Private sauna sessions in the Piggery Spa are open to day visitors — electric sauna, cold plunge, and wild swimming in the moat, priced by the hour.

Four UK venues worth considering for your own retreat, including our own — what each one actually offers, and what to check before you book.

Take a week to truly switch off at The Firs — sauna, wood-fired hot tubs, spa treatments and four acres of gardens. A restorative countryside retreat 2 hours from London, 45 minutes from Norwich.

We're exploring a wellness retreat programme at The Firs for 2027. Nothing is fixed yet — before we decide what it includes, we'd rather find out what people actually want.

Spend a week unplugging at The Firs — no screens, just gardens, hot tubs, fire and quiet. A digital detox countryside retreat in Suffolk, 2 hours from London, 45 minutes from Norwich.

How to spend a do-nothing retreat day at The Firs — sauna and plunge bucket, a spa treatment, pizza on the fire and a wood-fired hot tub under the stars. A Suffolk countryside retreat 2 hours from London.

Any hot tub will get you warm. A wood-fired one gets you somewhere else entirely — closer to a fire in a garden than an appliance in a box.

Plenty of places have a hot tub. Fewer have a sauna. Very few genuinely have both, privately, in the same booking. That combination — heat, cold, steam, and nobody else around — is one of the most distinctive things a countryside break can offer, and it's rarer than the marketing

Summer at The Firs means wild swimming in the moat, long days in the gardens and wood-fired hot tubs under late sunsets. A countryside retreat in Suffolk, 2 hours from London, 45 minutes from Norwich.