Travelers are looking for destination-specific experiences, and spas are incorporating local goods, everything from salt from the Red Sea to Vermont maple sugar — into their treatments, making a day of “sightseeing” as easy as an hour nap.

Out of Africa

Africa’s diverse lands and people boast numerous plants and practices, some of which find their way into the following spa treatments.

African Potato Body Wrap & Foot Massage: This wrap and massage combine African potato — which contains various extracts to boost your immune system and aid in skin conditions such as eczema and rosacea — and Marula oil that, like olive oil, has antioxidants to soften and smooth skin.

Matombo Massage Treatment:Using fynbos plants that are exclusive to the region, this massage treatment exfoliates, rids the body of impurities, and improves circulation. Aloe ferox extract — rich in amino acids, enzymes, and mineral salts — is an anti-inflammatory and promotes cell regeneration; rooibos extract is known to heal and soothe; and Cape chamomile can help relieve stress and depression.

Pharaonic Massage: This traditional massage, once reserved for Egyptian royalty, aims to improve circulation and relieve stress. Warm sweet almond oil and poultices filled with locally grown chamomile and mint “soothe sore muscles, nourish the skin, and induce a feeling of relaxation

Sugar Scrub with Hydrating Date Wrap Sugar, which was cultivated in Egypt almost 6,000 years ago, is at the heart of this Arabian-inspired treatment.

Thalassotherapy, Hasdrubal Thalassa Yasmine Hamammet: Sea water is known to have many benefits, ranging from stress relief to weight loss, and this resort doesn’t have to go far to get it — it’s located right on the Mediterranean.

Foot Massage:  Masai Herbal footbath infused with Olsimomi leaves, which are known to detoxify and purify, followed by a pressure point massage.

America the Beautiful

From the maple trees of Vermont to the traditional sweat baths of Central America, the Americas boast a diversity of ecosystems and traditions — with spa treatments to match.

Citrus Sugar Scrub:  After cleansing you with a citrus bath gel, your body is rinsed and massaged with dry citrus oil.

Inkaterra Therapy: Cocoa holds a special place in Andean tradition. This natural stimulant aims to detox the body and improve circulation.

Maple Sugar Body Scrub: Maple isn’t just for pancakes and waffles. Sugar from Vermont maple trees exfoliates dead skin cells and moisturizes skin.

Papaya or Banana Facial & Décolleté: Fresh papaya or banana and brown sugar to gently exfoliate the skin.

“Shawangunk Grit” Mineral Body Treatment:  The fine quartzite “grit” is mixed with a white pine, balsam fir, and silver fir body oil to gently exfoliate the skin, which is followed with a warm rosehip and plantain body massage and a power nap.

Signature High Desert Body Treatment Indigenous plants and flowers are incorporated into the treatments at this spa.

Sweet Mountain Metamorphosis: Lavender, chamomile, rosemary, and peppermint grown at the resort’s 33-acre garden find their way into a body scrub, which is followed by a massage, moisturizer application, and cocooning.

Texas Pecan Scrub: Pecans taste great in pie, but try them in a scrub, and you’ve got a recipe for soft skin. This treatment uses locally harvested

Asian Invasion

As the world’s largest continent, Asia has a lot to offer, so would you expect any less from its spa offerings? Here is just a taste of what you can find from Jordan to the Philippines.

Apsara Local ingredients such as yellow ginger, black sesame see, sticky rice, tamarind, and honey are combined in a scrub that exfoliates and leaves skin silky and smooth.

Bornea Rainforest: This full body treatment starts with a lemongrass and pandan leaf foot ritual, followed by a herb and milk body scrub and Balinese boreh spice wrap.

Champi Indian Head Massage: Indian women are known for their luxurious locks, which are likely due to weekly hair-oil massages. This treatment — said to promote hair growth and leave you with shiny tresses — combines amla, brahmi, jatamansi, curry leaves, and neem, and includes a head, neck, and shoulder massage. Neem is said to clear dandruff, while jatamansi, a mild sedative, can help relieve a stress-related headache.

Dead Sea Natural Mud Wrap: It might be the Dead Sea, but it’s alive and kicking with body benefiting minerals. This wrap employs mud from the sea to promote circulation.

Exotic Coconut & Milk Ritual Wrap: The secret to soft and smooth skin is in this traditional Balinese wrap, which incorporates coconut, mung bean, lavender, and frangipani monoi.

Mandi Lulur: This scrub, inspired by the beauty practices of ancient Javanese royalty, combines turmeric, herbs and spices, and a yogurt splash.

Mountain Ritual: Tabanan cocoa beans to green tea — is featured at this spa, where all organic and local ingredients are used.

