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Spa travel: Arizona
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Your Unspoken Wish Is Their Command: The Four Seasons Troon North, Scottsdale
Service here is almost clairvoyant. Spa therapists asked if I was okay with the temperature before I had to bring it up, and when I arrived alone at the casual restaurant for dinner (delicious), the hostess not only offered me magazines but brought a little clip-on reading lamp. Unlike most area spas, this one doesn't aggressively court locals, so resort guests rarely have trouble booking appointments when they want them. I disliked the signature Four Seasons in One treatment ($175), a four-fragrance scrub-wrap-massage medley that left me smelling like a Body Shop store. My custom facial ($120), however, was meticulously done. The facialist asked probing questions about my skin, babied it with Biodroga products and a cloth collagen mask, and even warned me about a speed trap on the interstate stretch I was driving later that day. Guest rooms are spacious and have sophisticated southwestern decor. The best: one- and two-bedroom ground-floor suites (left, $795-$2,400), which have outdoor garden showers, plunge pools, or both.
Rates: $495-$4,000
Phone: 480-515-5700
Web: www.fourseasons.com
Location: 10600 East Crescent Moon Drive, Scottsdale
Best Treatments: Golden Door Spa at the Boulders, Scottsdale
It wins the laurels for its thoughtful mix of classics from the original Golden Door in Escondido, California, and intelligently done indigenous treatments, such as Native American Raindrop Therapy ($130), in which essential oils are dripped along the spine to bring the body into balance. I particularly liked the three-part Turquoise Wrap ($180): a turquoise hydromassage bath, a cornmeal exfoliation, and a wrap with ionized turquoise clay. Therapist Janet Beaver, a 20-year massage vet, proved herself a master of the pas de deux the treatment involves. The 33,000-square-foot spa has curving white walls, flowing water, and expansive windows that highlight the gigantic granite boulders outside. There's a large gym and an indoor-outdoor cafý that serves terrific spa cuisine, a mix of Golden Door chef Michel Stroot's signature recipes and healthy southwestern dishes. The minus: Standard guest rooms are awkwardly laid out, especially the bathrooms, where too much real estate is given to walk-in closets.
Rates: $625-$1,199
Phone: 800-553-1717
Web: www.wyndham.com
Location: 34631 North Tom Darlington Drive, Carefree
Most Romantic: Royal Palms Resort and Spa, Phoenix
Forget energy work and healing therapies. The Alvadora Spa focuses on old-fashioned indulgence, ideally done a deux, and it has the right setting for it: a two-story Mediterranean-style villa with fountains, fireplaces, gardens, and balconies at every turn. Royal Palms commissioned a residential design firm to create a spa that didn't feel like one at a hotel. Although only three of the ten bedroom-size treatment rooms accommodate couples, the entire spa feels seductive. The high spot: the Acqua Dolce couple's compound (left), with two rooms and three outdoor wet and relaxation areas. Signature treatments also feature Mediterranean rather than desert elements: The Orange Blossom Body Buff ($125) employs neroli oil in a nod to the orange trees throughout the property, and the Vino Therapy Body Scrub ($125) uses grapeseeds to gently exfoliate the skin. Bonus points: the fragrant, heated buckwheat pillow placed around your neck before any treatment. Best rooms: the very romantic deluxe casitas ($545), even though they're small (particularly the bathrooms) by today's standards, as they were built in the 1940s.
Rates: $405-$3,000
Phone: 800-672-6011
Web: www.royalpalmsresortandspa.com
Location: 5200 East Camelback Road, Phoenix
Spectacular Design, Crystal Vibe: Mii amo, a Destination Spa at Enchantment, Sedona
Mii amo's 24,000-square-foot spa building and its 16 guest casitas are organic extensions of their environment, like the Anasazi cliff dwellings that inspired them. In both, indoor and outdoor are nearly one: Even some of the 19 treatment rooms have vistas of 400-foot-high red rocks, graceful cottonwoods, and Technicolor blue sky. The spa cuisine is sublime, and the accommodations are luxurious by destination-spa standards, with cushy alder-framed platform beds, outdoor sitting areas, and stylish bathrooms with deep soaking tubs. That's the outer Mii amo. The inner Mii amo (the name is a Yuman Indian word that means "journey") is rampantly New Age, with a barefoot intention-setting ritual in the Crystal Grotto every morning and a spa menu full of offerings like Psychic Massage ($125), Body Feng Shui ($125), and Aura-Soma Color Balancing ($165). Three-, four-, and seven-night packages focus on spiritual exploration, healthy lifestyle, de-stressing, or Ayurveda. (A fifth "journey," optimal aging, was set to debut in December.) Those who can't discuss energy vortexes, Tarot cards, and past-life regression with a straight face are better off staying at the adjacent Enchantment Resort and coming to Mii amo for the skilled therapists, adults-only pool (more peaceful than Enchantment's), and spa cafý and juice bar, which serves margaritas as well as wheatgrass shots. Nice touch: Packages include two treatments or consultations daily--twice the standard number.
Rates: Three-night package: $1,890-$2,790 per person, double occupancy
Phone: 888-749-2137
Web: www.miiamo.com
Location: 525 Boynton Canyon Road, Sedona
Spa Finder, the global spa resource, reaches millions of health-conscious consumers via its website, Spafinder.com. The company publishes Luxury SpaFinder Magazine, the trusted authority on luxury spas and associated lifestyles, and The Spa Enthusiast, the leading publication for active spa-goers.
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