From Vero Beach to Boca Raton, there’s no shortage of spectacular spas in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast. Consult this guide to some of the area’s finest the next time you hear the call to enthrall your senses.
Eau Spa, Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa
While many spas prioritize relaxation and self-improvement, Eau Spa (Manalapan, 561-540-4960) favors fun over all else. Its motto is pause, play, perfect—with extra emphasis on the play.
“Our thinking is: You’re perfect as you are, so just enjoy yourself,” says spa director Catherine Warren. A haven for bachelorette parties, birthday celebrations, and girls’ gatherings, Eau Spa acts as an energetic ode to personal decadence. “We’re a little more Mad Hatter and a little more fun,” Warren says.
All this play is backed up by some serious credentials: Eau Spa is a recipient of the Five-Star Award from Forbes Travel Guide, one of only 26 spas in the United States and 47 worldwide to achieve such a distinction. The 42,000-square-foot facility is open to anyone (not just hotel guests) and boasts a chic boutique, scrub and polish bars, bath lounges, a salon, and a garden with dipping pools and cabanas. Warren urges visitors to make a day out of their spa experience, scheduling a few treatments and spending the time in between lounging. “It takes a while for people to turn off,” she says. “Guests should make an event of it.”
The party starts the second a spa attendant—referred to as a spa fairy—leads you to the Wishing Well to place a candle with a personal wish in the shallow pool. Before your service, take a moment to search for the copious hidden ducks (Eau Spa’s mascot) and enjoy a mini cupcake or two, or three. The pause, play, perfect theme carries over to the treatment rooms—your next destination—which can be customized by scent, music, and lighting, each themed to Eau’s mantra.
With a varied menu ranging from massages to facials and all the latest high-tech treatments, it can be difficult to pick just a handful of indulgences. We recommend relaxing with the Imperial Geisha, which begins with a full-body scrub before an outdoor dip in a bubble bath followed by a massage. Afterward, show your face some love with the spa’s signature One Love facial. Your esthetician will help you choose from a series of treatments, including an alpha-beta peel or microdermabrasion, collagen or hyaluronic infusion, and sculpting microcurrent or collagen-stimulating LED. Regardless of what you choose, each Eau experience starts with a spoonful of locally produced honey to awaken the senses.
Before you leave Eau to return to daily life, grab a couple of cupcakes for the road. Don’t worry, the ducks won’t tattle on you.
Costa d’Este Beach Resort & Spa
For a true Floridian spa experience, visit the spa at Costa d’Este (Vero Beach, 772-562-9919) for two special treatments inspired by the state’s most prominent features: citrus and the sea. The Citrus Fusion Radiance facial uses vitamin C to improve skin clarity and antioxidants to reverse signs of sun exposure. The Marine Detox body wrap has myriad oceanic ingredients, including a body butter made of grape-stem cells, tea extracts, and coconut argan.
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The Spa at The Breakers
Despite its reputation as Palm Beach’s most steadfast luxury hotel, The Breakers (Palm Beach, 561-653-6656) is constantly reinventing itself. Each year, it allocates at least $25 million to resort improvements, and in 2015 it was the spa’s turn for a facelift—an $8 million one.
Renowned spa designer Sylvia Sepielli transformed The Spa at The Breakers into a modern oasis of beauty, revitalization, and pampering. Taking inspiration from the resort’s Italian influence and seaside location, Sepielli created a streamlined look that boasts Mediterranean nods, like an outdoor courtyard, as well as subtle ocean odes, such as pearlized details and a custom shell sculpture of Hygeia, the Greek goddess of health, by local artist Christa Welm. Our favorite sea-inspired touch: using a seashell to scoop ice for instant relief in the sauna.
The sea theme extends to treatments like the quartz massage, which takes place on a bed of warm alpha-quartz sand that cradles the body to relieve tension and promote relaxation. Before or after a treatment, make sure to visit one of three lounges for a light bite or a taste of gelato.
The Spa at The Breakers is open to all, but we suggest turning the experience into the ultimate staycation. The resort offers special room rates for locals during the summer, and with a room key you’re granted access to exclusive guest-only amenities, like the fitness center and the newly updated Ocean House restaurant.
The Spa at the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach
The Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach (Palm Beach, 561-533-3715) might just house the most quintessential Palm Beach spa in all the land. Let us count the ways:
- It knows how to treat locals. Anyone can stop in for one of the spa’s decadent treatments. The perfect way to indulge, however, is with the Day Spa and Beach Retreat, which gives you access to the Four Seasons’ beach and fitness club and also includes lunch at Graze or AB&G as well as one of the spa’s most popular treatments. An Ocean Bliss customized massage nestled in between sunbathing and a few midday cocktails? Yes, please.
- It has curated spa packages that honor the Palm Beach lifestyle. Equestrian enthusiasts will love The Polo, while art aficionadas are sure to select The Norton. We’re partial to The Social, composed of everything you need to keep up with the step-and-repeat social scene including a hydrating organic facial and a Palm Beach signature manicure and pedicure in addition to a Palm Beach signature massage complete with warmed Key lime and vanilla essential oils.
