Vacations Blog

There’s three places you can go to for a spa vacation – Palm Springs and Napa Valley in California and South Beach in Miami, Florida. And the best of the lot are in South Beach. These are more like luxury retreats than simply spa treatment providers. Every oceanfront resort on South Beach has a magnificient spa with oceanview treatment rooms and sun decks.

Best part is that these are not run-of-the-mill resorts, but upscale luxury resorts like the Mandarin Oriental, frequented by A-list stars from the West Coast and celebrities who want to getaway from the limelight and relax in the heat and enjoy ‘other’ kinds of heat. The resort is located on Brickell Key, with a private beach and beach club and views of Biscayne Bay. And you can’t enjoy all this if you’re staying in the hotel, or a paying customer at the spa.

The 15,000 sq ft spa at the Mandarin Oriental in Miami has 17 different treatment rooms, with 6 spa suites and floor to ceiling windows overlooking the bay. Facilities at the spa include separate male and female sauna and steam rooms, fully equipped fitness center, manicure and pedicure facilities, and outdoor massages for both single cutomers and couples, which are offered in private cabanas at the resort’s Oasis Beach Club. The spa employs expert masseuses specially flown in from Thailand.

Oh, and one more thing. The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau had organized a ‘Miami Spa Month’ for July 2008. Based on popular demand, the spa month has been extended beyond July, and is now valid until the end of August, with good chances of being extended further. During this period, you can get special treatments for $99 at Miami’s premier spas. Here’s the list of participating spas (includes the Spa at the Mandarin Oriental). If you go through the list, you’ll see what I mean when I say that most all major Miami hotels have a great spa in-house.

If you’re planning a trip, check out Miami flights.

Photo copyrights – Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau

There’s some spas in Napa which take pleasure in treating guests like pigs. Yep, that’s right – you’ll end up wallowing in mud up to your neck. This would be the mud spas in Calistoga, where a mix of volcanic ash, essential oils and water from the region’s mineral hot springs are used to offer a body and skin treatment which, believe it or not, is actually cleansing and relaxing.

Before we get to the spas offering this treatment, here’s a bit of background about why these mud spas are centered around Calistoga. For that, we need to go back 148 years to 1860, when a bright spark called Samuel Brannan had the idea to mix some volcanic ash from Mount St. Helena with the plentiful mineral water from the hot springs in the area  and offer spa treatments at his’Calistoga Hot Springs Resort. The mud bath thing kinda caught on, and now Calistoga is ground zero for mud baths, with a string of resorts and spas offering said treatment. For the record, Samuel Brannan was Calistoga’s founder, and a cottage built by him – The Brannan Cottage Inn – is now a Bed and Breakfast.

The spas offering mud baths in Calistoga include the Calistoga Village Inn & Spa, Golden Haven Hot Springs Spa & Resort, Solage, Oasis Spa, Indian Springs Spa and the Lincoln Avenue Spa.

Of course, spa treatments are not just about minerals and massages, so it helps that Napa Valley in general, and Calistoga in particular, offers a splendid vista and a beautiful landscape for a romantic holiday or getaway. Poking around the wineries and the historical landmarks, with some relaxing downtime at the spa in between, is what really makes these Napa vacations really memorable. And you get to fool around in the mud without anyone telling you to get out of there at once!

Photo copyrights – Golden Haven Spa

From guest blogger Marsha Takeda-Morrison of Sweatpantsmom

Just because our country’s in a recession doesn’t mean you can’t afford to go on that Girls’ Getaway you’ve been planning. You’ll just have to make some, uh, adjustments. For example, maybe you used to splurge on a four-day cruise on a private yacht where you’d sip Cristal out of a Manolo, but now you might just have to settle for a four-minute putt on the Balboa Island Ferry to pick up a Coke.

Here are some other ideas for you to stretch those pennies:

Before: Napa Valley Wine Train Tour, where an elegant rail car takes you through the scenic majestic wine region while enjoying gourmet meals and expensive vintages.

Now: Los Angeles wine tour, where you and your gal pals pile into your van and enjoy a five-hour tour of all the BevMo’s within a forty-mile radius. Crash at a local hotel, where you’ve only paid for two guests and then snuck-in your other three friends. Proceed to ‘sample’ all the varietals you’ve purchased straight out of the bottle. Splurge and split that $10 can of Pringles from the minibar.

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Before: “Sex And The City” weekend in New York City. Make like Carrie and her friends and take the city by storm: Designer boutiques during the day, fine dining and dancing at night. Stay at the posh Carlyle Hotel, featured in the movie.

Now: “Knocked Up” weekend in L.A. Drive by the Wilshire Boulevard offices of E! Entertainment, which is where Katherine Heigl’s character worked. Then head to the dive-y Del’s Saloon in Santa Monica to enjoy a couple of brewskies and to see where scenes from the movie were filmed. Then head on over to your brother’s friend’s house to play video games and pass the bong around, just like Seth Rogan and his pals did in the movie! Remember to bring along a condom so life doesn’t end up imitating art.

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Before: A spa getaway at La Quinta where you and your BFFs would enjoy pampering massages, spa cuisine and luxurious rooms.

Now: Head to the beach, where you and your posse can frolic in the healing waters of the Pacific. (Be on the lookout for signs of raw-sewage spills.) Take a barefoot walk in the sand for an instant pedicure! Save on meals by packing your own sandwiches and share a twelve-pack of water from Trader Joes.

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Before: Three-day shopping extravaganza to Fashion Island in Newport Beach. At night, rest your Bloomingdales-weary body at a nearby swanky hotel.

Now: Split the gas three ways for a trip out to the Outlets in Cabazon. Go ahead and have lunch in the food court, but remember to bring along the other half of that six-pack from Trader Joes so you don’t have to part with $2 for water. Sorry, you can’t afford a hotel, but if one of your girlfriends agrees to host a sleepover you can stay up all night admiring each other’s new purses.

New York City has an excess of everything, and it’s all packed in so close together that it’s impossible to walk a few blocks without tripping over an establishment worth a second look-see. So this Mother’s Day, which falls on the 11^th of May, here’s a guide to help you enjoy a classy and fun filled Mother’s Day in NYC.

Listed below are the best Mother’s Day activities in NYC – Where to go for brunches and teas, spa specials, cruises, music, shows and concerts, nature exploration tours, upscale shopping, flea market shopping, food shopping and best of all – Discounts, freebies, flowers, chocolates – which you get only if you’re a Mom.

Let’s start with a list of the best NYC restaurants offering a special Mother’s Day Sunday brunch.

Palm Court Restaurant, Plaza Hotel: The first on the list, and probably the only one you need to know about, is the historic Palm Court restaurant at the Plaza Hotel, with its stained glass windows, traditional afternoon tea and genteel service. The newly renovated and reopened Plaza has always been the center of gravity for the Grande Dame social circuit in the Big Apple.Every socially conscious Mom in NYC wants nothing better than to dress up and spend a few hours sizing up the other Moms in attendance. The brunch and afternoon tea is just something that the Palm Court offers as a reason for a gaggle of Moms to congregate. The experience, as a whole, is unforgettable, and there’s nothing better or more special that you can do for Mother’s Day, than foot the bill for brunch and tea at the Palm Court for your Mother.

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