Buchinger Wilhelmi Bodensee

The origin of medically supervised therapeutic fasting as a discipline, sited high above Lake Constance with views across the forested shore to Mainau Island and the Alps beyond.

Dr Otto Buchinger was a naval doctor whose career was ended by severe rheumatism; having exhausted other remedies, he undertook a nineteen-day fast and reported himself cured. He began treating patients in his own home and opened a clinic at Bad Pyrmont in 1935; the Überlingen site followed in 1953. The clinics have remained in family ownership ever since and are now run by the fourth generation.

The research is what separates this from the rest of the category. A scientific department works with university research centres, and the clinic has recorded more than 250,000 fasting treatments across its history, receiving some 6,000 guests a year from over sixty countries. In a field crowded with unevidenced claims, that volume of documented practice is unusual.

The recommended programme runs two to four weeks — eight to ten fasting days, a preparatory day before and three refeeding days after — with ten nights the practical minimum. Fasting guests take herbal teas, vegetable consommés and pressed juices; a nurse checks blood pressure, pulse, weight and blood sugar each morning.

One independent reviewer put it plainly: this is a medical clinic rather than a hotel spa, and the comfortable but unpretentious rooms make that clear.

Two practical exclusions, stated by the clinic itself: it does not treat addiction, severe alcoholism or eating disorders, and the sloping site suits guests with mobility difficulties only to a limited extent.