The Spa’s the Thing
Posted: 10/24/07

No longer are gourmet restaurants and name entertainment enough to entice to the worldly traveler or the corporate event manager to a resort hotel. Fitness centers are still essential but the “no pain, no gain” theory of health has been replaced by the concept of pampering via a visit to
the spa. Whether it’s deep-tissue massage, herbal wraps or the simple relaxation of a whirlpool tub, having a luxurious spa on site has become de rigueur for many destination hotels.

Atlantic City is still touting its casinos and fine dining, but their latest literature also focuses on the amenities of their many spas. Actually, healthy living was the main angle in 1854 when the resort's founding fathers claimed its ocean and bay breezes were a restorative tonic to the pressures of city life. By the 1890s Atlantic City was known around the world as a place to relax and recuperate from all ills. Nearly a century and a half later, the health angle is still alive. With its many casino hotels now trying to entice the twenty and thirty-something crowd, this shore resort boasts a number of unique and interesting spas. Some hotels offer everything from eucalyptus breathing rooms to private skincare lines from Paris and the standard full-service massages. Tranquil colors, soothing music, aromatherapy smells and highly personalized attention are the order of the day for vacationing guests. Even the day-tripper can indulge herself at many of these sites.

Opulence is the word at The Spa at Bally's. This 40,000 square-foot area features seven mosaic-tiled whirlpools set in a raised park-like setting of fountains and tropical plants. For an additional charge, guests can enjoy sport courts, fitness studio, aerobic studio, a weight-resistance center, and the spa café. One can also find all sorts of world-class treatments here. The full-body Swedish massage or an Aromatherapy massage (the adding of pure essential oils), the wraps and scrubs all sound tantalizing. There’s an herbal wrap of unbleached linen soaked in herbs, a Salt Water Taffy Scrub featuring sea salt and scented lotions, and the Boardwalk Macaroon which is a sugar scrub topped with coconut moisturizer.

Dedicated to enticing the “work hard and play hard” younger crowd, Spa Toccare at The Borgata (www.theborgata.com) offers treatments guaranteed to exhilarate. The 50,000 square-foot spa features 22 treatment rooms, a full-service hair salon, the ultimate gentleman’s barbershop and a fully equipped fitness facility. The pool here alone is a beauty to behold at this modern hotel set on the marina side of the city.

The Spa at the Trump Taj Mahal offers health spa services to hotel guests including Swedish and aromatherapy massage, steam room, sauna and Jacuzzi, and a workout room. For the general public, Tuesday is Ladies' Day complete with a Swedish massage, use of exercise facilities, choice of facial or pedicure and manicure, and a spa lunch. Check out www.trumptaj.com for details. Other hotels offering the spa and pool treatment are Resorts and Tropicana. The Tropicana’s Blue mercury Spa is one of the largest in New Jersey and is open to the public and offers easy access to anyone visiting just for the day. Check at www.tropicana.net.

The Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa at the Seaview Marriott Resort about ten miles away in Galloway Township carries on the tradition started on New York’s Fifth Avenue in 1910. This luxury spa offers an abundance of hair, face, body and beauty treatments, as well as special half and full-day spa packages for men, bridal parties and mothers-to-be.

But Atlantic City is not the only resort area that has become spa-conscious. If you head to Pennsylvania, the town of Hershey offers many delights including a full-fledged theme park, a museum, a popular arena and a well-known rose garden. But its Hershey Hotel, a beautiful 1930s style building, was failing to attract the younger crowd a few years ago. The hotel is now touting its spa which includes such diversions as the whipped cocoa bath which consists of a foaming chocolate milk bath for a soothing and softening the skin. Then there’s the Chocolate Bean Polish which combines the gentle exfoliation of cocoa bean husks and walnut shells with a softening Cocoa Body Moisturizer. See, we all knew if we waited long enough someone would decide that chocolate was healthy after all. Of course you don’t eat it, you immerse yourself in it which affords you the pleasure without the calories. Check www.hersheypa.com for more information.

Then there are the spa-resorts that are destinations unto themselves. Surprising to many readers, Patricia Schulz choose several of these in her bestselling guidebook “1000 Places to See Before You Die”. I suspect that as a travel writer she was a guest at some of these pricey resorts, but I suppose if you’re busy traveling all over the world, a few days at the Canyon Ranch in Arizona or the Golden Door in California can relax and revive you. These are destination spas in that customers are supposed to spend several days (a week for many) immersing themselves in Yoga classes, hikes and meditations along with the herbal wraps and mud baths. Spa food is the big thing here. Clients slim down with spa cuisine which consists of carefully prepared and delicious food served in tiny portions.

All this reminds me of the week-long Celebrity cruise I took a few years ago. I loved lunch at the Spa buffet near the pool. Poached salmon with greens and a lemon-berry cheesecake with a low calorie count made a satisfying meal and a good counter-balance to the five course dinners with their inevitable mousse-cake desserts. The Spa also featured a sauna, fitness rooms and several massage rooms as well as a thelassotheraphy pool which was warm and inviting.

The sea water in the thelassotherapy pool was supposed to invigorate but getting in and out of it was like climbing over insides of a box spring mattress that had been studded with ball bearings. Of course once you’re in you lean back on the steel balls while the warm water soothes your aching muscles. I stayed in for a long time because getting out again was like charging out of the trenches in those old World War I movies.

Of course if you’re really into Spas, you can travel to those old-fashioned places that were once the watering holes of European aristocracy: Baden-Baden in Germany, Marienbad in the Czech Republic and several spots in Hungary including Budapest feature ornate marble edifices dedicated to the restorative powers of mineral baths. All these have been modernized and now boast jet spray showers and an array of massage choices from different corners of the world along with herbal wraps and gorgeous surroundings. It seems that when you want to be treated like a king, the spa’s the thing.