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Condé Nast Traveler picks
 Top European Spas
In recent years, European spas have been energized. The tradition of a weeklong sojourn "taking the waters" has evolved and is now closer to the American spa experience. These days, a visit often consists of a quick stopover at a contemporary wellness center with the most sophisticated modern treatments, as well as the tried-and-true standards, all amid old-world ambience and architecture.
British Isles In London, weary jet-setters stop at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park for expert massages and the luxe relaxation area that includes a steam room, a whirlpool, a sauna, and a light therapy room where the beds are outfitted with headphones. The basic 80-minute massage is $283. An hour outside the city, stately Dogmersfield Park has been transformed into the Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire. Its eighteenth-century stable block is now a 27,000-square-foot sanctuary of water walls and showers that simulate rainstorms and Arctic mists. The basic 50-minute massage is $124. Amid a leafy idyll in the southeast of Ireland, the Monart Hotel and Spa juxtaposes a restored Georgian manor with 70 guest rooms and a glassy contemporary spa. The large hydrotherapy pool has muscle-stimulating jets, and the warm, dry caldarium looks out toward a terraced lake and waterfall. Activities range from the ascetic—a dip in the bracing Kneipp cure pool—to the indulgent: a four-handed massage. The basic 55-minute massage is $102. France In Paris, L'Institut de Guerlain is an Andrée Putman–designed day spa overlooking the Champs-Élysées. Glittering interiors include ten treatment rooms and a boutique of namesake products. The one-hour express facial is popular; the basic 60-minute massage is $108. Prefer a longer stint of pampering? Les Sources de Caudalíe, in France's wine-producing Bordeaux region, is a 49-room inn with individually decorated rooms and a spa specializing in vinothérapie—a system in which wine by-products are used in treatments to retard free radicals, thereby slowing the aging process. You can relax in a hot whirlpool seasoned with grape seed, pulp, stalk, and skin; it's best to visit during the September–October harvest, when fresh grapes are used. Year-round, two restaurants draw from the 15,000-bottle wine cellar. The basic 50-minute massage is $110. Czech Republic For a step back to the days when doctors prescribed spa stays to treat a variety of ills, from eczema to gout, visit Mariánské Lázne (better known by its German name, Marienbad) in the Czech Republic, where many health spa visits are still subsidized by the state. The town's charming Art Nouveau esplanade and fin de sičcle hotels exude a tatty glamour, like a careworn dowager with great bones who nonetheless could do with a bit of cosmetic work. Stay at the Nové Lázne Hotel, schedule a doctor's visit in its spa, and ask for guidance on which of the town's pungent public fountains are best for what ails you. Packages start at $120 a day. Greece For sybarites preferring the surf to the mountains, the Blue Palace, in Elounda, Crete, is a sun-baked stucco complex with hillside rooms overlooking the offshore ruins of Spinalonga. Accommodations have patios or private plunge pools, although guests spend much of their time in the beachside bi-level spa. The basic 50-minute massage is $96. Italy An hour outside Milan, Grotta Giusti Terme is a pastoral Tuscan inn built atop a network of caves where warm water vapors relax patrons recumbent in chaises. Spa-ing is serious business here—a consultation with a staff doctor is mandatory—and guests are prescribed daily regimens in the bustling clinic. Tailored programs address everything from medical problems to stress. The outdoor pool's pulsating water jet circuit attracts both hotel guests and locals. The basic 50-minute massage is $77. High-altitude Italian hospitality is available at Vigilius Mountain Resort, a sleek Matteo Thun–designed alpine hotel set 5,000 feet up in the South Tyrol. Reachable only by cable car from the town of Lana, this larch pine and silver quartz building is remarkable for its indoor swimming pools with views of the South Tyrol mountains and distinctive treatments such as the hay bath, a traditional local muscle ache remedy in which guests are nestled in fermented hay and then lowered into a hot bath. The basic 50-minute massage is $110. Switzerland In the German-speaking canton of Graübunden, native architect Peter Zumthor has undertaken to bring the crowds back to a hot spring that has been the site of a spa hotel since 1893. His Therme Vals is a dramatic minimalist conglomeration of quartz slabs. Spa options include sessions in large indoor and outdoor thermal baths, thalasso treatments such as seawater and kelp massages, and traditional Chinese acupressure. Request one of the hotel's renovated rooms. The basic 50-minute massage is $78. Truth in Travel is the guiding principle for all content published in Condé Nast Traveler. Other travel publications often accept free travel and accommodations. Condé Nast Traveler does not. It is independent of the travel industry. The magazine always pays its way, and, as far as possible, its correspondents travel anonymously. By doing so, they experience the world—both the good and the bad—as other travelers do, and their reports and recommendations are fair, impartial, and authoritative.
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