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• Homegrown Spa Treatments

Submerged + Miami
The co-ed Water Lounge is hard to miss. At about two stories high with furniture immersed inside plunge pools and a 400-pound citrine chandelier, you just might forget your name when you reach the reception desk overlooking it all. Just as captivating, is the view of Biscayne Bay and South Beach in the distance through a wall of windows. The Spa at Icon Brickell (viceroymiami.com/spa), a Philippe Starck-designed development in downtown Miami that includes the Viceroy hotel, is the type of spa where you book one treatment and spend the day. To call the locker room just that seems downright wrong. Surrounded by opulence with glass touches every- where, it's the sort of place where one might even enjoy a tea party, not a quick change and shower before a workout or in between treatments. Oval-shaped rooms are like warm pods with a cocoon-like feel that's perfect for Raindrop Terapy, where massage oils slowly drip onto the body before being massaged into the skin. Walls covered with creamy curtains add a billowy touch as you make your way back to the Water Lounge. Check out the shelves of books covered in white jackets and let waiters who look more like cabana boys bring you fresh juices. With living-room-like furniture and smoothie shots making the rounds, you'll end up staying well past sunset. — Ana Connery

Break Away + Orlando
Beyond the enormous sun-filled atrium of the Renaissance Orlando Hotel, past rock waterfalls, rows of towering palms and a brief glass elevator ride up, you'll discover a little oasis of calm amid the hectic energy that blankets the SeaWorld/Universal/Disney homefront. The moment you enter the Neu Lotus Spa (neulotusspa.com), it's like a different world—a smaller, cozier, intimate realm of dimmed lights and soft voices. The bamboo massage is a revelation. You're deliciously kneaded, pushed and pulled with lubed-up rods of bamboo that will leave you feeling at once energized and relaxed. Ask for Fredrick—he should be in a massage hall of fame somewhere. As should Lisa, whose alpha-beta deluxe facial culminates in a private slate shower room with 7 shower heads caressing you from every direction. And the grand finale: a vibrating chair, champagne and the dreamlike feel of having your toes scrubbed, paraffined and polished to perfection during the spa's pomegranate pedicure. — Vicky Hodges

Face Time + South Beach
The place is tiny. So tiny that if you opt for a scalp treatment, you'll sit in the same space that serves as a TV lounge for those clients awaiting their massages and facials. Straight from Bali, owners Iris and Patrick Van de Coevering debuted Spa 101 (spa101ocean.com) in March inside the boutique Bentley Hotel in South Beach's burgeoning South of Fifth district. Inside one of only two treatment rooms, I enjoy a deep-cleansing facial low on painful extractions and high on circular facial strokes (very relaxing and from what I understand from Iris' light chatter, quite the circulation-booster). A 15-minute eye treatment designed to minimize the dark crescent moons under my eyes leaves the upper half of my face ultra moisturized (my brain eventually shuts itself ofi long enough that I have to be awakened). I emerge feeling pretty sans makeup for the first time in ages, but the outdoor garden with loungers and a whirlpool is too tempting to pass up. What the place lacks in legroom it more than makes up for with its view of the beach from its fourth-floor perch. — Ana Connery

Time Travel + Palm Beach
The entry to Eau Spa at the Ritz Carlton Palm Beach (eauspa.com) is designed to turn back time—literally. An oversize clock projected onto a bronzed floor has a second hand that moves backward. And in keeping with the sentiment, I opt for the Stop the Clock treatment, which led me first to the Scrub and Polish Bar with its menu of aromatic concoctions. I settle into a serene room with a requisite light dimmer. My blend of choice—ginger, vanilla and sugar—blankets the room with a hint of sweetness. After a 10-minute rinse (the stuff is a little sticky), I end up in a frangi-pani- infused moisture wrap, snugly enrobed in shiny Mylar to keep me toasty warm. I lie on a sensory dry-float bed; its flat surface, initially firm, slowly transforms into a deep waterbed. With a push of a button, I'm lowered until suspended in a cocoon-like contraption. Sheer weightlessness ensues. Forgive the cliché, but the feeling really can be described only as floating on a cloud (a 30-minute catnap is purposefully plotted into the session). Another rinse and the 2 ½ -hour state of repose concludes with a full-body massage. Somewhat dazed but happily confused, I putter into the "self-centered garden," where I'm allowed to remain self-absorbed for a while longer. — Susan Friedman

Bedazzled + South Beach
Tiny mirrored Bisazza mosaic tiles meticulously hand-laid by craftsmen over the course of months cling to the reception desk's curves like sequins on a snug-fitting dress. Not that I'm surprised. But this is, after all, South Beach and the unconventional Mondrian Hotel. Here at the resort's Agua Spa (mondrian-miami.com), a Queen Anne-style wingback chair seemingly dipped in white plastic is elevated to a throne position and used as a pedicure chair. But I opt for the signature facial, its gentle exfoliating done with Somme Institute "transport facial pads" that have a dose of vitamins packed right into them. Afterward, I kick back on the intimate terrace for two overlooking the palm-tree garden. — Patricia Letakis