By Ann Abel

Travel Editor, Luxury SpaFinder Magazine

The emblematic moment of my two-week swing through Hawaii came at Mauna Lani, where a Hawaiian facialist told me I could get rid of a mole if I put kukui-nut oil on it and prayed every day for a month. She said this while giving me a treatment with a high-end organic line that produced great results—-at a spa that last year added a facial plastic surgeon for Botox.

It sounds contradictory, but in fact it’s this deft combining of soulful, traditional healing (lomilomi massage and plant-based medicine) with a very worldly, sophisticated spa culture (showplace suites and with-it treatments like Watsu) that characterizes the islands’ top spas right now. They’ve become sanctuaries for the Hawaiian spirit and the visitor seeking to encounter it.

ONE OF A KIND
Mauna Lani Bay Hotel & Bungalows, Kohala Coast, Big Island
The Kohala Coast stands out for its vast lava fields, and this spa is a volcanic Eden. Real or faux lava forms the walls of the outdoor showers, edges the winding grass paths to the nine outdoor treatment hale, lines the outdoor sauna ($60), and encloses the 1,000-square-foot Watsu ($140) pool. Mauna Lani is the most spiritual—but not at all woo-woo—spa I’ve ever been to. Both the grounds (fragrant flowers and medicinal plants) and every therapist I met exuded healing energy—and I’m not a soft touch about this. I loved the two-hour Fire and Ice Facial ($265), which used hot and cold stones and Eminence products. Native Hawaiian therapist Betty Lau brought her profoundly nurturing touch—she learned massage as a child—to my soul as well as my skin. The spa atmosphere is very different from that of the hotel, which is a straight-ahead golf-and-beach resort, albeit a very good one. Luxe note: Mauna Lani has what are perhaps Hawaii’s most exclusive accommodations, five butler-serviced bungalows ($4,600–$5,300), where therapists come to give spa treatments.

Rates: $395–$5,300
Phone: 800-367-2323
Website: www.maunalani.com

TRIATHLON WINNER
Four Seasons Hualalai, Kohala Coast, Big Island
The fitness offerings here trump anything else I’ve seen at a resort spa (and many destination spas): a 25-meter lap pool, three gyms with expert trainers, a climbing wall, a basketball court, and 50 classes a week. Post-workout, you can see an acupuncturist, physical therapist, or exercise physiologist. As spa director Thad Calciolari, a Canyon Ranch alum with a master’s in exercise physiology and two Hawaii Ironman Triathlons on his résumé, says, “Everyone has pampering down. We have that, plus that extra dimension.” And they do have pampering down, with a handsome indoor-outdoor facility, skilled therapists, and authentic treatments. I especially liked the Hawaiian Wahi ‘Iliahi Wrap ($150), a cooling treatment with sandalwood powder and lemongrass tea that turned my skin to satin. The third leg of the race is the hotel, and Hualalai wins this one, too. The Asian-inflected decor is gorgeous, the food delectable, the top-flight staff addressed me by name from minute one, and my room, an airy oceanfront double ($810) with an outdoor lava shower, was my favorite of the trip.

Rates $560–$7,320
Phone 800-332-3442
Website www.fourseasons.com

BEST NO-SPA SPA
Kona Village Resort, Kohala Coast, Big Island
Despite having just three no-frills treatment rooms and two oceanside hale (well worth the extra $20), this low-key resort makes my list because of therapist John Wheeler’s thoroughly unknotting massage ($100). (One of Wheeler’s high-profile Kona Village clients flies him to San Francisco several times a year.) As for the resort, it’s always been a place that you get or you don’t. There are no TVs, phones, or door locks; the dress code frowns on coats and ties, and the building code, marble. The pace is slow, and the decor in the 125 freestanding cottages, spread across 82 lava-filled acres, falls between spare and spartan. If you like hearing the ocean through an open window, it could be for you, but if you’d rather have creature comforts like air conditioning, it’s not. Will the major upgrades being made over the next two years, which include a new spa, dissipate the old-Hawaii atmosphere? Stay tuned. Best rooms: oceanfront Lava Tahitian, New Hebrides, Sand Samoan, and Palau cottages, most of which have Jacuzzis on their wide decks.

Rates $530–$1,160, includes meals
Phone 800-367-5290
Website www.konavillage.com

BEST NEW SPA
Hotel Hana-Maui, Hana, Maui
For most of its 59 years, this 66-room old-Hawaiian hotel at the end of the Hana Highway exemplified barefoot luxury (no TV or AC, gracious but informal service). It declined greatly in the ’90s, but now it’s back with new owners, a smart renovation, and an earthy yet sophisticated spa on an acre of gardens with an ancient kukui tree and a lava-bordered “basking whirlpool” as its centerpieces. The nine treatment suites have soaking tubs, showers, and a clean, pared-down look that feels exactly right. To find therapists in isolated Hana (population 1,800), acting spa director Jacque Waters partnered with a massage school in western Maui to start an on-site training program. Eight graduates work here now, under the experienced eye of other therapists who are longtime practitioners. The brief treatment menu emphasizes traditional healing and native plants. I liked the calming ‘Awa (kava) and Spirulina Wrap ($125), in which the therapist painstakingly applied the cool paste with a silk brush. An excellent gentle yoga class is taught every morning.

Rates $395–$2,500
Phone 800-321-4262
Website www.hotelhanamaui.com

MOST ELABORATE HYDROTHERAPY
Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa, Wailea, Maui
This resort is a conscious exercise in big: $800 million cost, 780 rooms, nine huge Botero sculptures in the lobby, nine swimming pools, megatons of marble. The palatial Spa Grande follows suit—50,000 square feet and 40 treatment rooms—but even I, an arch-minimalist, was impressed by Termé Wailea, its massive monument to hydrotherapy. An hour here is complimentary if you’re having a treatment ($55 if you aren’t). “We’re teaching guests what it is to spa and relax,” says spa director Cecilia Hercík of the elaborate water course: a 35-foot-diameter Jacuzzi; steam room and sauna; Japanese furo baths; waterfall massages; Swiss showers; and “specialty baths” with Moor mud, limu seaweed, tropical enzymes, Hawaiian botanicals, and mineral salts. (The separate men’s and women’s areas are identical.) The young therapists were oddly casual for such a lavishly formal setting. During the Ali‘i Honey Steam Wrap (25 minutes, $115), my therapist gabbed as though we were buds, showed a cavalier attitude toward modesty, and said the honey was so pure that if I had a sweet tooth, I could lick myself.

Rates $485–$12,905
Phone 800-888-6100
Website www.grandwailea.com

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