How Much It Costs to Live Like Tanya McQuoid From ‘The White Lotus’

Pliny the Elder may not have been Western civilization’s first wellness journalist. Nevertheless, his tireless commitment to documenting trends in fashionable herbal medicines and celebrity doctors of Roman antiquity, compiled in the seminal encyclopedia Natural History, paved the way for Goops to come. It was Pliny, after all, who penned one of history’s first mentions of ancient Europe’s hottest wellness retreat, which, even if you never knew it existed, you’ve definitely heard of: Belgium’s little town of Spa, its name now lent to places of relaxation, renewal, and wrinkle reduction all over the world.

Despite our wellest wishes, time moves relentlessly in one direction. Civilizations rise and fall like tides and new delivery methods for nutrient absorption are being invented every 15 minutes. It is somewhat amazing to think about how much the pursuit of wellness has changed since Pliny wrote reviews of baths, but it is truly astounding to consider the degree to which it has remained almost exactly the same.

It is impossible to conduct a conversation in 2022 about work, relationships, and current events
without drifting toward illness of the body and mind and a renewed urgency to heal, a process which, in the wellness tradition, has historically involved some form of long-haul travel.

It was during World War II that the modern wellness spa was invented as a place where travelers could go to access new frontiers of personal health. Rancho La Puerta, a health camp nestled in the bucolic folds of Baja California, was founded in 1940. Its cofounder opened sister spa the Golden Door (“The Door” to insiders) north of San Diego in 1958. Canyon Ranch sprouted in Tucson in 1979. The ascent of the Ranch, which emphasizes the “mind-body” connection by staffing dietitians and psychologists alongside personal trainers and facialists, closed the loop on the spa’s ancient tradition of being a place to go to find one’s way back to self.

For self-seekers of a certain tax bracket, the search has only intensified. A tiny subset of the world’s population can afford the very best and most consistent medical care modern technology has to offer. They also have the time, energy, and airfare required to access history’s vast library of ancient healing modalities. They want to stand — or better yet, languidly recline — at the nexus of Western and Eastern philosophies.