Fivelements has always sat slightly apart from the polished wellness resort template.
Founded in Bali in 2007, the brand built its reputation around plant-forward cuisine, traditional healing, local culture, nature and the kind of calm that feels inseparable from place.
Now, under GOCO Hospitality, Fivelements is preparing to grow beyond its Balinese roots with a series of new destinations that will take its philosophy into Thailand and Europe.
At a glance
- Fivelements is evolving from a Balinese healing sanctuary into a global wellness hospitality brand.
- The expansion will combine longevity science, diagnostics and contemporary wellbeing knowledge with traditional healing, nature and local culture.
- Fivelements Samui is scheduled to open in early 2027, followed by a transformed Fivelements Ubud in 2028 and European destinations planned for Switzerland and Montenegro.
From Balinese sanctuary to global wellness network
The next Fivelements opening is planned for Koh Samui in early 2027, marking the brand’s first major step in this new international phase.
Fivelements Ubud, the Bali property where the story began, is set for a transformation in 2028.
After that, the brand’s European chapter is expected to begin with Switzerland in 2029 and Montenegro in 2030.
The move follows GOCO Hospitality’s acquisition of Fivelements in 2024, giving the group its first consumer-facing global brand.
For a wellness sector crowded with quick resets and photogenic retreats, Fivelements is positioning itself around something more continuous.
The aim is to create destinations, retreats and personalised wellbeing programmes that support healthier living before health becomes a problem to solve.
How place will shape each Fivelements retreat
The expansion isn’t intended as a copy-and-paste exercise.
Each Fivelements destination is being shaped around its own landscape, architecture, culture and traditions, while keeping the brand’s central ideas intact.
That matters because Fivelements’ appeal has never been only about treatments or menus.
Its Balinese identity came from a broader relationship with the environment, from plant-based dining and traditional healing practices to a sense of community embedded in the guest experience.
In the new portfolio, that same framework will be adapted rather than duplicated.
Switzerland may naturally lend itself to alpine clarity, clinical precision and longevity programming, while Montenegro offers a different rhythm shaped by the Adriatic and its own cultural texture.
The confirmed direction is clear even where individual property details remain under wraps.
Fivelements wants every destination to feel recognisably part of the same family, but not interchangeable.
GOCO Hospitality’s health-first approach
GOCO Hospitality brings deep experience in wellness development, hospitality operations and destination planning.
Its founder and CEO, Ingo Schweder, has described the ambition as larger than building beautiful resorts, with Fivelements designed to inspire healthier ways of living through local culture, longevity science and human connection.
The personal dimension behind that vision is unusually direct.
Schweder and Josephine Leung, Managing Partner of GOCO Hospitality and Owner of Fivelements, have both experienced cancer, a reality that has shaped their view of wellbeing as something proactive and ongoing.
Leung’s work in personalised health, including her role as co-founder of Bangkok-based OLiv Longevity, also feeds into the direction of the brand.
That background helps explain the planned mix of diagnostics, contemporary wellness knowledge and ancestral practices.
The goal is not to make a retreat feel like a clinic, but to bring more seriousness, continuity and intelligence to the way hospitality approaches health.
The confirmed Fivelements expansion timeline
- 2007: Fivelements is founded in Bali.
- 2024: GOCO Hospitality acquires Fivelements.
- Early 2027: Fivelements Samui is scheduled to open in Thailand.
- 2028: Fivelements Ubud is planned for a transformation.
- 2029: A Fivelements destination is under development in Switzerland.
- 2030: A Fivelements destination is under development in Montenegro.
For travellers who increasingly want wellness to feel meaningful rather than ornamental, Fivelements’ next chapter should be worth watching.
If the brand can carry the spirit of its Balinese origins into new places without flattening their local character, it could become one of the more interesting names in the global shift toward health-led hospitality.
