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HEALING PLACES: |
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Says Anne McCall, general manager of Fairmont
Spas, "There's been no proper research in the spa industry; it's
an immature business without any benchmarking data -- unusual in the
hotel business which knows the price of everything." Fairmont
Spas has now done its own research using, in part, a cultural anthropologist.
The resulting gender and body image issues were interesting. Women
felt beautification alone was an acceptable goal but current spas
were alienating men. Men felt there should be more focus on strength
and power. "It had to be about sweating to be significant for
males," says McCall smiling. "Men felt awkward in spas unless
they perceived the treatments as a reward for hard work, women saw
them as a nurturing experience." |
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| Some American physicians are skeptical about
the value of health spas beyond the short-lived psychological benefit
of being pampered. Nevertheless, European countries such as Germany
cover spa vacations as benefits under their national health insurance
and believe spas are cost effective at reducing illness. Arizona wants
such beliefs to flourish in the American southwest and the Fairmont's
award-winning restaurants already offer spa menus. There's a lot available,
too, for families including six pools, one a splash pool (with two
impressive slides) that in summer hands out floats for "dive-in
movies." The resort's open plan spacious architecture creates
a feeling of unhurried peace and the fastidiously groomed desert gardens
continue that sense of tranquility. |
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If you'd prefer to be even more immersed
in Native American culture for your treatments, the Santa Ana Pueblo
in New Mexico opened its own resort and spa in January 2001. No, none
of those Route 66 phony wigwams, this -- like the Fairmont Scottsdale
princess -- is upscale. It's run by Hyatt as the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa and it's just 30 minutes north of Albuquerque. |
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The resort runs tennis clinics and has what it modestly calls "the best golf that New Mexico has to offer" in the only desert golf course in the state and since you're in the balloon capital of the world you can, of course, fly New Mexico's friendly skies in a hot air balloon. You can lie around Tamaya's circular pool whose styling is based on the ceremonial kiva seen at nearby Bandolier National Monument or on the more famous Mesa Verde National Park at Cortez, Colorado. You can take a wagon trip across hallowed First American lands; you can wander the resort's halls and enjoy Native American art; and you can horse around on guided rides. Your children can be taught the skill of lassoing, shown how to bake traditional Pueblo Oven Bread, and helped to make adobe brick. Or families can just sit outside in the desert and be told bedtime stories under the stars. |
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   In the Tamaya Mist Spa the resort has the comprehensive fitness center found in all luxury hotels, and offers massages varying from deep tissue and sports to shiatsu and aromatherapy -- and, naturally, in such a pueblo location, its own distinctive herbal wraps. Locally grown blue cornmeal and hand harvested cedar are two of the native "secrets" that add to its signature therapies. |
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