Sabai Sabai Ritual: A rain forest sweet honey and tamarind scrub exfoliates and moisturizes skin, while fresh mango and ginger soften and stimulate.

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The spa experience is no longer just a woman’s world There was a time when the spa was a woman’s escape.  Not anymore: Today’s man manicures, too. “The spa experience is really not seen as a frou-frou place of pampering anymore,” said Lynne McNees, president of the International Spa Association. “It’s seen as a place to go to take care of yourself and to really focus on a healthier lifestyle.” According to the ISPA, men make up 31 percent of all spa-goers, up from 24 percent in 2002. And while massage (particularly sports massage) is still the No. 1 men’s treatment, McNees said facials, pedicures and manicures aren’t far behind. Men are just as concerned about looking good as women are.” Indeed, the kempt man has come a long way since a sinister Christian Bale in “American Psycho” made it appear as if only psychotic men used moisturizer. 

And considering that a (naturally) suntanned face is no longer considered “healthy,” and copious amounts of chest hair lost mass appeal around, say, 1979, it’s no wonder more and more men are flocking to spas and salons for facials and “manscaping” (slang for body-hair trimming). “If the man is going to expect the woman to look good, why shouldn’t the woman expect the man to look good?” asked Vic Sosikian, owner of the Mark Matthew Fine Gentlemen’s Grooming Club in Studio City, an upscale barber shop that offers massage, facials and other spa services for men. “Men’s grooming is something that we should have been doing all along.” But since men-only spas are still the exception, many facilities that have long been popular with women are creating separate menus to appeal to a man’s sensibilities and to quell any potential spa timidity. Some spas even offer men’s below-the-belt waxing, an arguable final frontier when it comes to making the men’s spa experience on par with its female-oriented counterpart. “We do what men demand,” Sosikian said, adding that the more “complicated” waxing can cost upward of $75. “Some guys just want their arm hair trimmed. To be honest, what other spa does that?”  Honestly? Not many. Spas for Just for men in California

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Spas are sprouting all over the Poconos, especially at resorts.

Spa at Shawnee

The new Spa at Shawnee is an eco-friendly, Asian-themed indulgence. It opened in June and now offers a membership in the Spa Society.

With membership, clients get discounted hair salon service, spa and massage treatments, use of the fitness room, indoor pool, hot tub, sun deck and tennis courts, plus other extras.

Its signature treatment is the sun fusion massage.
Services: massages, manicures, pedicures, hydrotherapy, exfoliation, aromatherapy, waxing, hair salon, facials and makeup. The spa offers special after-golf and after-ski massages to rejuvenate athletes.

The Laurel Spa at the Inn at Pocono Manor

The spacious Laurel Spa features 20 treatment rooms.
The spa has special prices for the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Services: manicures, pedicures, facials, hydrotherapy, aromatherapy, body wraps, bronzing body treatments, electrolysis, tanning and massages.

The Lodge at Woodloch

Woodloch is the first luxury destination spa resort to open in the United States in the last 10 years.

In edition to the expected spa services, guests dabble in new experiences. Thirty to 35 classes are offered daily in everything from cooking, watercolor painting and kickboxing to diet, meditation and stress management.

The Lodge at Woodloch offers four exercise studios, 27 treatment rooms and suites, private changing rooms, spa lounges, an indoor pool with hydro-massage waterfalls and an infinity edge whirlpool.

Services: face, body, hair and nail treatments, gourmet spa cuisine, professional consultations, and a variety of art, music and entertainment experiences.

Great Wolf Lodge

There are two spas at Great Wolf Lodge. Elements Spa offers a serenity room and a tranquil atmosphere.

Scooops is an ice cream-themed spa for kids, shaped like a tasty log cabin. The spa opened in June and offers ice cream pedicures and manicures with products that look and smell like ice

Services: Massages, manicures, pedicures, aromatherapy massages, waxing and makeup.

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The Barton Inn Hotel and Spa on the Niagara River has opened for business — partly, at least — but it has come with a cost.

The initial $5 million construction estimate has doubled, the owners said, and rumors and cancellations have marred the inn’s long anticipated debut.

Ed and Diane Finkbeiner have worked every day for the last two years, often as long as 20 hours a day, to get to the point where the village has allowed the bottom two floors to open for business.

The Finkbeiners own Barton Hill, an 1815-style mansion they’ve completely renovated atop the hill that overlooks the Niagara River. They also bought vacant property behind their house at Center and First streets to “protect their investment,” then started planning how they could develop that land, too.

