Whether you're looking for massages and mud baths or exercise classes, there's a spa to suit your fancy. Here, we have included an article from Ladies' Home Journal magazine, December 2004 on what you need to know to choose the best spa for your spa vacation.
Pamper Yourself
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A week away from home may not seem like much, but it can have a profound effect on your life, as Leah Rabinowitz, a fifty-something New York City real-estate agent, recently discovered. While her husband was on a business trip in Arizona, she checked into Canyon Ranch, a luxurious Tucson health spa. She hiked in the desert, took yoga, strength, and aerobics classes, relaxed with soothing massages, and showed up for dinner in her workout clothes. And after a full-body analysis told her she needed to make friends with the treadmill, she listened. "That pushed me to go to the gym, and I'm still going." |
If a visit to a day spa is a quick gulp of health and indulgence, a stay at a sleepover spa is a nutritious five-course meal that tastes terrific, leaves you content and satisfied, and stays with you long after you leave. Small wonder that spas are a fast-growing segment of the travel industry. In 1990, there were about 1,300 spas in the United States. Now there are an estimated 12,000.
Though they serve serenity in various ways, leading spas offer programs that treat the whole person -- mind, body, and spirit -- and instill long-lasting good habits. Many offer Pilates, yoga, and hiking, but the philosophy is that physical fitness isn't enough; you also need to nourish your body with healthy food and pampering treatments. Some spas even offer health services, including bone-density tests and consultations with nutritionists.
Yet not all spas follow the same schedule. Some program your day to the minute, while others leave you on your own. Some favor gentle exercise in a gym or pool. Others get you hiking for miles. You'll find extravagant Indian treatments with oils and temple bells as well as simple Swedish massages. And while some restrict calorie intake or are vegetarian, others serve lavish, yet low-cal, desserts.
With so many choices, your dream spa is out there -- and if you're like most of us, a visit has never been more necessary.
Choosing a Spa
Before making a reservation, learn about the different types of spas and know what you want to achieve on your visit.
Destination Spas: To aficionados, destination spas are the one true church, offering the purest experience. The strictest require weeklong stays. Some are just for women. Nearly all are casual; guests hang around in their bathrobes without makeup. Some fine-tune physical fitness and promote weight loss, while others provide medical workups and retool your diet. The downside? Rigid spas can feel like boot camp.
Resort Spas: These spas offer many destination spa services, such as herbal wraps or yoga classes, but permit a looser diet and stays of almost any duration. Resorts often offer golf, skiing, and sunbathing -- perfect when only one family member wants to visit a spa. Some resort spas even offer special programs for teens and kids.
To narrow your search, consider your goals. Are you looking for a new diet or stress-management techniques? Do you want a physical challenge? Do you need to entertain children or a spouse? Or do you just want to relax and be pampered?
Keep in mind, too, that spas are costly. The fabled Golden Door, in Escondido, California, charges $6,500 for an all-inclusive week's stay, though most spas average $2,000 or $3,000 a week with additional charges for treatments. A few charge less than $1,500. Off-season deals are available, and a shorter stay is also an option. Resort spas are pay as you go, often with separate charges for room, treatments, and food. Prices vary, but facials and massages usually start at $100.
Destination Spas
Prices include meals, accommodations, and most fitness activities. Most spas charge extra for treatments and premium activities.
Mind-Body-Spirit: Though fitness classes are available, most guests come for the treatments at the newly renovated Lake Austin Spa Resort (1705 S. Quinlan Park Road, Austin, Texas, 78732; 800-847-5637, www.lakeaustin.com). The choices are mind-boggling: 18 types of facials; 19 massages; wraps, masks, and scrubs galore; and special treatments for men and teens (the $65 Bye Bye Blemishes facial zeros in on acne). Cooking classes, flavorful low-fat meals, and evening lectures on nutrition and health round out the offerings. The 40 guest rooms have porches and soaking tubs. A three-day stay will set you back $1,280.
