My first experience at Lanserhof Sylt left me, glowing, full of energy and already thinking about when I was going to book my second stay.
Boasting the largest thatched roof in Europe, it floats heavily over a curved glass facade and does its best (despite its scale) to blend in with the traditional Frisian houses you pass on the way, with their highly pitched thatched roofs and low-bricked areas. The health resort occupies 20,000 square metres and was designed by Dusseldorf-based architect Christoph Ingenhoven. As soon as I arrived, entering through a subterranean drop off area and carpark with nine metre ceilings, I was welcomed with a hot towel and whisked to my room, first stopping to admire the staircase cum atrium spanning the resort’s five storeys.
The Lanserhof Sylt heals the gut with its ‘Cure Classic’ programme
My room came with a terrace set into the thatched roof and was spread over two floors, with a living and working space downstairs and a bedroom and bathroom upstairs. In place of the usual bottle of champagne or sweet treats on arrival, guests are gifted a pair of Lanserhof-blue Birkenstocks. After a bowl of ‘base’ soup for dinner, made of potato and easy-to-digest vegetables, I went to the introductory medical lecture to understand the cure and treatment ahead.
The Lanserhof Cure focuses on the thorough regeneration of gut health and is named after the Lansehof’s first location, which opened in 1994 in Lans, Austria. Frank Xaver Mayr, discovered that our gut is the root of good health, and developed a programme based around mild fasting, with stale spelt bread and yoghurt followed by broth or tea in the early evening (the latter to be taken with a teaspoon and chewed 30 times). Subsequently, saliva starts the breakdown of the food before it reaches the gut, allowing the stomach to cleanse and purify, benefiting the entire body.
The food served in the programme has been adapted to be tastier than its original iteration. It is offered lactose-free for those who need it, and includes more bread options, and fermented foods, whilst being beautifully presented and tasty, while keeping portion size small.
Alongside the diet, there is a full and comprehensive programme of treatments, beginning each morning. On the first day, at seven AM (after taking salts prepared for me which assist with cleansing), I went for bioimpedance analysis, which shows your body fat, muscle and water percentages, and a pair of blood tests to show your lactate and metabolic measurements. The lab processes the tests on-site, so by the time I met my doctor an hour later, she had the results to hand; I had been assigned a physician based on a thorough medical history questionnaire that is completed before your arrival.
I ventured off most days on smart e-bikes, for hour-long cycle rides through the spectacular dunes covered in heather and beach grasses. Along the way I fell for Sylt’s landscape; its a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The Island is on Germany’s northernmost border with Denmark, on the east side it faces the tidal Wadden Sea and on the west the North Sea. In the past, it was used as a military base. Today it’s referred to as the ‘Hamptons of Germany’ and many of the houses built originally for officers have been refurbished. The fauna and flora, and breeze off the North Sea mean that Sylt is an ideal place to come to cure yourself of allergies, skin problems and respiratory disease.
Back inside, the air has an exquisite smell of wood from the floors and walls. Aside from the clinic, the entire resort including upholstery, walls and bathrooms are cleaned only with steam so there is no residue or smell of any cleaning products. Between appointments I made myself comfortable on an Eames lounger with my bare feet on the ottoman, in the lodge with a view over the dunes and the Wadden Sea.
All the doctors are trained in the The Lanserhof Cure (mine had been practising it for 12 years) and include a neurologist, cardiologist, urologist, ophthalmologist, dermatologist, rheumatologist and orthopedist. Your first appointment lasts an hour and can, depending on your physical and mental state lead to more tests. It’s here you get to agree on your cure level, from the hardcore ‘0’ – which is only broth or tea three times a day – or ‘1’, ‘2’ or ‘3’, which get progressively more gentle. I started with ‘1’, which consists of two slices of tasty toasted spelt, buckwheat or rye bread and yoghurt for breakfast, one slice of the same bread and some base soup for lunch, and just the soup for dinner.
The basic program also features the abdominal treatment, which helps stimulate the cleansing of the small and large intestines. I had some excellent therapeutic massages, too, a fantastic gentle physio for a shoulder problem, a detox drainage massage, reflexology and a hay bath, where you are wrapped up in a giant ‘teabag’ full of hay from the Sylt mountains and left on a floating bed to nap. Other tests included a urine test, a metabolism measurement test, and a 3D Body mapping exam with Canfield’s whole body imaging scanner, which provides a scan of your body via 90 precision cameras. (It also shows a map of all your moles, and any that look suspect are revisited with a handheld scanner with 15–200x magnification).
The interior, also by Christoph Ingenhoven, consists of wide limed oak floors, polished cement pillars and slatted timber walls, furnished with Cassina, Vitra and Knoll, upholstered in shades of oatmeal and warm grey. Everything is carefully curated and considered, down to the Flos Tab lamps, the Kettal outdoor furniture on your terrace and beside the pool landscaped into, the Dibbern porcelain, and littala glasses (which you will use a lot as it is suggested to drink three to four litres per day during the cure).
After my last medical appointment, I am rewarded with a final Sunday lunch of rosti potatoes, fillet steak, asparagus and a slice of spelt bread. I even get a dessert. Later, for my last dinner, my beetroot soup (full of polyphenols which are strong antioxidants) was supplemented with a portion of sheep’s cheese from nearby Galmsbüll. It was so good that I ordered half a kilo to take home.
Rates at Lanserhof Sylt start from €6,400 for a seven night Lanserhof Cure Classic.
