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HEALING PLACES: |
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The famed Four Seasons Resorts have their signatures too. Understated
elegance, attentive staff, every expected facility, privacy, tranquility.
Just checking into the Four Seasons Resort Aviara, North San Diego
is like a spa visit in itself. Once there, you seem to be already
at peace with the world. |
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 Says David Woog who has been a massage therapist at the resort virtually since it opened five years ago: "We feel we're healing the planet, one person at a time." Maybe, but our climate in San Diego helps, too. We don't have the cold winter weather that 6,000 feet-high Tamaya has, nor the dry atmosphere of Phoenix; here hotel guests can sit outside in November and marvel at how mild- mannered the gods can be even at this time of the year. The spa is designed to take advantage of our benign climate with both indoor and outdoor facilities. |
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| The Four Seasons Resort Aviara is the only resort on the Southern Californian coast to offer a new technique of water shiatsu called "watsu." The therapists get in the water (kept at 97.3 degrees F body temperature) with the guests who can wear ear plugs if they wish. "All you hear is your breathing and you completely lose yourself," said a guest who had experienced the treatment. | |
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Asked will this be popular with macho males,
are guys awkward in spas as some of the Willow Stream research suggests,
Woog replies: "Americans, particular males, are conservative
and touch-deprived. They are too busy making a living to have time
to take care of themselves. Europeans know better; they've been around
longer. Any male awkwardness may be an ego issue. Yet if males are
injured, it's a different story. It's massage or Vicodin!" |
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In many spas the men are shortchanged. A
common ratio of women to men is 75 percent to 25 percent yet Aviara
has created equal facilities confident that national interest in spa
treatments will continue to grow. The solarium in the spa at Aviara
allows couples to spend quiet time together before or after treatments. |
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And at the end of the day what better form of relaxation
can there be than sit high in the main lounge or outdoor patio like
an eagle in its aerie and watch San Diego's sun fall like a golden
orb into the Pacific ocean, five miles away? |
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