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Guests eager to lose weight come to The Oaks at Ojai (122 East Ojai Avenue, Ojai, California, 93023, 800-753-6257; www.oaksspa.com), a 30-room spa in a 1918 Mission-revival lodge in the center of town. Fitness activities are plentiful: ball stretch, Pilates, tai chi, yoga, and water aerobics supplement walks and hikes in the gorgeous Topa Topa Mountains. Meals total 1,000 calories a day. And treatments are a bargain by spa standards -- an alpha-hydroxy facial is $75, as is the River Rock Massage. Seven-night packages start at $1,183, including two treatments. |
Lean and Mean: During a seven-day (mandatory) stay at The Ashram (P.O. Box 8009, Calabasas, California, 91371, 818-222-6900; www.theashram.org), the 12 guests hike 70 miles, fill their days with yoga, pool workouts, and fitness classes, and eat healthily. By week's end, most guests have lost from eight to 10 pounds each and feel exhilarated. Accommodations are modest (12 guests share eight rooms), but the surrounding Santa Monica Mountains are breathtaking. All stays cost $3,500.
Health: Guests of Canyon Ranch, with picturesque outposts in Tucson, Arizona, and Lenox, Massachusetts (800-742-9000; www.canyonranch.com), can choose from more than 50 exercise classes, enjoy biking, hiking, swimming, and tennis outdoors, and wind down with tai chi and meditation. Chef Scott Uehlein's tasty low-fat dishes -- like macadamia-crusted mahimahi -- win raves. The spas offer full medical workups and workshops in stress management, weight loss, and smoking cessation. For a little TLC, check out Lulur, an Indonesian beauty ritual featuring a rose petal-filled tub soak ($230). Weeklong stays start at $4,670 per person in Arizona, $3,920 in Massachusetts.
Yoga and Wellness: Yogis flock to the Kripalu Center (P.O. Box 793, Lenox, Massachusetts, 01240, 800-741-7353; www.kripalu.org), which calls itself the largest holistic health retreat in the United States, whose 350-acre Berkshire Mountains setting is ideal for long, head-clearing walks. Offerings include sessions in chanting, creativity, healing, and fitness -- even yoga for kids. The popular program Retreat & Renewal offers daily yoga, meditation, and guided walks, and guests can opt for a private room or a dorm. Fees start at $600 for five days.
Resort Spas
Prices are for rooms and, in some cases, meals. Treatments and most activities are extra.
All ages are welcome at The Homestead (U.S. Route 220 Main Street, Hot Springs, Virginia, 24445, 800-838-1766; www.thehomestead.com), a sprawling 238-year-old Allegheny Mountain resort. A 1,000-square-foot family spa suite pampers the entire brood, where first haircuts ($10) and chocolate-scented pedicures ($40) are offered along with grown-up treatments like the Highlands Honeysuckle Experience ($165), a multistep full-body wrap. A night's stay is $99 per person and includes breakfast. Golf and nightly film screenings and four restaurants are also offered.
The spa at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort (1001 LaFayette Drive, Farmington, Pennsylvania, 15437, 866-399-6957; www.nemacolin.com) is framed by mountains, trees, and a reflecting pool. The many treatments there include a Couples Aromatherapy Massage ($220) and the Mystic Shirodhara ($110), an oil-based head rub. There's unique family entertainment -- carriage rides, a Hummer obstacle track, and a dig-for-dinosaurs site. Guests stay in a French-style chateau or Tudor-style lodge in rooms that start at $200; they are also welcome to dine at one of 15 on-site restaurants and lounges.
Marriott's Rancho Las Palmas (41000 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage, California, 92270, 800-458-8786; www.rancholaspalmas.com) desert resort offers pools, a children's play area, tennis courts, a golf course, and a nearby multiplex theater. Its extensive menu of treatments includes the 60-minute Balinese Jamu Massage ($109) and the 90-minute Aromatherapy Facial with Wildflower Foot Bath ($174). The 450-room resort has a super-size spa with a fitness center, boutique, and cafe. Guests choose from four restaurants, and rooms start at $99 in the summer and $315 in the winter.
Spa Etiquette 101
- Be punctual. Treatments start on the dot, and latecomers receive shortened sessions. Most spas ask guests to arrive 30 minutes early to appointments so they can check in, disrobe, perhaps shower and use the sauna, and relax.
- To maintain the serenity, turn off cell phones and beepers, and speak in soft, quiet tones. "We call it your 'spa voice,'" says Christie Ford, spa director at The Homestead.
- How much you disrobe is up to you. Generally, you'll want to remove your bra for a facial, which includes a neck and shoulder massage, and disrobe completely for a full-body massage. Rest assured, "You can stay fully clothed for any treatment if it makes you more comfortable," says Ford.
- Whether you talk during a treatment is your choice. Therapists take their cue from you and will chat or be silent depending on what you want.
- A 20-percent tip is standard for treatments. If a spa adds a service charge in lieu of gratuities, no additional tip is required.