Episode
How a Health Crisis, a Divorce, and a Thai Monk Led Her to Create the #1 Spa in the World: Meet Diana Stobo of The Retreat Costa Rica
- Podcast
- Behind the Stays
- Published
- Apr 7, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3475
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Summary
Explore The Retreat Costa Rica: https://www.theretreatcostarica.com/Connect with Diana: https://dianastobo.com/Connect with Zach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/Apply to join the Journey Alliance: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharybusekrus/ In just a moment you'll meet Diana Stobo, the founder and visionary behind The Retreat Costa Rica — a 25-room luxury wellness destination and healing center with three farm-to-table restaurants, about an hour west of San José. Condé Nast just named it the number one destination spa in the world.But rewind about 25 years and Diana is 34 years old. Three kids at home. Husband travels Monday through Friday. And she's alone, projectile vomiting blood, calling a friend because she can't leave the house to get to the hospital. The doctors tell her she's raw tissue from one end to the other and hand her a prescription she'll need for the rest of her life. She never fills it.Instead she eliminates six foods, loses 100 pounds, reverses every condition her doctors said was permanent, pioneers the raw food movement, writes 15 books, and sells 65,000 copies out of the trunk of her car.Then comes the divorce. And on the same day it's finalized, she buys a property sight unseen on a quartz mountain in Costa Rica.But there are years between that purchase and the property you see today. Years where there are no investors, no guests, and no money left. Years where she's draining her retirement savings to keep her staff on payroll during a global pandemic. And then there's the moment she walks into the Global Wellness Summit — the biggest gathering of hospitality and wellness executives in the world — ready to sell the whole thing. She's broke. She's overwhelmed. She's one woman paying every bill. And one by one, the biggest names in th…