strikes. But as deafening silence fills airports (and airspace) around the world, we find ourselves stagnant—all stressed out with nowhere to go.
Without the aid of a Balinese retreat hidden deep in the jungle or a five-star hideaway cradled by Thai coastline, the past few months have been a humbling exercise in looking inwards rather than outwards for respite. And while remote wellness retreats are, indeed, a treat, does getting there serve as more of a distraction from the end goal of discovering long-term lifestyle solutions?
That is the question that Asaya, the integrated wellness destination at Rosewood Hong Kong, aims to answer. “We don’t want people to see wellness as something you can only attain in a faraway place,” says Erin MacNeil, Rosewood Hong Kong’s director of wellness. “We want to bring to the forefront that improving your wellbeing can happen in your backyard.”
See also: 7 Luxury Wellness Retreats In Hong Kong
Finding Yourself
Designed by award-winning New York designer Tony Chi, Asaya is an oasis of lush greenery and calming spaces that incorporate light, water and stone. Hidden in this 40,000 sq ft haven are the Asaya Lodges—two standalone villas that are detached from the main area of the hotel and accessed by a private elevator. The lodges (one is named Gardenia and the other Camelia) serve as a kind of cocoon, a place where one disappears in order to transform and emerge as a better version of oneself.
“Asaya Lodges is not a place to go to distract yourself or escape; it’s a place you go to understand yourself better,” MacNeil explains. “It’s a quiet space where you have the opportunity to start evaluating your life and discover rituals that allow you to have a more balanced and meaningful existence.”
Living Well
Each villa opens to a spacious lounge decorated in soothing, earthy tones with hints of Rosewood luxury in the form of gold and marble accents. The mini bar isn’t your typical mélange of pre-packaged snack foods and mini liquor bottles. Instead, the fridge is filled with wholesome and nourishing options; hand-bottled organic juices and cold-brew coffee, beautiful tea blends and an assortment of healthy snacks handmade by the chefs at Asaya Kitchen.
In the bedroom, a glass cabinet houses Asaya-branded equipment including a mat, yoga blocks and straps. To make use of these, the television has access to a series of programmes created exclusively for Asaya’s guests including yoga, simple exercise circuits and meditation.