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Ready, Set, Relax Our ever-growing round-up of in-town day spas and out-of-town resort spas. |
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posted on April 30, 2008 |
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In-town day spas: 77 Maiden Lane 77 Maiden Ln. 415-391-7777 The beauty salon at 77 Maiden Lane (enter next to Sur La Table) is sleek and bustling; the day spa is equally sleek but hushed and dimly lit. Bliss SF W Hotel 181 Third Street, 4th floor 415-281-0990 The staff keep the snacks (brownies, cheese, crackers) and cocktails flowing, and your mani-pedi station has its own flatscreen TV, DVD player and headphones. The don’t-miss experience here is the hot-milk-and-almond pedi, a full hour’s worth of foot pampering. Burke Williams 845 Market St. 866-239-6635 The signature treatments at this spa, located conveniently above Bloomingdale’s in the Westfield SF Centre, take place in BW’s “wet room,” where you lie on a table under a rainfall of showerheads while a therapist exfoliates, cleanses and moisturizes your entire body. International Orange 2044 Fillmore Street, 2nd floor 800-839-3856 Minimalist and serene, International Orange offers yoga classes and a range of spa services. Looking for a great facial? Ask for Milene. I-Spa InterContinental San Francisco 888 Howard St. 888-811-4273 This day spa is one of SF’s newest, on the sixth floor of the 32-story InterContinental Hotel. Among the amenities are a blending bar where you can mix your own customized essential oil to use for a massage, and a spa terrace where you can relax afterward. Kabuki Springs & Spa 1750 Geary Blvd. 415-922-6000 There’s only one place in town where you can do a traditional Japanese communal bath treatment in addition to your massage or facial. Spend the day, or at least several hours, relaxing poolside, or follow the ritual of going from sauna to cool water and back. Three days a week are reserved for women, three for men, and Tuesdays are co-ed (with clothing required). Nob Hill Spa Huntington Hotel 1075 California St. 415-345-2888 This posh spa inside the Huntington Hotel boasts what is perhaps the city’s most gorgeous pool, on the rooftop surrounded by glass, where you will definitely want to lounge after your treatment. Remède Spa St. Regis Hotel 125 Third St. 415-284-4060 Heading down the stone ramp into the St. Regis’s Remede Spa feels somewhat like entering the Met’s Temple of Dendur; finish off your visit with some quiet time in the pool area, which has a view of the roofs of SoMa. SenSpa 1161 Gorgas Ave. 415-441-1777 The new spa, set in a redone 1917 army barracks, promises calm with its menu of massages and skin treatments. Spa Radiance 3011 Fillmore St. 415-346-6281 A favorite of Cow Hollow and Marina locals, as well as the occasional visiting movie star, Spa Radiance has massage tables that feel like real beds (comforters and all). A visit here is the next best thing to a house call. Spa Vitale Hotel Vitale 8 Mission St. 415-278-3788 This tiny day spa at the top of the Hotel Vitale has only three indoor treatment rooms, but its signature “bathing ritual” is performed on a landscaped patio, screened from the world by a bamboo forest. Splash Sports Club/LA 747 Market St. 415-633-3900 Hidden a floor below the busy locker rooms of the Sports Club/LA is the peaceful Splash spa, which serves both the health club and the adjacent Four Seasons. The staff here is topnotch, including massage therapist Blaise Martin, one of 7x7’s “Best of the City” picks. Tru Hilton SF Financial District 750 Kearny St. 415-399-9700 Tru is a minimalist space awash in soothing blue, pink and yellow light. Clients rave about the signature oxygen facial, but be sure to also try the Tropical Rainforest Room, where you’ll experience first a light jungle mist, then a downpour and finally a waterfall cascading down your body. Zen Day Spa 775 Haight St. 415-558-8886 Located in the unlikely spa territory of the Lower Haight, Zen Day Spa is a little urban sanctuary