Obviously my bank balance is the dead giveaway that I’m not super-rich. Now it seems my love of a spa resort also betrays my lowly financial status, because — increasingly — those with money don’t want to share their wellbeing journeys with us hoi polloi.
Le Collectionist, an international luxury-villa rental agency, was the first to spot this evolution, noticing that its ultra-high net-worth clients were booking high-spec private homes then ordering in the necessary services to transform said properties into uber-private, five-star spas. The company says that demand among its 22,700 clients for places with fitness facilities has risen by more than 24 per cent since 2023, while requests for private chefs who can serve up Michelin-worthy meals that align with guests’ nutritional needs are up by 17 per cent.
So I recruit two friends, Ruby and Tannis, and head to Villa Ema in Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Côte d’Azur — one of Le Collectionist’s recommended wellness sanctuaries. Our mission is to sweat in sumptuous surroundings and decide whether a villa really can hold its own against a conventional spa holiday.
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As our transfer car negotiates the hairpin bends of the classic French Riviera road snaking up to the villa, which is cantilevered above Villefranche, I think wistfully of what I’ll miss about a standard spa resort; my nosey-parker pleasure in overhearing snippets about other guests’ health springs to mind.
What you need to know
Where is it? Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Côte d’Azur
How much does it cost? Seven nights’ B&B from £37,500 for up to ten people; hour-long fitness sessions from £173 for four
Who will love it? Rich folk who want privacy and self-improvement
The villa’s “panorama grandiose” soon distracts me, however. Gazing down from Ema’s terrace, with a detox juice that’s been freshly made for me in hand, I survey the 180-degree drama of Villefranche Bay, its curve of coast demarcated by the pine-clad peninsula of Cap Ferrat and Monaco on one side and the port and pastel-pink prettiness of Villefranche town on the other.
I’m banking on top-quality training. I had chosen Villefranche partly because of its proximity to Cap Ferrat, nicknamed the Billionaires’ Peninsula, and Monaco, the gazillionaires’ playground — my thinking being that this area will hold a critical mass of high-achieving chief executives who treat wellness like a competitive sport and won’t tolerate anything but excellence when it comes to personal trainers.
One of the bedrooms in the villa, with a sea-view balcony
Happily, my powers of deduction prove to be peak-Sherlock Holmes on this occasion. By the end of our four nights we will have been put through our paces by great teachers.
At hotel spas it’s often tricky to move treatment appointments and mine always seem to clash with my favourite fitness classes and excursions. Le Collectionist concierges, on the other hand, customise everything, from a daily massage to a multi-day itinerary such as ours. So before our trip I discussed with them exactly what workouts we wanted and when (no 6am starts, thanks) and they used their contacts to find the best local experts then build our programme. Between us, we arrived at a timetable that is harmoniously balanced between intense high-intensity interval training (HIIT), exacting Pilates, relaxing yoga, pampering massages and “proper holiday”.
In-villa private teachers, trainers and chefs
Initially, though, I’m not thinking about any of that. I’m drawn to the tempting aromas coming from the kitchen, which is equipped with the mod con we all wish we could afford: a private chef. The man in white busy preparing our first lunch is Yannick Anton, who has cooked for presidents including George W Bush and holds the Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole, one of the highest culinary honours, from the French Ministry of Agriculture.
He’s created our menus in collaboration with his fellow chef Alain Llorca, whose modern Mediterranean restaurant in La Colle-sur-Loup, near St Paul-de-Vence, has a Michelin star. Lunches are healthy yet still feel wickedly indulgent. We have omega-packed salmon, perfectly ripe avocado, piquant lentil and quinoa salads, fresh fruit and yoghurt pots. Leisurely dinners might include tuna tartare with truffles and goat’s cheese followed by sea bass with artichokes, tomato broth and olives then caramelised apple stuffed with crème brûlée and served with a puff-pastry crisp.
The coastline of Villefranche-sur-Mergetty images
Workouts on the terrace, smoothies in the pool
The pudding is homemade, so good for us, obviously, though it does provide us with a reason to work out harder. Villefranche provides further incentive. Its microclimate ensures that the sun shines even during our November visit, so most classes are on the glamorous terrace of the villa.
Our first heart-pumper is some HIIT with Jonathan Matagne, a head judge for Hyrox France who usually hones the fitness of professional athletes. It’s a hard but rewarding hour, targeted at back strengthening and abdominal work, as requested. Being able to customise workouts is useful, but it’s surprising how that wider terrace suddenly seems skinnier than a supermodel when used for sweating rather than socialising.
