JUST SAY SPAHHH

AVENTURIST

JUST SAY SPAHHH

The Magic City is home to a number of divine day spas. But if you’re seeking more than just your average massage and mani, treat yourself to one of these sensational spas—with truly unique options unavailable anywhere else in South Florida.

NEXT-GEN GOODNESS

Carillon Miami Wellness Resort

If there’s one Miami resort that is at the forefront of innovative wellness and balanced indulgence, it’s the Carillon. At every turn, you’ll find ways to improve your overall well-being, from a cutting-edge wellness center to fresh eats at the water’s edge. The spa mixes Western, Eastern, alternative, and aesthetic medicine for custom treatment plans tailored to each guest.

Amazing Amenities: Get ready for your R&R with the thermal hydrotherapy circuit, designed to stimulate circulation, relieve pain, and decrease stress. Make time for the experiential rains, the crystal steam room, igloo, and vitality tub.

Must-Try Treatment: The Carillon has been gaining traction for its touchless spa menu, which originally launched in 2020 to help visitors and resort members feel more comfortable returning to the spa setting during the pandemic. The menu now boasts 15 options catered to each visitor’s desired goals, from mediation to fat loss. A few favorites include The Somadome, the world’s first technology-enabled mediation pod that uses color, sound, and energy therapies to help guests reach a meditative state. Another is Dermashape, which shapes, sculpts, and flushes stored fat and toxins using a heating pad to release stagnant lymph fluid. (carillonhotel. com) —Melissa Puppo

LUXE LIFE

Lapis, The Spa at Fontainebleau

With a property as lavish and historic as the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, it only makes sense that its Lapis Spa extends such grandeur. Let stunning ocean views set the scene for a day of pampering as you partake in relaxing massages, soothing facials, body wraps, and more.

Amazing Amenities: Before your treatment, take advantage of the amenities including Water Journeys ranging from a 75-foot, multi-temperature jetted pool to a eucalyptus steam bath to the Bleau Rain Room, where multiple jets massage your body with streams of warm and cool water. A spa wristband grants you access to the beach and the property’s 11 pools for post-spa bliss.

Must-Try Treatment: Anything from the Ayurvedic Ritual menu. Derived from Sanskrit, ayurveda means “life and knowledge” and is one of the world’s oldest healing methods. A top choice is the Chakra Balancing Massage, which restores balance and inner tranquility. The body’s seven chakras (or “energy centers”) are anointed with herbal-infused oil and chakra-specific crystals to soothe your mind and spirit. The massage utilizes a Kansa wand on your back to help oxygenate the body as well as drain lymph nodes. The experience concludes with a foot treatment using a Tiscah bowl. (fontainebleau.com/spa) —M.P.

CALMING COMMUNITY

The Standard Spa

This holistic, hydrotherapy spa-hotel is set on a private island. Part recovery center, part hydrotherapy playground, part new-age ashram, The Standard Spa is anything but standard. In fact, it’s downright international, featuring a Turkish-style hammam, a Roman waterfall hot tub, and a Finnish sauna.

Amazing Amenities: Taking inspiration from the ancient bathing rituals and bathhouses that were once gathering spaces for both socializing and relaxing, The Standard Spa celebrates all things communal. From rubs and scrubs in the hammam to mud baths in the mud lounge, there are seemingly endless options to enjoy and administer as an individual or in groups—including meditation, acupuncture, astrology, and several types of yoga.

Must-Try Treatment: Go for the definitive bathhouse experience with the Soul Temple, a treatment offering refuge via steam, heat, scent, and touch through a four-step hammam ritual. To start, your therapist will wash you down in the scrub room with a purifying mint salt wash and a heavenly lemon-coffee-blossom-olive-stone scrub. Next, release your tension during a decadent 60-minute cardamom amber oil massage. Afterward, back in the hammam, you’ll detoxify with a clay polish and then finish in a luscious neroli cypress bath soak that will leave you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. (standardhotels.com/miami) —Kristen Desmond LeFevre

SACRED STAYS

Tierra Santa Healing House at Faena

If you can’t jet off to South America to experience healing rituals and treatments at the hands of a local shaman, then Tierra Santa Healing House (set on the third floor of Miami Beach’s Faena Hotel) is your next best bet. Tierra Santa (which is Spanish for “holy land”) is designed to be a sanctuary, acting as a de facto spiritual center for the hotel. Amazing Amenities: Before or after your treatment, treat yourself to the Wet Spa—the centerpiece of which is one of the largest hammams on the East Coast featuring a central waterfall, jasmine-infused steam, and heated Amazonite stones. Add a traditional bathing ritual to your experience and slather yourself with ingredients from the spa’s own organic, handcrafted range of cleansing soaps, healing muds, purifying scrubs, and nourishing oils for the ultimate cleansing and restoration of mind, body, and spirit. Then, move on to the marble Ice Parlor for an interplay of hot and cold that is said to improve circulation, stimulate metabolism, and strengthen immunity.

Must-Try Treatment: Indulge in the Tree of Life Vibrations, a signature healing arts treatment rooted in the ancient Eastern art of sound massage. Aromatic essential oils are poured along tension points on your spine, as hot Brazilian rose stones are applied. But the centerpiece of the treatment is a quartet of Nepalese singing bowls, first introduced as ambient sound, then as actual instruments of massage. When placed along your back and struck with a soft mallet, each bowl infuses its vibrations and tones throughout your body—balancing the seven chakras and taking you to new levels of pleasure and relaxation. (faena.com) —K.D.L.