The Luxury Travel Magazine
The Luxury Travel Magazine
There is nothing more relaxing than the prospect of going to a wellness spa. Laying on a soft massage bed, and feeling a masseuse release knots of tension held within the back. Or attending a group meditation, sitting surrounded by the sounds of nature and the exhales of stress leaving the body. The wellness leader, Marina Efraimoglou, founder of the wellness spa Euphoria Retreat, offers all of this and more. The icon built Euphoria Retreat and created its spa packages to nourish the mind, body, and soul of each guest. As a result, one will leave the spa feeling refreshed both inside and out.
Euphoria Retreat is located in the Peloponnese region in the south of Greece, sitting snug underneath majestic mountains and surrounded by the country’s natural beauty. The wellness retreat merges healing philosophies from Ancient Greece and China into 21st-century treatments. Marina runs one of the most ambitious yet welcoming spa hotels in Europe. The retreat radiates the warmth one would expect from a family-run business and not a five-star wellness retreat.
Like many individuals in the wellness industry, Marina Efraimoglou did not come from a holistic background. She initially had a career in investment banking and was a co-owner of one of the biggest banks in Greece. At 40 years old, Marina was named businessperson of the year in 2000. During that time, Marina was also recovering from a severe case of cancer. “I was trying to rebuild my immune system after my chemotherapy treatment. In 1999, I went to a spa and healing retreat in America called Golden Door. The inspiration to build Euphoria Retreat came to me while staying there.” Marina shares that she never felt that banking was her purpose in life. Her next step was to create a healing place that would honour her recovery from cancer.
Marina sold her bank two years after visiting Golden Door and started to educate herself about Ancient Philosophy. “I traveled the world searching for knowledge, inspiration, and a guru. I studied holistic healing practices such as Chinese medicine. Through this, the ethos of Euphoria Retreat started arising in me. I also realized that the basis of what I wanted to do lay in Ancient Greek philosophy.” Through Marina’s research into the healing practices of Ancient Greece and China, she noticed a pattern within the teachings of their philosophers. They all suggested that to attain true health and balance as a human being, you must follow the five elements of nature.
Philosophers such as Plato and Socrates associated the different elements with the seasons of nature. The philosophers preached that human life is entwined with the natural world. From their teachings, Marina created the Five Elements Theory that underpins all of Euphoria Retreat’s wellness packages, such as Balance & Recover, Inner & Outer Glow, and Euphoria Wellbeing Detox.
Of course, there is more to Euphoria Retreat than its treatments. The food served at the health spa is personalized to each client. Guests are asked to do a 3GL test that investigates an individual’s glycogen, glucose, and glutathione levels in their body. Then, based on a pinprick blood test and urine test, a menu is created for an individual that will help them achieve better balance, energy, and optimum health. In addition, the test will show whether a guest should have a plant-based diet or thrive off a fish or meat diet.
Marina shares that in many other European spas they have an austere sense of discipline with the food they serve to their guests. A guest’s diet might be rationed and consist of purely eating clean and raw foods. “This is not the ethos of Euphoria. Our motto is “Your Life, Your Journey.” There is total respect for an individual’s life because we all come with different needs. Having strict rules through nutrition does not encourage someone to thrive or help them connect with the joy of life. Euphoria encourages adopting a healthy lifestyle through nourishing meals, being in tune with your emotional health, and having a spiritual aspiration.” Marina’s menus are not based on calories but a combination of all the major food groups, carbohydrates, fats, and protein. The food the retreat serves mainly consists of a Mediterranean and Greek diet. All the food is locally sourced and organic, grown from local farms only half an hour from the spa.
A noticeable trend in the health and wellness industry is that more people are not investing their time in having a deep tissue massage or spending time in the sauna; instead, they seek to take care of their emotional health. Marina shares, “People come to Euphoria to take care of their mental health, and I have seen people having huge emotional imbalances. So in all our programs, we offer a type of counseling, which is structured upon emotional and spiritual therapy.”
Marina has noticed that people hesitate to start living again due to Covid and the recent war within Ukraine. “I have realized that my guests have become institutionalized from working at home or having Covid. They are afraid of living life to its fullest and touching other people. So, we created a three-day retreat called Feel Alive Again to tackle people’s sense of loss. The program consists of drama, dance, and movement therapy. We also help guests create a vision board for their life to bring energy back into their mind and body.” Covid has affected many people’s lives in various ways. Yet, Marina Efraimoglou has adapted her wellness spa to help her guests adjust to the fluid nature of life. Euphoria Retreat allows people, through spiritual therapy, to adjust their dreams to our ever-changing reality.
The next big thing to expect from Marina and Euphoria Retreat is a new retreat package called Emotional Recovery. The program aims to help people recover from loss or a sense of emotional imbalance and teach them how to find joy within themselves again. Marina is also hoping to create a store within her spa that will sell herbs, essential oils, and herbals teas for guests to take home to help continue their spiritual journey.
Marina Efraimoglou, the founder of the wellness spa Euphoria Retreat, has had a bountiful and successful career in the health and wellness industry. Her Five Elements approach to holistic health is a unique quality that sets Euphoria Retreat apart from other wellness spas in Europe. She guides her guests on a journey to rejuvenate their connection to life through nutrition, connection to nature, and the ability to take of their emotional needs. Her wellness spa retreat educates people on reconnecting to their sense of joy. As the Ancient Greek philosopher, Democritus said, “Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells within the soul.”
