Description:
Does a trip to the Maruba Resort & Jungle Spa in Belize sound appealing? Or the Grand Lido Sans Souci in Jamaica? How about the Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat in Oregon, known as the "Esalen of the Northwest," with reiki, Thai massage, herbal wraps, hydrotherapy, and craniosacral therapy available to soothe your soul? Fodor's Healthy Escapes, here in its sixth edition, is your ticket to feeling pampered, healthy, and fit. Spas across the U.S. and the Caribbean are profiled, including facilities, services available, accommodations, rates, descriptions of atmosphere and typical meals, and directions. Not every spa is geared toward solipsistic luxury; many offer hard-core conditioning programs for athletes in training or nutritional and lifestyle counseling for those struggling with cardiac disease, obesity, or other serious conditions. To help you find the retreat that best meets your needs, the editors have therefore separated them into six classifications: luxury pampering, nutrition and diet, sports conditioning, holistic health, medical wellness, and mineral springs. While many of the spas profiled here are pricey, keeping with what you'd expect from a Fodor's guide, some are more low key, such as Maine's Northern Pines Health Resort, which starts at $115 per person. Maps to help you locate the spas come in handy. The glossary is an added bonus, with definitions of healing modalities you may never have heard of (such as panchakarma), massage techniques (including shiroabhyanganasya), and schools of fitness (the increasingly popular Pilates Method). --Erica Jorgensen
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