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Plan a self-care getaway

By SHERYL NANCE-NASH

Special to the AmNews

Valentine’s Day is all about love. Make this year about self-love. Show yourself some TLC. You’ve been working hard, likely taking care of everybody else. Do you. Pamper yourself with a weekend jaunt all by yourself. Do as much or as little as you like. Relax, exhale, reset. Happy Valentine’s Day!

The Inns of Aurora, Aurora, New York

Head for the Finger Lakes. The setting alone at The Inns of Aurora will do you good. It’s crested on a hill with views of Cayuga Lake. Get what you need Get what you need at the Spa at the Inns of Aurora. The 50-minute Wholeness Healing is a balancing and restorative session. The therapist uses light, gentle contact to clear the major joints of the body, and then encourages balance between the chakras (energy centers). Or try Reiki, energy healing for relaxation and stress reduction. You can stay in your comfy clothes on a massage table while a Reiki Master uses light touch to help your body heal itself. Keep the good vibe going with hydrotherapy circuits, a facial and enjoy a cup of tea by the indoor fireplace.

Gurney’s, Montauk, New York

Some things are worth waiting for. The Seawater Spa at Gurney’s won’t reopen until March, but delayed VD gratification is fine too. The renovated spa was designed with the help of Alonso Balaguer Designs, the creator of the infamous Aire Ancient Baths in Manhattan. The 30,000 square-foot spa will make you feel like you’re in a Roman bathhouse. Relax in eucalyptus-infused steam rooms, a traditional dry sauna and bathhouse-inspired pools. Want more? There’s a fitness and a yoga studio.

Piaule, Catskill, New York

You will definitely be getting away from it all here. Snuggle in a private cabin where Mother Nature is at her finest with mountains and forests. The spa awaits. Go for the hot pool and mineral plunge. Contemplate your next smart move in the sauna and steam room. Fall asleep during a massage.

The Lake House on Canandaigua, Canandaigua, New York

Their Willowbrook Spa is the spot to spoil yourself. The spa setting is ideal, it’s creekside and you walk through the spa’s private garden and enjoy lake views. You’ll get some Zen even before you get treatments like the Deep Sleep, which is designed to calm mind and body with a slow rhythmic touch, scalp massage and sleep-inducing tea and tincture. The 90 minutes of bliss incorporates a Biomat to balance the body’s energy centers. Then there’s sunrise yoga, meditation, the rink at the lake and depending on the day, maybe a whiskey and wood burning session where you’ll have a flight of house-selected whiskey while creating wood burning art.

Hilton Head Health, Hilton Head, South Carolina

Maybe you want to venture beyond the Empire state. That’s cool. It will likely be a bit warmer in Hilton Head. The Hilton Head Health resort is steps from the beach too. Walk the miles of paths among 800 acres of mossdraped oak trees, palms, lagoons and see what wildlife you encounter. The ocean is its own healing magic.

Spend your time there doing yoga, meditation, and of course, Indigo Spa, with treatments like the Healing Ocean Escape, which promises to awaken your senses, open your lungs as you inhale the East Coast air in this Red Flower ritual that exfoliates, hydrates and releases muscle tension. You can’t go wrong with a treatment that begins with a sea mineral salt exfoliation to smooth skin, followed by a soothing lymphatic masque. Luxuriate with a warm shower and enjoy eucalyptus oils and a cooling ocean lotion to complete your full body massage.

Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, Farmington, Pennsylvania

Nemacolin, tucked in the countryside, is about decompressing. The Holistic Healing Center and Woodlands Spa are destinations in themselves. Hot-stone massages, whole body cryotherapy sessions, CBD massage, float therapy, and services like the Ritual Facial, a five-phase session, where full body balance is achieved by embracing and incorporating the five earth elements. Treatment begins with a ceremonial herbal smudging, a relaxing back exfoliation and bronze Kansa-wand massage treatment on back and face. An enzyme facial exfoliation is followed by the application of a gemstone infused gold masque to firm and restore suppleness. The finishing touch to this experience is an invigorating scalp massage. Refresh further ice skating, doing yoga or wine tasting.

Gurney’s Seawater Spa (Photo courtesy of Gurney’s Montauk)

FEB 24-26  |  2022

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