where waxing, facials, hand and foot treatments are both affordable and available late on weeknights (the doors close at 9 p.m.). Out-of-town resort spas: Auberge Spa Auberge du Soleil 180 Rutherford Hill Rd. Rutherford, CA 94573 866-228-2490 If you want privacy, the Auberge Spa is for you—there are no day-use passes, no appointments for anyone but the Auberge’s guests. Which means the Meyer-lemon olive-oil massage is yours, all yours. Bacara Resort & Spa 8301 Hollister Avenue Santa Barbara, California 93117 805-968-0100 Ayurvedic treatments and, fittingly, hydrotherapy are specialties of the spa at this secluded oceanside resort, about 20 minutes’s drive up the coast from Santa Barbara proper. Bathhouse at Calistoga Ranch 580 Lommel Rd. Calistoga, CA 94515 707-254-2800 The Bathhouse at the woodsy-chic Calistoga Ranch is a full-immersion experience in pampering that includes an outdoor shower, a soaking tub where you can bathe in Calistoga’s famous mineral waters and a eucalyptus steam room. Carneros Inn Spa Carneros Inn 4048 Sonoma Highway Napa, CA 94559 707-299-4900 At the hilltop spa of this modern yet homey resort, we recommend the Huichica Creek bath: a restorative soak in a hydrotherapeutic tub lined with river rocks. The best part? You’re out in the open air, with a view of the rolling Carneros countryside. Claremont Resort & Spa [ 41 Tunnel Rd. Berkeley, CA 94705 510-843-3000 This Victorian resort provides a great place for a girlfriends’ gathering: Before or after your treatment, you can all soak in the spa’s super-sized whirlpool tub, which looks out over the Bay to the SF skyline. And thanks to the Claremont’s recent greening efforts—including water-saving devices and biodegradable supplies—your self-indulgence needn’t provoke guilt. Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa 100 Boyes Blvd. Sonoma, CA 95476 707-938-9000 Fairmont has been adding spas to many of its resorts around the country, but there was no need to do so here: Back in 1927, the Sonoma Mission Inn was built around a mineral hot springs. Along with the arcaded bathhouse, designed to resemble a wine cave, you’ll find outdoor thermal pools and Jacuzzis. Gaige House 13540 Arnold Dr. Glen Ellen, CA 95442 707-935-0237 Although there is a petite spa up in the eaves of the B&B’s main house, reserve one of the stand-alone Zen suites and have your massage in your own room (or in one of your room’s two private gardens). Health Spa at Meadowood 900 Meadowood Lane St. Helena, CA 94574 800-458-8080 The wellness program at this St. Helena resort includes not just a full range of spa treatments, including massage, facials, hot stones and ayurvedic shiro dara (wherein a stream of warm oil is poured over the forehead), but several daily classes of yoga, pilates and cardio. Heritage House 5200 North Highway One Little River, CA 95456 707-937-5888 The new ESPA spa within this renovated resort near Mendocino is composed of treatment suites with private showers, decks and steam rooms. Many of the ingredients used in treatments—chamomile and white thyme, for example—are harvested in the inn’s kitchen garden. Indian Springs 1712 Lincoln Ave. Calistoga, CA 94515 707-942-4913 The geyser-fed Olympic-size mineral pool is the heart of the resort, but to our mind, the sweet 1940s cottages and the old-fashioned volcanic-ash mud baths (taking one is like being suspended in a vat of pudding—in a good way) are its soul. Kenwood Inn and Spa 10400 Sonoma Hwy. Kenwood, CA 95452 707-833-1293 One of the country’s top-rated spas is the Caudalie Spa at this Sonoma County inn, which specializes in vinotherapie—many of the facials and massages here feature wine-related products, such as grapeseed oil and extract, bentonite clay and even wine yeast. Mount View Hotel & Spa 1457 Lincoln Ave. Calistoga, CA 94515 707-942-6877 This Victorian hotel on Calistoga’s main drag contains a sunny little day spa; if the traditional Calistoga mud bath isn’t your thing, relax—the mud treatments here are not full-immersion experiences. Ojai Valley Inn and Spa 905 Country Club Rd. Ojai, CA 93023 805-646-1111 Though you can get virtually any type of body, face or therapeutic treatment within this spa “village” resembling a tile-roofed adobe mansion, your best bet is kuyam—a traditional Chumash Indian therapy consisting of cleansing mud, dry heat, inhalation therapy and guided meditation offered nowhere else in the country. Ritz-Carlton Spa, Half Moon Bay 1 Miramontes Point Rd. Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 650-712-7000 Not all of the Ritz-Carlton spas offer the Prada line of beauty treatments, but the Half Moon Bay one does—just add the resort’s windswept, almost Brontean clifftop location for a winning combination. Spa at Bernardus Lodge 415 Carmel Valley Rd. Carmel Valley CA 93924 831-658-3400 Treatments at this spa—which is part of Bernardus Lodge, sister property to the famed Bernardus Winery, in sunny, sleepy Carmel Valley—incorporate, not surprisingly, the likes of Chardonnay grapeseeds and the resort’s own lavender as ingredients. Spa at CordeValle CordeValle One CordeValle Club Dr. San Martin, CA 95046 408-695-4500 Part of a golfing resort located in the green hills just south of San Jose, this small but choice spa offers a wide range of bodywork treatments geared to weekend athletes: Play 18 holes and then recover with a “rain room” steam-and-Vichy-bath combination. Spa at Four Seasons the Biltmore Santa Barbara 1260 Channel Dr. Santa Barbara,CA 93108 805-969-2261 The menu at the spa within the recently refurbished Biltmore in Montecito reads like the tasting menu of an adventurous executive chef: Get yourself wrapped in seaweed, Chardonnay clay or an avocado-citrus combination, or try a Thai coconut or lavender-cornmeal scrub. Spa at Post Ranch Inn Highway 1 Big Sur, CA 93920 831-667-2200 Though there is a spa building at Post Ranch Inn, you can request any of the treatments (apart from the equipment-intensive Big Sur Jade Stone Therapy) be done in your own room at no extra charge—a no-brainer if you’re already springing for an ocean view. (The spa itself looks up at the coastal mountains.) Spa at Quail Lodge Resort 8205 Valley Greens Dr. Carmel, CA 93923 831-620-8811 The spa at this golf-focused resort features indoor and outdoor treatment rooms as well as an expansive wellness center for all manner of fitness classes. Treatments incorporate such wide-ranging ingredients as orange blossoms, collodial silver and green tea; they also offer a gentleman’s facial as well as a gentle facial designed especially for teens. Spa at Silverado 1600 Atlas Peak Rd. Napa, CA 94558 707-257-0200 Designed to resemble an ancient Roman spa, this is Napa Valley’s largest facility, where you can indulge in varied body and facial treatments, try fitness classes ranging from Feldenkrais to BOSU (balance-ball training), or simply relax by the pool or in the spa lounge. Spa Solage Solage Calistoga 755 Silverado Tr. Calistoga, CA 94515 866-942-7442 The draw at this new resort just off Calistoga’s downtown strip is definitely the open-air Mud Bar. Choose which essential oils you want mixed into your mud, then proceed to a private heated room where you’ll smear it all over your body to bake. After your wash-down, step into a scented bath with a cocktail, then snooze in a zero-gravity chair in a darkened room. Spa Villagio Villagio Inn & Spa 6481 Washington St. Yountville, CA 707-944-8877 Just opened in April, the Villagio’s new spa building features warm, rustic Mediterranean interiors and state-of-the-art treatments. Each of five luxurious spa suites has its own sound system, flat-screen TV, wet bar, fireplace and private deck with sunken tub. Ventana Inn & Spa [ventanainn.com] 48123 Highway One Big Sur, CA 93920 831-667-2331 Given that the resort itself is more log-cabin lodgy than its neighbor, the Post Ranch Inn, it shouldn’t be too surprising that Ventana’s spa is on the casual side as well. (The waiting area is coed, for instance—if you’re a bit shy, consider yourself warned.)
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