This past year, they also bought the historic Trafford Mansion, a two-story abandoned restaurant across the street, which they have renovated into a full-service spa. The spa also is open, complete with a hair and coloring salon and aromatherapy, massage, pedicure and manicure services.

The enthusiasm the couple has brought to the project has been a mixed blessing for village leaders, most of whom praise the project for bringing more panache to an already
classy village, but who also have heard complaints from some residents who believe that the Finkbeiners have been allowed to slide on village codes and occupancy rules.

The inn’s large rooms have crown molding, fireplaces, flat screen televisions, bathrooms with marble or ornate tile showers (whirlpool rooms are not ready yet) and even fancy iPod radio/alarm clocks that play nature sounds. Hard wood floors and antique fixtures are part of the design. An underground parking garage and a swimming pool remain under construction.

Quality takes time, Diane Finkbeiner said. She said the hotel came out the way the couple wanted, but called the process “evolutionary.”
Giusiana and Diane Finkbeiner said building codes were followed completely and both said it was common to do a project of this size in stages, noting that the Seneca Niagara Casino and Hotel opened in phases in Niagara Falls.

New general manager Jeffrey Demin comes from an upscale ranch resort in Arizona. He said his wife is from Youngstown and they are looking forward to living in the community. He has only been on the job a week and a half. “The great part about Lewiston is that we look out for each other,” he added. “We are concerned and want to do things right, but that has also made it difficult.”

The Finkbeiners are offering a guided tour to anyone interested in seeing the hotel.

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A Reborn Resort Boasts a Spa and a lot of History

Dallas developer Keith Evans was skeptical when his business partner told him about a resort property in central Pennsylvania that first opened in 1805, had its heyday in the early to mid-1900s and closed in 1984.

Four other developers had spent a few million trying to reopen the historic Bedford Springs Hotel. Each walked away, first selling off whatever they could to recoup some of their losses. Things like coverlets from the 1830s and hotel registry books signed by former guests, including Daniel Webster, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Aaron Burr and Benjamin Franklin.

It was seeing those artifacts, jammed into a house owned by Bedford collector William Defibaugh that first softened Evans to the idea of working on a multi-year restoration project estimated to cost $60 million. His partner, after showing Evans the items Defibaugh had collected, finally took him to the derelict property.

Last month, seven years and $120 million later — twice as much as anticipated — the hotel opened its doors as the Bedford Springs Resort.

Small, shimmering pieces of Italian tile lead to the indoor swimming pool, one of the first built in the United States. A second-story balcony runs along three sides of the pool. The fourth side has an opera box, where musicians once routinely serenaded bathers. The pool is filled with natural spring water and is open 24 hours.

Bedford Springs was once famous for its seven springs, all of which still exist. Although the tribes sometimes warred, they considered the springs so holy that the surrounding land was neutral territory.

In addition to the usual wraps, scrubs, baths and fitness programs, the Bedford Springs spa has a signature feature: Instead of arriving a few minutes before a spa treatment, guests are encouraged to come an hour early.

• Claim to fame: President James Buchanan received the first trans-Atlantic cable here in 1858. During World War II, the U.S. Navy used the resort as a training site for its radio operators. The military later housed Japanese diplomats captured in Germany here.

• Visiting presidents: 10.

• Guest rooms: 216 rooms with high-definition TVs, marble bathrooms and iPod docking stations. Some rooms have balconies or porch rocking chairs with a burbling brook soundtrack.

• Number of springs: Eight; one produces 400,000 gallons of water daily.

• Golf course: The 18-hole golf course was built in 1895 and redesigned in 1912 and 1923. The par-three “Tiny Tim” hole is called “one of the most celebrated holes in all of golf architecture.”

• At the spa: The “Relaxing Medicine Ritual” (from $175) involves something called a “bamboo rod massage.” Massages from $100.

• Activities: The spring-fed indoor swimming pool is said to be one of the first in the country. Otherwise, there’s not much to do — hike, fish, shop in town or visit the nearby National Museum of the American Coverlet (yes, a museum dedicated to blankets).

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The burly, macho men of Colorado Springs are barging in on your territory. “Manscaping” – the art of transforming men’s hairy bodies into something manageable – is not just for frou-frou, fastidious guys anymore.  The guys who are visiting spas these days range from preteens to great-grandpas and come from all walks of life: the military, business – even trucking. Yes, truck drivers. Among them is 50-year-old Jim Ward of Colorado Springs, Colo.  “I’m a truck driver, and I don’t want to look like one,” said Ward, who gets his back and chest waxed at Aspen Salon in Colorado Springs.  Men account for 31 percent of spa-goers across the country, up from 29 percent in 2004, according to Debra Locker, public relations director at the International Spa Association. 

