The rise of high-end night tourism

Celestial sanctuaries

Gone are the days when stargazing meant shivering in car parks with amateur telescopes. Today's luxury travellers expect expertly curated celestial experiences with world-class equipment and scholarly insight. At Nayara Alto Atacama, surrounded by Chile's otherworldly Cordillera de la Sal (Salt Mountains), you can admire stars, planets, constellations and nebulas at the hotel’s open-air observatory, the only one of its kind in the region. 

Here, beneath some of Earth's clearest skies, astrophiles have access to a high-powered Celestron 8SE telescope and rotating lounge chairs for optimal viewing. A seasonal astronomy guide visits the hotel, explaining what makes Atacama a world-class stargazing destination and identifying constellations and their significance to Indigenous cultures, while you recline on Nayara Alto Atacama’s newly expanded platforms designed for prime night sky viewing. Young astronomers are welcome here too, with engaging journeys through the galaxy available for kids.

It is connecting astronomy with culture that makes stargazing more than a spectacle. In Tinos, astronomy retreats are held at Odera, the first luxury property to grace the unspoiled Cycladic island. Renowned astronomy experts weave Greek mythology into astrophotography sessions, with dates carefully chosen during specific moon phases for prime scientific observation and storytelling. You can expect sunrise yoga and dinners under the stars, too, allowing you to truly make the most of Tinos’ glorious skies.

Wellness under the stars

Perhaps nowhere is the intersection of wellness and noctourism more elegantly realised than in the concept of moonbathing, a practice gaining serious traction among luxury hotels and resorts. At the Maldives’ original barefoot luxury resort, Gili Lankanfushi, for example, each overwater villa features its own roof deck star bed, draped in sumptuous linens where you can soak up the moonlight while listening to the gentle percussion of waves below.

Exposure to moonlight is believed to improve sleep quality, reduce stress and regulate hormones, particularly benefitting women's reproductive health and menopausal symptoms. The resort's Mindful Dream treatment, available between 7pm and 10pm, is an in-villa spa ritual that combines massage with sound healing, aromatherapy and mindful breathing for an after-dark wellness journey that promotes more than just a restful night’s sleep.

Over in the Caribbean, Antigua’s Carlisle Bay celebrates darkness as a centrepiece of meaningful wellbeing rituals. For the spiritually inclined, a Moonlight Ritual, held during full moons, involves meditation, intention-setting and moon baths in crystal-charged waters. A new moonlit hike has also been introduced for exploring the island’s natural beauty by nightfall. Carlisle Bay’s Lead Gardener is your guide and takes you to Signal Hill, where you can view the setting sun on one side and the rising moon on the other, before you descend by torchlight.

Adventures in darkness

The most compelling noctourism experiences challenge travellers to see familiar landscapes through an entirely different lens. At Castelfalfi in Tuscany, for instance, a night safari transforms the estate's 2,700 acres into a wildlife theatre, where expert naturalists guide you through darkened olive groves and ancient woodlands in search of wild boar, foxes and nocturnal birds of prey. It offers a unique and thrilling sense of place in this beautiful part of Italy.

Similarly, Carlton Hotel St. Moritz has elevated Alpine adventures with its Full Moon Specials in Switzerland’s Engadin Mountains. Inspired by the belief that full moon exposure influences better health and sleep, this monthly activity timed to lunar cycles includes ice skating under stars, night-time snowshoe hiking and moonlit skiing and snowboarding, depending on which month you visit. There are also regular torchlit walks around the hidden Black Lake. Tobogganing under starlight on one of the longest illuminated toboggan runs in Europe, stretching from Preda to Bergün, is also a fun nocturnal activity unique to St Moritz.

Those who like to get active after dark will also appreciate Jumeirah Maldives Olhahali Island’s floodlit tennis courts, where you can not only enjoy a game of tennis by the beach and under the slightly cooler night sky. Then there’s Six Senses Yao Noi’s guided kayak tours through Thailand’s spectacular Phang Nga Bay, which include monthly full moon kayaking off the resort’s beach. This awe-inspiring night-time tour not only takes in one of the world’s most breathtaking seascapes, but offers the rare chance for kayakers to spot bioluminescent plankton.

Privileged access after hours

For culture connoisseurs, the best experiences happen when the last tourist coach pulls away and the world’s most treasured landmarks return to quieter, more intimate rhythms. Perhaps the most exclusive nocturnal offering for such travellers belongs to Airelles Le Grand Contrôle, the only hotel within Versailles' gates. As evening descends and the palace doors close to the public, you’re led through Marie Antoinette's private apartments and the Hall of Mirrors by a Versailles expert, allowing you to experience the palace when it is at its most intimate and magical.