Many spas put wellness, good food before beauty
By BETH J. HARPAZ
Associated Press
| |||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
||
NEW YORK — Representatives from America's top spas gathered in New York recently for the annual meeting of the International Spa Association.
But nobody at the meeting used the word "beauty."
Instead, today's spas are integrating cosmetic treatments like facials and manicures into holistic approaches to well-being.
You can still get that pedicure, but your spa visit also will include fitness, health, relaxation and even spirituality.
"Beauty is almost a given," said Nina Smiley, spokeswoman for The Spa at Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, N.Y. "But it's superficial. It's external. I'd say what's internal is as important as the beauty aspect."
Spa visitors want more than a massage that feels good for 20 minutes. They want advice on skin care and diet; products to re-create the spa experience at home; and techniques they can use on their own to relax and stay fit, from exercise to yoga to aromatherapy.
At some spas, guests are no longer sent from one treatment room to another. They sit in one spot, and specialists come to them.
Spa Montage in Laguna Beach, Calif., offers a "Surrender" program in which "you get an analysis, and instead of getting a menu of services, we design a program for you," said spokeswoman Anne Bramham. "All the staff coordinates to work with you."
A weekend stay at a destination spa can easily run $500 or more — including lodging, meals, a class, the pool and a few treatments. So it's no wonder that a survey found guests at destination spas want the experience to be more than skin-deep.
"They expect there'll be some major life changes" when their stay is over, said Michelle Barry of the Hartman Group, which polled 7,680 North Americans for the International Spa Association's 2006 "Spa-goer Study."
Along with the overall shift toward integrating spa services, other themes emerged at the July 27 spa meeting.
Mandarin Oriental's "Awaken Facial," "instead of focusing on the face, incorporates different massage techniques over the upper body to get the circulation moving," said Sharon Holtz, spa director at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami. "It really is relaxing."
"Good spa, good food," said David Erlich, director of the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa in Sonoma, Calif. Sonoma's menu — directed by Bruno Tison, former chef at New York's Plaza Hotel, includes bright-red beet puree and thick and flavorful gazpacho served with jewels of cherry tomatoes speared on a toothpick.
Mii Amo in Sedona, Ariz., offers products to scrub and cleanse the body made from blue corn and a succulent plant called stonecrop, while an eagle feather is waved as part of a ceremony to cleanse the spirit, inspired by local American Indian culture.
The new Willow Stream Spa at the Fairmont Mayakoba on Mexico's Riviera Maya uses cacao, papaya, honey, lime and cornmeal for body wraps, and corn meal and papaya treatments for hands.