Most men have to be dragged in by the hair of their backs (thank you, girlfriends and wives) for their first service. But local spa operators say men are apt to come back on their own once they experience the potpourri-scented, tranquil back rooms of a day spa. The Spa Director, at the Broadmoor, a five-star resort in Colorado Springs, Stimpson estimates that 35 to 38 percent of her clients are male, up from 30 percent a year ago. “Those guys understand what a business advantage it is to have well-groomed hair, well-groomed nails.” 

Most spas have started to offer men’s packages such as Aspen Salon’s “Macho Man” package, which includes a facial, massage and haircut for $201.  Typically, a man’s venture into pampering begins with a massage, then moves into manicures, pedicures, waxing and facials, which are becoming just as popular, local spa operators said. “I think they’re just tired of dealing with their stress,” said Marti Jackson, hairstylist and color specialist at Ofelia’s Salon and Spa.Full Article 

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The Chaddsford Winery in Chadds Ford and Body Restoration in Philadelphia have joined together to create what they believe is the region’s first vinotherapy program.  

I thought this would be more interesting and fun, tying wines with a spa treatment.  

Vinotherapy is believed to have originated at spas in the wine-making region of Bordeaux, France, in 1999. Spa operators there developed a skin-care therapy that relies on the antioxidants found in the grape seeds discarded at the end of the grape harvest to soothe the skin and slow the aging process.  

The products used by spas are derived from grape seeds, grape seed extracts, husks, grape seed oil and vine leaf extracts — all of which have a high concentration of antioxidant compounds known as polyphenols.    

Solomon got the idea to bring the treatment to her spa in Center City after reading a newspaper article about vinotherapy in France. Her research identified only one spa along the East Coast, a facility in Manhattan, offering vinotherapy.  

Lee Miller, who owns the Chaddsford Winery in Chester County with her husband Eric, said Solomon approached her more than a year ago with the idea for a partnership.  

Solomon, took the grape extracts she collected from different types of wine, dehydrating them and grounding them into an exfoliating substance — ultimately developing a proprietary “crushed Chianti scrub” from the Chaddsford Winery’s 2006 harvest.  

In addition to the crushed Chianti scrub, Body Restoration has developed other body and skin treatments that rely on grapes from Chaddsford Winery’s vineyards, including the Crepe Pinto Noir wrap, “a warm shaken blend of Chaddsford Pinot Noir, wine yeast, honey and essential oils drizzled over the back and limbs to moisturize.”  

Under the partnership, Body Restoration receives all the vinotherapy treatment revenues, while agreeing to purchase Chaddsford winery products to include in gift baskets for spa customers buying select packages.   Full Article 

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The Gansevoort’s spa may be located in the basement, but there’s nothing dingy about this retreat tucked beneath the hotel in Manhattan’s bustling meatpacking district.  

Spa goers come for the signature “Hit the Spot” massage (a combination of acupressure, deep-tissue and Swedish massage) or the Mehta facial, which claims to reduce wrinkles and under-eye bags and puffiness — a great way to get ready for an evening out on the town. And you won’t have to go far to find a party, since the spa transforms into an uber-cool bar and lounge at night.  

Treatment rooms turn into private cabanas (with a steep three bottle minimum), while the spa’s infinity-edge soaking pools are covered with Plexiglas and transformed into shimmering dance floors. But good luck getting in; G spa only accommodates 75 people and young celebrities like Jessica Simpson and Jamie Lynn Sigler get first dibs. 

 

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Here are the top 10 affordable spas as voted on by 5,000 participants in Spa Finder’s annual Readers’ Choice survey, released this week. Starting rates are per person, double occupancy, and include meals and activities, but not taxes, tips or spa treatments unless noted. 

Deerfield Spa (East Stroudsburg, Pa.), $155   Fitness Ridge Resort and Spa (Ivins, Utah), $182 

Hotel Ixtapan Spa & Golf Resort (Ixtapan, Mexico), $154 (includes some spa treatments) 

New Age Health Spa (Neversink, N.Y.), $204  

New Life Hiking Spa (Killington, Vt.), $219 (includes a $75 treatment every three days) 

The Oaks at Ojai (Ojai, Calif.), $180  

Red Mountain Spa (Ivins, Utah), $259 

Regency Resort & Spa (Hallandale, Fla.), $175 (based on four-night stay; summer rates through Oct. 20; includes a $75 spa treatment) 

Safety Harbor Resort and Spa (Safety Harbor, Fla.), $355 (includes $125 a night toward a spa treatment and an hour-long consultation; Oct. 1-Jan. 10) 

Spa Eastman (Eastman, Quebec), $117  

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