Austria
The Mayr cure retreats in Austria
Where the mayr cure is genuinely practised in Austria, which houses do it properly, and what the evidence actually supports.
- Houses
- 2
- Programmes
- 2
- From
- US$4,700
- How long
- 14 nights is the useful minimum; 7 is the floor
What it is
A medically supervised digestive rest, invented in Austria
Austria. Franz Xaver Mayr (1875–1965) built the diagnostic and dietary system that carries his name.
Modern Mayr medicine is the most rigorous of the European cure traditions and the least pleasant to undergo, and those two facts are related. It rests on a specific, testable proposition: that a large amount of general unwellness is digestive in origin, and that resting, cleansing and retraining the digestive tract changes it. Franz Xaver Mayr, an Austrian physician, developed the diagnostic approach in the early twentieth century; the modern form has added laboratory medicine and dropped much of the original severity.
What makes it medicine rather than a diet is the examination. A Mayr physician performs a structured abdominal assessment — palpation, posture, tongue, a defined set of findings — and the diet is prescribed from it and revised through the stay. There is no menu. What arrives at the table is a clinical decision, and it is often very little.
The technique guests find hardest is the simplest: chewing. Each mouthful is chewed to liquid, thirty or forty times, in silence, at a table where everyone else is doing the same. It sounds absurd. It is central, it is measurable in how you feel by day four, and it is the single habit most people take home.
The hard facts
- Franz Xaver Mayr (1875–1965) was an Austrian physician; the diagnostic and dietary system carries his name.
- Modern Mayr medicine is practised under physician supervision with laboratory diagnostics, and is taught through professional associations in Austria and Germany.
- The classical cure length is fourteen days; the method is written around that duration.
- The Tyrolean cure houses sit at roughly 900 m on the plateaux above Innsbruck, and graded walking is part of the prescription.
- Manual abdominal treatment by a physician or trained therapist is a defining component, not an optional extra.
- The historical "milk and stale roll" diet has largely been replaced by staged modern protocols.
Before you book
What the evidence supports, and what it does not
- goodCaloric restriction and fasting produce metabolic improvements
- mixedSupervised fasting improves symptoms in metabolic syndrome and hypertension
- mixedThorough chewing and slow eating reduce intake and improve digestive symptoms
- traditionalManual abdominal treatment relieves functional digestive symptoms
- mixedThe gut is the origin of most systemic disease
- noneA cure "detoxifies" the body
Where to go
2 houses, and what each is for
Medical clinic
Lans, above Innsbruck · Austria
Lanserhof Lans
The mother house of the Lanserhof group — the property that turned the F. X. Mayr gut cure into a luxury medical category.
FromUS$9,400Bookable with usMedical clinic
Igls, above Innsbruck · Austria
Park Igls
The most clinically serious and least resort-like of the famous Austrian Mayr houses — and consistently the best value among them.
FromUS$4,700Bookable with us
What you can book
2 programmes
Lanserhof Lans · 14 nights
The Mayr cure
Medically supervised digestive rest at the house that invented the category — and the first three days are genuinely miserable.
US$9,400demandingPark Igls · 10 nights
The metabolic week
The most clinical Mayr week available, at roughly half what the flagship houses charge.
US$4,700moderate
When to come
The season in Tyrol
| Destination | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TyrolAustria | Jan: perfectly good | Feb: perfectly good | Mar: perfectly good | Apr: perfectly good | May: book this | Jun: book this | Jul: book this | Aug: book this | Sep: book this | Oct: perfectly good | Nov: we would talk you out of it | Dec: perfectly good |
Tyrol. May to September is the window, because the graded walking that the doctors prescribe needs open paths and long light. November is the Alpine Zwischensaison and much of the valley closes. Winter courses run and work perfectly well — you simply do the walking on cleared paths in the cold.
Asked and answered
Questions we actually get
How hungry will I actually be?
Is a week enough?
Who should not do this?
Will I put the weight straight back on?
What actually is a Mayr cure?
Which house should I take?
Not sure this is the right list?
Tell us what is actually wrong and we will shortlist three houses — or tell you that Austria is the wrong answer, which happens about one enquiry in six.
Ask Heal & Rest