A growing number of travelers are starting to ask the same questions around work and wellness—and finding their answers in the soil. Farm hospitality, a modern evolution of agritourism where beauty, design, and land stewardship merge, suddenly feels more relevant than ever.
“Travelers are looking for meaning,” says Isaac French, founder of Experiential Hospitality. “They want to slow down and experience something real, especially in a screen-saturated and overstimulated world. Regenerative farming represents quite possibly the single biggest setting for that experience and transformation.”
Perhaps that’s why the modern agritourism market is in full bloom, growing 12% yearly and poised to reach $14.5 billion by 2029. A constellation of forces—including piqued curiosity in regenerative agriculture, an evolving definition of well-being, and a hunger for IRL connections—is cultivating the fertile ground for its rise.
“One of the components of wellness is a sense of being grounded. There, nature can help a little,” reflects Karen Roos, owner and visionary behind Babylonstoren in South Africa and The Newt in England, two estates that have set the bar for the new wave. “Our guests love grounding themselves on a working farm.”
A new era of wellness tourism
No doubt it’s the dual promise of freedom and connection that’s driving wellness tourism as it skyrockets towards becoming a $1.35 trillion market by 2028. When combined with a rising interest in experiential travel, which is expected to top $3.1 trillion by 2025, there seems to be a longing for nature-based escapes. According to Spa Business, 79% of wellness travelers seek outdoor immersion, 75% prioritize healthy cuisine, and 60% demand tranquility.
At their best, farm hotels cover all the bases. They’re not just a stay on a farm—they’re places where guests can interact with and immerse themselves in their surroundings. “People are craving experiences that feel real, where there’s a sense of purpose behind the beauty,” says Mary Celeste Beall, proprietor of Blackberry Farm in Tennessee.
Indeed, science confirms that even 10 minutes outdoors can measurably lower cortisol levels and blood pressure. Other research suggests that the sheer beauty of natural landscapes can amplify these effects, calming the nervous system, and lifting the spirit. A weekend on the farm may actually recalibrate guests’ inner landscapes on a cellular and hormonal level.
But if the early iterations of agritourism conjure images of quaint bed-and-breakfasts and homemade jams, the new generation is decidedly more elevated. Now, you’ll find Michelin-starred meals plucked from the gardens outside, elegant architectural design, and award-winning spas. In short, escaping to the farm is no longer about roughing it—it’s about reconnection with the polished service of a five-star hotel.
The best agriculture and regenerative farm stays
Here, a glimpse into some of the properties leading the charge from Andalusia to the American South. Though their approaches to regenerative agriculture may vary, they all share the same ethos: Take care of the land and it will take care of you.
Heckfield Place, Hampshire, United Kingdom
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Biodynamic farming is the underpinning of this quietly luxurious home located an hour outside London. Here, the approach to farm hospitality is deeply layered: a biodynamic market garden led by head grower Jane Scotter, an award-winning culinary program led by Skye Gyngell, pristine grounds, a dairy, and a seasonally evolving floristry program blend seamlessly with the house’s elegant interiors.
“There’s been a fundamental shift,” says general manager Kevin Brooke. “People are recognizing that the basic principles of Mother Nature are what truly nourish us, and the definition of luxury within the hospitality world has shifted with it; now the emphasis is on well-being, environmental awareness, and a slower pace.”
Le Doyenné, Saint-Vrain, France
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Just outside of Paris nestled within the restored Château de Saint-Vrain, Le Doyenné offers a Michelin Green Star experience led by Australian chefs James Henry and Shaun Kelly. Guests are encouraged to arrive early, walk among the greenhouses, and chat with the gardeners.
“There’s this big wooden gate at the entrance that slowly opens, so the first thing guests see is a little chicken coop,” says Kelly. “They arrive through the orchard and don’t realize the scale of the gardens until they step inside the restaurant, where big windows look out over the land.”
In addition to giving guests a true taste of French terroir, the estate’s potager (kitchen garden), which had lain dormant for over 60 years, also serves as a lens into local history and culture. Kelly leans on a bio-intensive method of farming that originated from the 19th-century Parisian market gardeners known as “maraîchers.”
São Lourenço do Barrocal, Alentejo, Portugal
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Beyond its winery, farm-to-table restaurants, spa, and orchards, this 1,900-acre estate merges agriculture and hospitality to create an authentic sense of place.
“We’re living in a time where life passes us by at lightning speed,” says owner José António Uva, who lovingly restored his family’s property over more than a decade. “Being surrounded by this landscape, waking up to birdsong, seeing wild horses on the horizon—it allows you to be restored in ways that go beyond a traditional spa.” For him, the farm’s natural rhythms offer a spiritual kind of grounding, a reconnection many guests didn’t realize they were missing.
La Donaira, Andalusia, Spain
Originally a private retreat founded by an Austrian philanthropist, La Donaira blends biodynamic farming with understated luxury at a nine-room estate where agriculture, architecture, and hospitality exist in perfect balance. Everything, from the natural wines to the handmade soaps, is produced onsite.
“We believe in creating an experience that transforms guests internally,” says the team. “Whether it’s tasting a tomato grown from heirloom seeds or connecting with an animal, each encounter is designed to reconnect visitors with nature—and, by extension, themselves.”
