Exclusive | The $7K-a-week wellness resort where coffee is banned, doctors give laxatives and even chewing has rules but your gut will thank you

I’d been traveling for about four hours when I finally checked in at Vivamayr, a luxury health spa in Austria where week-long stays start at around $7,000. Sitting on an idyllic lake in Maria Wörth, Vivamayr attracts guests like Bollywood stars and Hollywood celebrities (Elizabeth Hurley and Melanie Griffith, to name a couple) — and I was ready to see how the other half lives.Exhausted and battling jet lag, I perked up when the front desk staff asked if I wanted a refreshment and eagerly requested a cappuccino.But the woman’s expression immediately turned serious as she replied, “I’m so sorry, but we don’t serve coffee at the resort.” That was the moment I realized this was a serious detox program I wasn’t sure I was ready for. As a travel journalist, I’ve stayed at my fair share of wellness resorts around the world.

While some of them focus on relaxation — think spa treatments, butlers and shaded cabanas — Vivamayr is more about the internal digestive makeover.The resort, I’d heard from a couple who stayed there, was “the real deal.” Since opening in 2005, it has become an annual destination for those looking to reset their gut health.One mother and daughter from New York told me they visit every year.“Every time I leave here, my health is perfect.

I go back home, my doctor gets my bloodwork, and everything is normal,” the daughter, in her late 50s, said. Add to that another glowing recommendation from a close friend who had been going for years — and swore that the Mayr Method healed her chronic gut issues — and I was interested enough to accept an invite to try out their detox program… even if their version of wellness is less about pampering and more about whipping bodies into shape.The resort is founded on the principles of Modern Mayr Medicine, a method created by Austrian physician Dr.Franz Xaver Mayr.“Over a hundred years ago, [he] observed how closely digestive efficiency and intestinal health are tied to over...