- Speaking of the social season, The Spa at the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach has the perfect therapy to help your skin recover from the recent onslaught of galas, cocktail parties, and soirees. The Oxygeno Three-in-One Super Facial works in three steps to exfoliate, infuse, and oxygenate the skin. And we all know good things come in threes.
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Seagate Spa, The Seagate Hotel
For a truly unique menu that combines innovative therapies with luxury products, look no further than the Seagate Spa (Delray Beach, 561-665-4950). For example, its signature Hot Shell massage is a traditional Swedish massage made all the more amazing with the introduction of warmed seashells.
Want to press the reset button but think the typical body treatment won’t suffice? Opt for the spa’s Passage to Wellness package, which starts with a steam to open the pores before moving on to a full-body exfoliation and massage. Afterward, a warm-seaweed and essential-oil body mask is applied, followed by a Swiss shower and oil rub. The pièce de résistance: Sip on coconut water as you soak in a tub of sea buckthorn, algae, and sea fennel extracts (your skin will thank you) accented with juniper and lemon essential oils to purify body and mind.
The spa’s newest addition is the Elemis Face and Body Radiance signature treatment. Using naturally sourced Elemis skincare products, this service brightens and tones the skin with a radiance-boosting facial, a choice between a cool or traditional thermal massage, and, finally, a bioelectric facial.
The Seagate Spa makes it easy to turn one fabulous treatment into a daylong indulgence. Guests at the spa are provided access to the hotel’s full amenities, including a steam room, fitness center, and pool where you can enjoy lite bites like pan-seared tuna and grilled Atlantic salmon. Have a teen at home who deserves a spa day, too? The Seagate Spa has you covered with its Chillin’ Teen Retreat, which includes a 50-minute facial and a chocolate-truffle manicure and pedicure made all the sweeter by a complimentary virgin strawberry daiquiri.
Si Spa, Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa
Yes, Si Spa (Riviera Beach, 561-340-1755) was recently recognized in Condé Nast Traveler as one of the top spas in the United States, but that doesn’t mean it is satisfied with the status quo. In addition to an array of luxury therapies, this seaside spa recently introduced the new Comfort, Care, Classics menu that caters to guests who are undergoing cancer treatments or recently recovering from such an ordeal. The menu features massages, facials, and body and nail services that focus on relieving stress, and all spa staff members have received special training to complement the therapies.
For everyone else, Si Spa offers a range of traditional body, face, and beauty services. While the spa as a whole is inspired by the sea, we recommend a treatment that highlights guava, a tropical fruit rich in vitamins and antioxidants. The Indian Si Scrub begins with a guava scrub followed by a shower and a guava-oil massage.
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Waldorf Astoria Spa, Boca Raton Resort & Club
The Waldorf Astoria Spa (Boca Raton, 561-347-4772) is big. We mean really, really big. Like 50,000 square feet big. Designed in the style of the Alhambra palace in Spain, complete with extravagant arches and gilded details, the spa comprises more than 40 treatment rooms, a pool, gardens, a café, private lounges, and a Spa Great Hall, where guests can enjoy tea by the fireplace before or after services.
The most unique space in this sprawling spa is the ritual bathing area. Step inside and you’re transported to a traditional Turkish bath house—and the experience itself is akin to a hammam, a Turkish bath used as much for relaxation as it is for cleansing. The Waldorf Astoria’s Ritual Bath is composed of a series of thermal and water therapies including a steam, sauna, soak, Swiss shower, deluge (prepare yourself for the water pressure), and Jacuzzi session.
The bath precedes most treatments on the spa’s menu—and, boy, is that menu long. The staff makes it easy on visitors by selecting monthly specials. In July, try the Life Dance Massage Ritual, which consists of a foot and body scrub, a scalp treatment, and a massage that incorporates body rocking, stretching, and a hot-stone therapy. Perfect for athletes, this package aims to rebalance the body’s natural energy. Increase its effects by scheduling a private yoga session in the spa gardens beforehand.
In August, opt for the Elemis Pro Collagen Quartz Lift facial. This anti-wrinkle treatment improves skin firmness and comes with a complimentary ritual bath, as does the Life Dance Massage Ritual.
The White Orchid Spa, The Vero Beach Hotel & Spa
The White Orchid Spa (Vero Beach, 772-231-1133) proves amazing things can come in small packages. It manages to pack a dizzying array of services—a full salon, acupuncture, body therapies, esthetics, and medical aesthetic treatments—into just 6,000 square feet.
The menu is vast and also features seasonal specials that incorporate fresh ingredients like organic alfalfa root. If you only have time for one experience, we recommend the signature body masque and massage, a luxurious progression from a full-body sugar scrub to a mineral-enriched mud masque followed by a rainfall shower and a Swedish massage tinged with the scent of the spa’s special green tea and lemongrass botanical body butter. This treatment can last anywhere from 75 to 125 minutes, depending on the length of the massage, but we suggest turning off your cell phone and unplugging from the world for the full 125.
This summer, The White Orchid Spa is changing things up by embarking on a large-scale renovation expected to be unveiled at the end of the year. The project will enhance the size of the spa to include a larger relaxation suite and a halotherapy salt room. But don’t fret: The White Orchid will remain open throughout the process.
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