Santa Fe Magic
By Margaret Pierpont
Spa Magazine
A small enchanting city of adobe houses, high-desert vistas, and scarlet sunsets, Santa Fe, New Mexico, is also home to 4,000 massage therapists. The first spa to tap into the local talent was Ten Thousand Waves (now 26 years old and still going strong), and in the past few years a handful of new spas have opened in long-established hotels and resorts.
There are also day spas, of course, but at all of the following, both overnight guests and drop-in visitors are welcome. The first four are within walking distance of the Plaza (the center of the old city), and the last two are only short drives away. As a visit to the area will reveal, the spas of Santa Fe embrace the creative spirit of the city.
La Posada de Santa Fe Resort & Spa
Just a few blocks from the Plaza, you'll find a classy enclave of casitas surrounded by six acres of gardens. In RockResorts Spa, done in sage green with rock walls that trickle with water, specializes in indigenous influences. Although I felt a little silly at first about going for a Chocolate-Chile Wrap, the treatment was delightful: A dry brushing followed by a coating of chocolate infused with chili (antioxidant-rich, my therapist assured me) and a relaxing head massage.
Hours later, I was still pleasantly tingling and catching faint whiffs of cocoa. Also new on the menu is a contemplative Spirit of Santa Fe scrub-massage-wrap combination that gets its inspiration from the Native American medicine wheel and sources its sage, cedarwood oil, and sweetgrass locally. The spa also offers group spa retreats that take participants into the great outdoors.
El Dorado Hotel & Spa
There's so much sun in Santa Fe (it gets an average of 300 sunny days per year), it's nice to slip into the welcoming cave of the Nidah Spa, just off the grand lobby of the hotel, and escape the rays for awhile. The Hot Stone Massage relaxed my muscles and calmed my mind while my skin soaked up the luscious vanilla-and-nutmeg scented oil made by Body Bliss Aromadesign according to ayurvedic principles. I liked that my strong, grounded therapist was willing to go with the flow, setting aside the stones for straight-up Swedish massage when it made more sense for my body.
Inn and Spa at Loretto
I'd half expected the aroma of sage and the breathy sound of Indian flutes at every spa in Santa Fe, but in this cultural crossroads of a town, Asian healing influences hold their own. At SpaTerre at the Inn and Spa at Loretto, there is Thai massage as well as an unusual Tropical Fruit and Flower NHA Facial using organic products from Ytsara. After guiding me in pranayama breathing, my esthetician swept her hands over my face, and I inhaled the scents of orange, jasmine, lavender and rosewood.
Next came the cool touch of a green tea-and-bamboo masque and an energizing marma point massage. The elegance of this spa makes time spent here especially pleasurable. The spacious rooms, all with private baths and dressing areas, have been individually decorated in rich, deep tones, Southwestern antiques and arresting prints of exotic birds. After the facial, my room's French doors seemed to beckon me to step outside and take a deep breath.