The Best Things to Do in Germany

A Neoclassical palace on a Rheingau hillside that has been growing Riesling longer than most countries have existed, Schloss Johannisberg is a winery visit where the cellar tour goes genuinely deep: barrels made from the estate's own forest, abbey vaults holding around 25,000 bottles, and vintages stretching back to the mid-1700s. It ranks second on the World's 50 Best Vineyards list, which gives you a sense of the company it keeps.

Baden-Baden has been luring people to its thermal waters since Roman times, which gives Brenners Park Spa a very long tradition to live up to. The five-story spa complex sits inside a grand hotel that just finished a full renovation, with serious attention paid to the waters themselves. Vogue named it among the 100 best spas in the world. The surrounding Black Forest keeps the whole thing feeling less like a hotel amenity and more like the actual point of the trip.

The curved thatched roofs of traditional Frisian cottages make this look like a very beautiful village, which is one way to distract you from the fact that you're here to fast and have your gut interrogated. Lanserhof Sylt is a medical wellness retreat built around the Mayr Method, meaning diagnostics, blood work, and monitored fasting do the heavy lifting. Vogue named it among the 100 best spas in the world. People tend to arrive burned out and leave very quiet.