As we finish, the on-site team led by housekeeper-cum-chief mother hen Silvana Garnero offers us freshly made protein smoothies. We take them down some steps to a second terrace and the 12.5m heated outdoor pool for some muscle recovery and nervous system regulation — or, as it’s also known, sunbathing.
Villa Ema is holistic heaven; all sleek-lined glass, steel and stone architecture that drapes like a Lululemon athleisure darling over four floors. We spend a lot of our time in the subterranean spa. It’s on the dinky side, but then the house only sleeps ten people — it has a heated indoor pool (only marginally bigger than a plunge pool), a sauna, a small but adequately well-equipped Technogym studio (bike, treadmill, StairMaster, weights), a treatment room and a poolside hangout.
The open-plan communal area
This space has been designed by Casanera, the spa brand. Based on Corsica, it handpicks plants that grow wild on the island and distils them within hours to deliver maximum bang from their active botanicals. We find that 60 minutes of massage with its sweet-smelling oils are an elegant antidote to delayed-onset muscular soreness.
One floor up the open-plan communal area flows from a chillout TV zone and through a formal lounge, airy dining area with wine cellar (though we stick to its supply of French Bloom, a non-alcoholic sparkling wine served at Alain Ducasse restaurants) and a state-of-the-art kitchen. Interiors are dressed in honey-toned wood panels, cappuccino-striped marble, Italian leather in burnt umber, a sweep of creamy sofa and textured rugs in biscuity browns, with Tom Dixon’s “molten-lava” pendants providing the lighting. Upstairs, there are two master bedrooms and three smaller ones, all en suite, creamy cocoons with access to balconies or gardens with bay views.
Beach picnics at Cap Ferrat, shopping in Nice
Between cardio stints and yoga — including face yoga (requests for dealing with double chins came up a lot) — we escape with the villa’s driver, Lamaalam Abdelkader. One day we have a picnic lunch at Passable beach, a 20-minute drive away, in St Jean-Cap Ferrat. We find it only just about passable. In summer this pebbly cove may well be the “secluded sun trap” mythologised in tourist-board literature, but in winter the building works kind of kill the mood.
The Cours Saleya in NiceGetty images
It’s definitely not the mindful experience that the concierge team had promised. But it’s their only bad call and Abdelkader rescues the situation by taking us to the hills behind the town. We walk down to the harbour, peeking through the wrought-iron gates of luxury homes along the way, to rendezvous with him there.
On another day Anton joins us on the 30-minute drive to Nice, his home town, and guides us through the narrow, cobbled, 15th-century streets of the old quarter. We browse the outdoor fruit-and-vegetable market in Cours Saleya and “help” to select ingredients for supper. He points out great foodie shops. At Maison Gannac we stock up on oils, jams, herbs and sardines, and at Maison Auer — where the art nouveau fittings are as luscious as the traditional sweets on sale — we look but don’t touch.
Our best day gets a big tick for a 2026 wellness trend: being in nature. We visit the botanical gardens of magnificently medieval Èze. It’s a 90-minute zigzag hike if you approach via the Nietzsche Trail, named after the 19th-century German philosopher who lived in Èze and climbed this path every day, apparently. But then he hadn’t just completed a tough Pilates session with Jenna Harnett, who usually instructs at a chic private club in Monaco, so Abdelkader drops us off a short, steep yomp from the hilltop village to the garden. Our reward is a riot of subtropical plants bursting from the ruins of a medieval fortress and incredible views from the Esterel Mountains to St Tropez.
A sound bath in the lounge that night keeps our dopamine levels high.
The villa is expensive, but if the rental cost is split between five couples, it’s no more prohibitive than a week at a luxury wellness resort. I appreciated being able to tailor our trip so we could exercise and go out as we wanted, but I missed the facilities of the conventional option: a decent thermal suite, padel and tennis courts and the sprung floor of a dedicated movement studio (that terrace paving could be unforgiving).
Other than that, I could get used to perspiring like a one percenter.
Susan d’Arcy was a guest of Le Collectionist, which has seven nights’ B&B for up to ten people at Villa Ema from £37,500, including the services of its support team and chef and two hours of massage; additional one-hour massages from £155pp, one-hour fitness sessions for four from £173 (lecollectionist.com). Fly to Nice
