Across Africa and its diaspora, a growing calendar of wellness retreats, festivals and gatherings is creating space for rest, reconnection, healing, movement and the sharing of traditional and contemporary wellbeing practices.These African wellness retreats and festivals sit within a rapidly growing global wellness tourism economy but they are not simply Africa catching up to a global market. They are knowledge-led rather than amenity-led, organised by practitioners, elders, artists and small collectives and embodied in traditions that have sustained wellbeing across Africa and the Caribbean for generations.
The Bigger Picture
These experiences sit within a rapidly growing global wellness tourism economy.
According to the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), wellness tourism reached US$893.9 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow by 9.1% annually from 2024 to 2029, reaching approximately US$1.38 trillion by 2029. GWI defines wellness tourism as travel associated with the pursuit of maintaining or enhancing personal wellbeing.
The growth of wellness tourism is part of an even larger shift. The global wellness economy reached US$6.8 trillion in 2024, representing 6.12% of global GDP and is projected to reach approximately US$9.8 trillion by 2029.
Source: Global Wellness Institute, 2025 Global Wellness Economy Monitor
For Africa and its diaspora, this growth presents an opportunity to shape and participate in a growing global market by defining what Wellness Travel can look and feel like in AFRICA.
Retreats and festivals can become meeting points between travellers, practitioners, traditional knowledge holders, local communities, wellness businesses, artisans and destinations. They can create opportunities for African practitioners and facilitators, generate demand for locally made products and services, support hospitality and tourism businesses and bring visitors into communities and regions they may not otherwise encounter.
They also create an important platform for the many expressions of wellbeing that already exist across the continent and its diaspora. As the experiences below demonstrate, wellness can be found through plant and traditional medicine, movement, music, nature, creativity, community, ancestral knowledge and contemporary therapeutic practices.
For destinations, there is an opportunity to build wellness experiences that are connected to lineage of the land rather than simply reproducing wellness models developed elsewhere. For traveler’s, it means a wider and richer choice of experiences. Finally, for Africa’s wellness sector, it creates possibilities for greater visibility, collaboration and economic participation as the global wellness tourism market continues to grow.
From Maasai-inspired embodied movement on the Kenyan coast and Indigenous African medicine in Zambia to Caribbean wellness in Saint Lucia and so much more, here are some of the retreats and festivals taking place across Africa and its diaspora from August 2026 through the first quarter of 2027.
LivingWAVE Retreat
Location: Watamu, Kenya
Dates: 21–23 August 2026
More information:
https://www.instagram.com/
LivingWAVE is an embodied movement journey by Fernando Anuang’a, inspired by the wisdom of Maasai traditions and contemporary Afro expression.
Discover the living rhythm within you through a unique movement journey inspired by the wisdom of Maasai traditions and contemporary Afro expression by Fernando Anuang’a. Ground into the earth, breathe with intention, awaken your body’s natural wave and reconnect with movement as a language of presence, creativity and belonging.
No dance experience required. All bodies are welcome.
Caribbean Wellness Saint Lucia 2026
Location: Mount Kailash Rejuvenation Centre, Saint Lucia
Dates: 11–17 October 2026
More information:
Caribbean Wellness Saint Lucia 2026 brings together a Wellness Symposium, Fortification Retreat and Lifecraft Experience at the Mount Kailash Rejuvenation Centre.
Hosted by Rt. Hon. Priest Kailash, the gathering is an invitation to experience rejuvenation, wisdom and community in Saint Lucia.
The Limpopo Healing Journey Convention & Garden Festival
Location: Sun Meropa, Polokwane, Limpopo, South Africa
Dates: 9–11 October 2026
More information:
https://www.quicket.co.za/
Taking place over World Mental Health Day weekend, The Limpopo Healing Journey Convention & Garden Festival is a three-day gathering created for the woman who has carried too much.
Hosted by Khanyisa M, the experience invites women to come home and come heal, bringing together Kgoro Circles, a Healing Garden, live performances and community.
The Garden Festival takes place on 10 October 2026, creating a space for healing, connection and community in Limpopo.
African Medicine Retreat in Zambia
Location: Nsobe African Safari Game Park, Northern Zambia
Dates: 1–7 December 2026
More information:
https://bipocherbalism.com/
The African Medicine Retreat is a seven-day, safari-style medicine retreat in the Miombo woodlands of northern Zambia.
Participants spend seven days learning, harvesting and making medicine on the land, exploring the ecosystems and cultural traditions that have shaped African herbal practice for generations.
The experience includes hands-on plant medicine classes and daily herbal remedy preparation, alongside safari game drives, traditional African meals and accommodation on a biodiverse African safari game park.
The Journey to Self + Motherland
Location: Zimbabwe, Johannesburg, South Africa & Lesotho
Dates: 1–12 December 2026
More information:
https://www.theinnerverses.co.
The Journey to Self + Motherland is a 12-day wellness journey through Zimbabwe, South Africa and Lesotho.
The experience brings together ancestral healing, Indigenous wellness practices, nature, traditional therapeutic treatments and inner work, with participants traveling through Southern African landscapes while reconnecting with self, lineage and the land.
Experiences include traditional therapeutic treatments and bodywork, generational lineage healing, medicinal plants and traditional herbs, land-based rituals, drumming and movement, meditation and encounters with traditional healers and local knowledge holders.
The journey is an invitation to move beyond sightseeing into “soul-seeing.”
Jaliya Camp
Location: Abéné, Casamance, Senegal
Dates: 26 December 2026–9 January 2027
More information:
Jaliya Camp is a two-week creative cultural retreat in Abéné, Senegal, bringing together music, rhythm, movement and community by the Atlantic Ocean.
It is a space to reconnect with yourself and others through kora, singing, dance, drumming, yoga, shared creativity and a meaningful holiday.
Open to all levels, from curious beginners to experienced musicians, dancers and creatives, the retreat offers an opportunity to experience the rich West African music traditions and cultural life of Senegal and the Casamance region.
The Kilifi Wellness Festival
Location: Kilifi, Kenya
Dates: 4–7 March 2027
More information:
The Kilifi Wellness Festival is a four-day celebration of health, happiness and community. At a blissful beachfront location, the festival is an inclusive experience that will leave you refreshed, rejuvenated and full of the joys of life.
With 35 wellbeing professionals leading around 100 diverse sessions, the festival is vibrant with art, dance, yoga, music and dialogue. Sessions include circus arts, yoga on a stand-up-paddleboard, gong bath, nutrition, breathwork, live handpan, laughter yoga, dawn meditation and make-your-own mandala. Evening activities include a moonrise dhow cruise, cacao ceremony, ecstatic dance, open mic and beach party. The Festival Fair is filled with colourful sustainable creations, and therapists are on hand for private treatments.
Take the time to reconnect with yourself. Walk barefoot on the white sands, wallow in warm sparkling sea, meet inspirational people, connect with coastal artisans, eat fresh local cuisine, inhale the scents of the ocean, move to African beats, and leave with new friends and an experience that will resonate for a lifetime.
