Lakeside Revival

Finding Full-Body Well-Being in Austria

By Sarah Freeman | Photography courtesy of MAYRLIFE

Her hands purposefully circle my stomach clockwise in what has to be the strangest of belly rubs. Known as an abdominal massage, it’s administered by Dr. Roswitha Oppl, one of a fleet of friendly doctors at MAYRLIFE. At this award-winning medical resort, high-tech healthcare meets haute lodgings.

In a scene that seems straight out of The Sound of Music, the Austrian resort nestles in the time-warped spa town of Altaussee on the serene shores of its mountain-cradled namesake lake. The same curative lake that guests can swim in or e-bike around also fills the glasses at the spa’s waterfront restaurant.

Formerly known as Vivamayr, the newly branded resort continues the legacy of Austrian physician Franz Xaver Mayr—credited with recognizing that the gut is the center of our immune system—with a protocol called the Mayr Cure, designed to purge the body of toxins.

The guest experience begins with a manual muscle test called applied kinesiology, involving some gentle prodding and a sprinkling of powdered foods on your tongue to determine dietary sensitivities and the health of specific organs. The results reveal I am intolerant to cow’s milk, wheat, garlic, and ginger, and I have an intestinal parasite (which is surprisingly common). The findings inform everything from my meals to my medications. The wellness plan is so personalized it prescribes the specific probiotic for my unique microbiome and the best type of cold-pressed plant oil for digestion.

People’s motivations for checking into MAYRLIFE range from stress and sleep deprivation to shifting stubborn pounds. In my case, it’s a lifelong battle with eczema. It turns out that this chronic skin condition needs to be healed from the inside out and, in my case, from my head to my toes!

My first prescribed therapy is craniosacral, designed to calm the nervous system and encourage self-repair. Therapist Regina applies gentle pressure to my head, neck, and back as I drift dreamily in and out of sleep.

Far from being beige and boring, lunch is a colorful and artfully plated gut-friendly Sunday Roast served in the resort’s light-flooded restaurant. A veal sirloin steak is served with mini rainbow carrots, steamed potatoes, and a healthy foam in lieu of gravy. A mainstay of the Cure is resetting your digestive system by alkalizing your diet. This means no alcohol, sugar (including fruit), caffeine, animal fats, or hard-to-digest raw food.

Back on the resort’s dedicated medical floor, I check in for some nasal reflex therapy, which involves having an aromatherapy-oil-soaked Q-tip inserted into each nostril to stimulate different organs. It’s one of a long list of treatments, including brain-boosting bio-frequency, inflammation-reducing cryotherapy, and holistic hydrotherapies. Said to calm angry skin, my detox wrap involves being slathered in gloopy white goat butter before being wrapped like an Egyptian mummy and left to float in warm water for twenty tranquil minutes.

Back in my robe, I shuffle along to the in-house lab for a swift and painless pinprick blood test measuring mineral analysis and cell-damaging free radicals. The diagnostics continue with an e-scan, which creates an avatar of your musculoskeletal system, building a picture of your metabolic health in the process.

Dr. Oppl discusses my results later that afternoon, advising small versus drastic lifestyle changes (phew!). Nevertheless, I’m sent off with a mind-boggling array of tinctures, powders, and capsules to support my body through the detox and beyond.

Dinner—the lightest and smallest meal of the day—usually amounts to a simple vegetable broth yet is surprisingly filling thanks to “mindful chewing.” This key tenet of the Cure encourages you to chew each morsel fifty times (yes, fifty!) to activate those all-important digestive enzymes.

Afterward, guests typically congregate in the bar—the tea bar, that is—where they can help themselves to freshly bagged herbal brews. Far from being cold and clinical, the communal area is decorated in an uplifting palette of pistachio green and lilac, with a freestanding tiled stove to huddle around for maximum hygge!

In the spirit of the Cure’s early-to-bed, early-to-rise philosophy, I retreat to my deluxe lake-view room at around 8:00 p.m. A restful refuge and vision of elegant Scandi-esque minimalism, its bathroom—complete with a smart toilet—is bigger than most London studio flats! I gulp down another cloudy glass of stomach-acid-reducing base powder while curled up on my velvet corner sofa before nodding off with a “liver-wrap” hot water bottle to support the detox.

The following morning, I wake to magical mist dancing over the lake, which lures me to my balcony despite the bone-chilling −5°C temperature. I join other guests in padding down to breakfast in fluffy bathrobes and slippers and starting the day with an espresso of dandelion root. Naturally rich in electrolytes, it tastes uncannily like coffee despite being caffeine-free. After grazing unhurriedly (doctor’s orders!) on a spread of avocado mousse, cured trout, and a buckwheat bread roll, I go upstairs for my next treatment.

Floating waist-high in warm water, my weightless body is gently stretched and cradled in the healing hands of Karl-Heinz Köpf. The stress-reducing and sleep-improving watsu—also known as water shiatsu—is part dance, part massage, and said to mimic being in your mother’s womb.

People’s motivations for checking into MAYRLIFE range from stress and sleep deprivation to shifting stubborn pounds.

Over the coming days, I intersperse my therapies and daily doctor appointments with dopamine-filled walks because nature is also a cure. On one peerless blue-sky day, I embark on the well-trodden 4.5-mile circuit of Lake Altaussee, whose glassy waters perfectly mirror Loser Mountain. Like a blonde (wooden) bombshell, MAYRLIFE and its modernist chalet architecture dazzle at the foot of it. Several guided group hikes are scheduled, too, like Nordic walking and forest bathing, aka the famous Japanese therapy that feels strangely at home in the fir forests of central Austria.

You can also drink in life-affirming lakeside views from the resort’s floor-to-ceiling windowed saline pool, found in its sprawling state-of-the-art spa. Facilities range from a steam room to various types of sauna, including an infrared booth reminiscent of a cozy cabin where I pass the time turning the pages of my dog-eared book.

Later, I swap reading for restorative Qigong, an ancient Chinese mind-body-spirit practice that marries movement with controlled breathing. Erich Haretzmüller patiently walks and talks our group of four through a series of standing and sitting postures designed to foster inner alignment and connection. “The pelvis is your kingdom. It’s life!” he says as we prop ourselves on meditation cushions. The resort also hosts group stretching and yoga classes, including nidra and aerial.

I continue my meditation outside, inhaling the fresh alpine air from the resort’s private jetty as the setting sun paints Lake Altaussee gold. It’s the perfect moment to reflect on what’s been as much a digital and mental detox as a physical one. While I did experience the dreaded day three downer—usually due to caffeine and sugar withdrawal—for the most part, I felt energized. I left these healing shores feeling as clear-minded as Altaussee’s luminous lake.

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Visit MAYRLIFE.com to learn more or book a stay. MAYRLIFE provides private return transfers from Salzburg International Airport, a one-hour and fifteen-minute drive away.