The Balearic Islands, Spain
Across the Balearic islands of Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza, the draw of rich Mediterranean soil is, for perhaps the first time, as strong as its rocky coves and celestial seas. Abandoned farmhouses are being reimagined as elegant retreats, such as Son Brull and Experimental Menorca, while new stories are unfurling in places like Tierra Iris. And soon, members-only club Soho will open a Soho Farmhouse at the historic Cas Gasi in Ibiza’s rural Santa Gertrudis region.
Michelberger Farm, Spreewald, Germany
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The idea of connection as a cure continues to inspire Nadine and Tom Michelberger, who transformed a plot of land outside of Berlin into fully immersive farm stay. Today, guests as varied as solo travelers, football stars, and local villagers come to break bread around a communal wooden table and tour the 1.5-hectare syntropic agroforest. “The healing happens because people slow down, sit by the fire, share food, and rediscover how natural it is to connect,” says Tom.
Reschio, Umbria, Italy
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Back in Italy, modern agriturismos are mixing luxury, design, and the land’s lush verdancy in an elevated take on their ancestors’ agricultural guesthouses. Reschio, the luxurious 1,500-hectare estate with a painstakingly restored 10th-century castle, has long practiced biodynamic farming, though to call it mere “agritourism” would be a disservice.
“It’s what we would do with or without guests,” owner Count Benedikt Bolza says. Composting, harvesting wheat for flour milled onsite, and producing olive oil, wine, and honey are simply part of daily life. Guests are encouraged to slow down: There’s no television, but there are workshops in pottery, embroidery, and paper marbling.
“Time is probably the greatest luxury,” Bolza reflects. “We want people to experience the magic of an unspoiled environment. To ride out for an hour and to encounter wild animals—deer, wild boar, hare, and porcupine who consider horses their equal—is a great privilege. To taste freshly made ricotta cheese just out of the urn is not an expensive luxury, but an increasingly rare one.”
Brush Creek Ranch, Saratoga, Wyoming
At Brush Creek Ranch, mornings begin with greenhouse workshops where guests learn to grow, harvest, and cook with ingredients cultivated on the ranch’s 100,000-pound annual yield. While the property officially opened in 2011, guest arrivals surged 70% between 2019 and 2021. The founders, enamored with the vastness of the landscape, built an experience that blends rustic tradition and refined living guests can indulge in five-star comfort and ride horses across unspoiled high desert.
Los Poblanos, Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico
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In New Mexico, the lavender fields and historic adobe buildings of Los Poblanos offer another vision—one where hospitality is seamlessly integrated with preservation. Originally designed in the 1930s by famed Pueblo Revival architect John Gaw Meem, father of the Santa Fe style, with formal gardens by Rose Greely, one of the first female landscape architects in the U.S., the estate is as much a cultural landmark as it is a regenerative farm.
“Los Poblanos is rooted in New Mexican architecture and landscape,” says executive director Matt Rembe, whose family has stewarded the property since 1976. “Every decision here was made with a light touch to preserve the history, honor the land, and let the design feel effortless and true.”
SingleThread, Healdsburg, California
What began as a five-acre plot flourished into a 24-acre regenerative farm supplying the property’s Michelin-starred restaurant and creating an immersive world where guests can trace the seasons on their plate. “We say at SingleThread that we tell the story of today,” says chef Kyle Connaughton, who founded the farm with his wife Katina. “Through the menu, that is ever changing based on what is being harvested at the farm, to the flowers, guests step not only of place but a sense of time within that place.” It’s storytelling through soil.
Pendry Natirar, Somerset County, New Jersey
Even larger hospitality brands are beginning to tune into the soil. Pendry Natirar, a 500-acre estate just an hour outside New York City, is the Pendry group’s bold bet on the farm hotel as the next frontier of wellness. The property brings together a restored manor house, working farm, cooking school, and a members’ club for locals—all designed to reconnect visitors with the slower rhythm of the land.
“The estate naturally lent itself to a reimagining of luxury that blends nature, nourishment, and next-level service,” says general manager Derek Lescrinier. “There was strong inspiration from European country estates and iconic properties—places that marry elegance and escapism effortlessly.”
Southall Farm Inn, Franklin, Tennessee
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Visionaries like Babylonstoren’s Roos and the team behind Southall Farm Inn in Tennessee have been quietly restoring their soils for years. At Southall, what began as an antidote to founder Paul Mishkin’s high-stress career evolved into one of the country’s most thoughtful farm-based retreats. “Sometimes I feel, for lack of a better word, buzzed,” says Mishkin, “It’s mesmerizing, especially this time of year, when everything’s just exploded with green and the crops are coming in.”
Blackberry Farm, Walland, Tennessee
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With a Michelin-worthy culinary program, a James Beard Award-winning kitchen, a world class spa, this Relais Châteaux property has stood at the intersection of elegance and agriculture long before it was a trend.
“We’ve always believed in the value of slowing down and being present,” says Beall. “Farming isn’t something separate from the guest experience; it’s part of who we are.” Guests wander the five-acre gardens, meet truffle dogs and ducks, and savor dishes crafted from ingredients grown steps away—a living testament to Beall’s late husband Sam Beall’s vision of seasonal living, where, as he believed, “balance, not deprivation, defines true wellness.”