The Sussex hotel with wood-fired saunas, a shimmering lake and food grown in the garden

I’m floating on a paddleboard on a shimmering lake, surrounded by ancient woodland. The sun sparkles on the water, its soft ripples sending lily pads gliding past. This, I think, is heaven.

I’m spending the weekend at Crafted at Powdermills, a boutique country hotel in Battle, East Sussex.

A stone’s throw from the ruined abbey that is the site of the legendary Battle of Hastings, this four-star ‘life-friendly’ retreat offers everything from lakeside wellness to organic dining and crafts.

There’s a saltwater pool and a bountiful garden where Lucy, the hotel’s Head Grower, spends her days tending to seasonal fruit and veg.

As I spend more time here, barely checking my phone and easing into a relaxed rhythm, I understand why everyone’s talking about ‘raw’ travel.

According to research, 81% of Brits are using travel to slow down and de-stress, with off-grid, low-impact, and analogue experiences.

It comes from a desire to escape constant connectivity — more and more of us are rejecting social media’s high-speed, checklist style of travel.

Walking up to the hotel’s Georgian building base, there’s not an iPhone in sight.

People are lounging on terracotta-striped towels, actually talking to each other.

Genuine wellness

It would be fair to say that celebrities have distorted the wellness industry.

As famous faces launch their own ‘lifestyle’ brands, what once was a genuine, health-centred community has become more about money.

But not here. Both the staff and every guest I speak to seem to have mastered the elixir of a good life — they’re smiley, carefree, and walk with a spring in their step.

‘Look where we are,’ one tells me in the pool. She’s spent her day rotating between the sauna, the hot tub and the freshwater lake.

She’s got the right idea. I pull myself from the water and make my way back to the lake for a communal hot tub session.

The tub sits next to a wood-fired sauna and an alfresco cold plunge pool, and can comfortably fit up to six people.

For an hour, I do nothing but soak my cares away, my normally switched-on brain relishing the calm.

Forest feast

Crafted’s ‘everything natural’ ethos extends to the food, too.

Sadly I’ve just missed the nomadic ‘Forest Feasts’ dining experience, but I’m told they’re magical.

Once a month in summer, guests gather beneath the trees at a 40-person permanent table. The fire is lit at dusk, and the woodland comes alive.

A relaxed feast inspired by seasonal ingredients follows, cooked over open flames and served to share. 

Instead, I’m treated to a mouth-watering dinner at Crafted’s pub, an annex that has been transformed into a cosy social setting.

Sitting on the terrace, sparkling wine in hand, I start with smoked mussels and burnt aubergine croquettes.

For main, I share a juicy chicken schnitzel with walnut pesto and one of the best seafood chowders I’ve ever tasted.

This farm-to-table experience is seamlessly executed by Lucy and the chefs, who build menus based on what’s growing in the garden.

Indoor-outdoor living

Crafted has mastered the art of indoor-outdoor living.

Whether I’m in the comfort of my room or the light-filled orangery, I feel like an extension of nature.

There’s a modern folk palette of rich terracottas, earthy greens, and teal blues, and organic local timber furnishings everywhere I look.

Even in the cosier corners of the hotel — where bold colour-drenching blends with a cabinet-of-curiosities aesthetic — there are no boundaries between the inside and outside worlds.

This is intentional: data shows that spending time in nature lowers the stress hormone cortisol by 20%.

So it makes sense they’ve gone to great lengths to ensure guests feel this way at all times.

I’ve noticed this in my own travel choices. Whenever I choose a destination, I look beyond the famous attractions.

I’d rather spend my time breathing fresh air, eating local food, experiencing nature and slowing down.

The rise of raw travel

Raw travel isn’t just a trend; it’s a reset. And we’re not the only ones to feel that way.

Chelsea Ross, Founder of Goddess Retreats, a women-run wellness company, tells Metro that early social media travel was all about speed and snapshots – hitting 14 cities in 14 days to capture ‘Insta-worthy’ experiences.

But we’ve hit a point of collective digital exhaustion, she says.

‘People are realising that online connection or a surface-level photo spot doesn’t offer the emotional depth of real life.

‘Visiting beautiful locations means little if you didn’t actually feel present in any of them.’

That’s why we’re seeing such a massive shift toward slow, analogue travel, Chelsea explains.

‘People are choosing to do less so they can experience more. They want holidays where they can put their phone away, disconnect from the performance of documenting everything, and connect with themselves, the local culture, nature, and other people.’

For Chelsea, real transformative travel happens internally through shared moments and self-reflection.

‘It’s an internal shift, and that’s something you can’t capture on film.’

Crafted at Powdermills delivers just that.