At Soma Byron Bay, a luxurious retreat in the Byron Bay hinterland, formerly burnt-out entrepreneur Peter Ostick and master meditation teacher Gary Gorrow guide guests towards a fresh plan for living. Bliss comes inside an other-worldly dome where meditation, yoga and breathwork take place. Meals are all Ayurvedic and plant-based; participants can stay in luxe onsite suites or other digs nearby.

It’s just an hour by car from Sydney’s CBD, but Billabong Retreat in the Hawkesbury region northwest of the city feels like a true bush escape. Yoga teachers, adept at coaching beginners and catering to all skill levels, lead classes in an airy, bamboo-floored bower constructed from telegraph poles and second-hand doors. The food is also exceptional – colourful, vegetarian and delicious – and a return visit just for the bliss balls is totally understandable.

An hour-and-a-half by car from Port Macquarie in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range is Nulla Nulla Blacksmith’s, an organic farm where you’ll find a perfect, tiny wooden cabin, flanked by a creek and surrounded by thick forest. With no wi-fi or phone reception, you can focus on guided meditation and breathwork organised via your host, enjoy Ayurvedic meals sourced from the market garden, or simply lounge on the timber deck as evening falls and birdsong is replaced by crickets.

Bespoke luxury underpins everything at The Greenhouse Retreats (think: customised Spotify playlists and cocktail kits), a collection of private holiday rentals on the Central Coast. Six residences ranging from cute cottages to airy six-bedroom pavilions create the perfect backdrop to recharge your way – whether that includes meals provided by local caterers, onsite massage or yoga classes, or even a personal trainer to guide you through a sweat session.

“Change your life” is the philosophy at Elysia Wellness Retreat and by the end of your retreat (from two to seven nights), you’ll emerge determined to do just that. No one will stop you spending your days in a cabana beside the pool or indulging in back-to-back Babor facials. But once you’ve awoken at 6am for tai chi, followed by a brisk march around the property and a how-can-this-be-good-for-me clean-eating breakfast, it suddenly makes sense to keep up the good work.

At Spicers Sangoma Retreat in the Blue Mountains National Park, wellness goes wild with guided canyoning, rock-climbing and hiking adventures in the World Heritage wilderness. Afterwards, walking, meditation and cocktail classes take the edge off the adrenalin and luxe touches such as custom Spicers’ king-size beds and two-person Philippe Starck bathtubs make tearing yourself away at check-out the biggest mission of all.

Bannisters by the Sea, located a three-and-a-quarter-hour drive south from Sydney, is a whitewashed monument to Zen. The feeling of relaxation reaches its pinnacle in the spa, which has four treatment rooms, plus a semi-alfresco cabana for couples’ massages (this place is popular with the babymoon crowd), a hammam steam room and rain shower. There’s no lasers or light-therapy gadgets, just a team of therapists as gentle as the Éminence Organic Skin Care products they use and nature’s soundtrack of crashing waves.

Two hours in the car from Sydney into the Southern Highlands and up a pine-lined drive you’ll find the elegant Osborn House, a meticulously restored 19th-century heritage-listed home turned boutique hotel. The onsite spa with four treatment rooms offers facials, massages or a choose-your-own adventure session of pampering, but for something special try the Akwaterra massage – devised in the South of France and new to Australia, it utilises heated ceramic tools to leave you bliss-soaked.

The Anchorage, an hour’s drive north of Newcastle, is renowned for its decadent Spa Lucca. Try the 90-minute Immersion Oud experience, a luxurious all-body, Arabian oud essence treatment which includes a back massage, pressure point facial massage, facial mask, and foot therapy. Pre and post treatment, relax in the light-filled wellness lounge with a stack of glossy magazines and indulgent vegan chocolates.

Hamptons-meets-Wes-Anderson decor, views of the Pacific and the chef Jason Barrett-led restaurant, Paper Daisy, all make Halcyon House a coastal dream. Its spa, however – light-filled, luxurious and boasting a mammoth five-hour Day of Youth treatment that includes a massage of your choice, two-course lunch at Paper Daisy and steam-room access – will leave you restored from head-to-toe.

Set amid rolling hills patchworked with macadamia orchards and rainforest, Gaia Retreat in Byron’s hinterland is remarkable for its location alone. It does the setting justice, but it’s the hyperlocal organic cuisine, wellness timetable ranging from HIIT classes to meditation and the spa menu (the 240-minute Gaia Goddess will change your life) that keeps Gaia at the top of Australia’s wellness bucket list.