The Red Sea · Saudi Arabia
Miraval Opens Its First International Resort on the Red Sea
Nearly thirty years after it began in the Arizona desert, the wellness brand Miraval has opened its first resort outside the United States, and it has chosen Shura Island on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast. Miraval The Red Sea is an adults-only, all-inclusive retreat set between mangroves and clear water, conceived as a place to slow down rather than tick sights off a list.
Shura Island
A wellness island, built to make you slow down.
Miraval The Red Sea
The Design
Architecture That Borrows From the Reef
The resort is the work of Foster + Partners, with interiors by Rockwell Group, and it reads as an extension of its surroundings. Spiralling, organic forms echo coral blooms and desert dunes, rammed-earth terracotta walls hold the light, and floor-to-ceiling windows pull the mangroves and the sea indoors. Across three million square feet of shoreline, the buildings feel less placed on the island than grown from it.
The Setting
Between Mangrove and Lagoon
Framed by lagoons, beaches and a protected mangrove forest, the island setting is the point, a landscape the resort is designed to keep intact rather than pave over.
The rarest luxury here is a phone left in its sleeping bag.
The Wellness
A Whole Island in Balance
Wellbeing is the organising idea, not an add-on. The Life in Balance Spa runs to 3,000 square metres with 39 treatment rooms, vitality pools, hammams and salt rooms, alongside a private women’s Majlis Spa Suite. Around it sit a Serenity Center for meditation, a Body Mindfulness Center for movement, and an Aquatic Center, while a signature Labyrinth traces a single winding path for walking meditation.
The programme leans on intention rather than instruction: yoga and sound healing, regenerative gardening, desert stargazing and one-to-one sessions with Miraval Specialists, all folded into an all-inclusive stay that also covers meals, daily classes and airport transfers.
Miraval Mode
Designed for Disconnection
A few spaces are kept deliberately phone-free, and rooms come with a dedicated device sleeping bag, small cues that nudge guests toward what the brand calls Miraval Mode, and toward being present.
The Table
Plant-Forward, by Design
Dining follows a plant-forward, seasonal philosophy under Executive Chef Hamdy Hassan, whose CV pairs Michelin kitchens with nutrition studies. Rosemary is the all-day signature, Palm Court handles light bites through the day, and Coral Cove catches the island’s sunsets, while the Life in Balance Culinary Kitchen turns cooking into a class. The idea is nourishment treated as part of the wellness journey rather than a break from it.
The Stay
One Hundred and Eighty Sanctuaries
The 180 rooms, suites and villas run from garden-view retreats to four-bedroom villas with private pools, each finished in muted tones with meditation cushions and Himalayan singing bowls among the in-room touches.
For Boujeez
The Gulf has spent years building beach resorts that compete on square metres and spectacle. Miraval arrives selling something harder to photograph, the permission to do less, and lands it inside Saudi Arabia’s most ambitious tourism project as the Kingdom courts wellness travel under Vision 2030. It is a bet that the next status symbol is not the loudest suite but the quietest week, and on Shura Island, that bet looks well placed.
Imagery courtesy of Miraval The Red Sea.