The air holds that first crispness Southerners fondly call “football weather.” School’s back in session and the summer’s hustle-bustle is waning. It’s the perfect time for a road trip to any, or all, of the six Southern spas we visited in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
First stop is the venerable Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa in Asheville, North Carolina, which entered the spa scene in 2001 with a head-turning $40 million, 40,000-square-foot subterranean spa which claims to be the finest in North America. Combining its Blue Ridge Mountains setting and state-of-the-art architecture, this southern spa has not only attained a whole new level of tranquility but has also perfected progressive therapeutic services. Rock-walled tunnels, prismed skylights, mineral pools, cozy fireplaces, his-and-her outdoor pagodas, fiber-optic ceiling lights that mimic starry skies and plunging waterfalls set the stage for Grove Park’s signature Heaven Series treatments, which include facials, massage, and body treatments.
The headliner is the Fire, Rock, Water, and Light treatment, which begins with a buttermilk, brown sugar, and honey exfoliation. The ninety-minute treatment also includes a buttermilk honey bath, a body wrap, and a gentle waterfall massage, complete with hot stones and ice.
A few hours down the road we visit yet another venerable southern icon, this one dating back to 1895: Pinehurst Resort, North Carolina. This “model for the American golf resort in the 20th century” hosted the U.S. Open in 1999 and will do so again in 2005. Its 31,000-square-foot, $12 million spa offers another prime reason to visit.
Pinehurst celebrates not only its golf heritage, but its rich Southern roots (it’s a National Historic Landmark) with treatments like the Magnolia Mud Wrap, the Mint Julep Wrap, and the Carolina Peach Nourisher which included a peach and pecan body scrub followed with an application of peach butter.
The spa is a peaceful sanctuary, designed in multi-hued greens and browns reminiscent of the Carolina pine forests that abound outside its doors. The centerpiece is a three-lane lap pool visible through glass as soon as you enter the high-ceiling and arched lobby. Spa suites, a brilliant touch for couples or groups, offer a private relaxation lounge outside three private treatment rooms.
Packages include The Hole In One, featuring the Sportsman’s Soak, Pine Salt Scrub, and Golfer’s Massage; and the Pure Indulgence, a 250-minute treatment featuring a bath and The Carolina Peach Nourisher, hot stone massage, facial, manicure, and pedicure.
Fabulous City, Fabulous Facial
A five hour drive south lands us in Charleston Place, the heart of Charleston, South Carolina, offering the historic city’s premiere accommodations and a lesser-known jewel of a spa.
A few days at this rooftop city spa, which features tennis courts, a horizon-edge pool with retractable roof, a Jacuzzi, and a garden tanning area, make us joke that we’re vacationing in a small island nation we’ve dubbed the Principality of Charleston Place Spa.
The spa manager Christine Meier, is a gifted therapist who, to put it simply, has the touch. European trained, she oversees eleven staff members and six treatment rooms at this $1.4 million, full-service spa.
Hardly anyone seeks out the Charleston Place just for its spa, but they should. Catch some rays on the sun deck. Float in the pool while watching seagulls soar overhead. Consult with a personal trainer, take a private tennis lesson, or sit and soak in the clock-tower hot tub while, four floors below, tourists scurry along Meeting Street where stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Gucci vie for their dollars.
The spa’s sole drawback is that it houses the hotel’s only pool, meaning your bliss may, at times, be interrupted by splashing youngsters. If so, simply opt for a treatment in one of the spa rooms or, better yet, have a therapist come to your hotel room. And what dreamy rooms they are – luxurious four-poster beds, rich fabrics, thick carpets, and elegant drapes.
Try the Personal Prescription Facial or the Seaweed Detoxifying Body Wrap that’s self-heating. A session with a personal trainer on our second morning prompted the need for shiatsu and Swedish massage in the afternoon, separated by a a spa cuisine lunch on the roof-top deck.
Try the Invigorating Escape, a one-night deluxe or club-level accommodation with three spa treatments. Or, enjoy the Ladies Ultimate Getaway featuring posh, club-level rooms with private concierge, free beverages, continental breakfast, afternoon tea, evening cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, after-dinner cordials, dessert, and a welcome basket.
Don’t, under any circumstance, miss dinner at the hotel’s Charleston Grill, South Carolina’s only Mobil Four-Star Restaurant. It’s a meal you’ll be talking about years later.
Bed-and-breakfast lovers will delight in Charleston’s 1807 Phoebe Pember House at the corner of Society and East Bay streets, the 200-year-old birthplace of the author, maverick spirit, and Civil War heroine.
Employing its philosophy of “relaxation, refocusing, restoring,” the genteel property offers wellness retreats, plus spa services like massage and aromatherapy as well as classes in yoga, Pilates, and meditation.
Afterward, relax on one of its oh-so-Charleston piazzas overlooking a private walled garden. Pass the Mint Julep.
Vineyards and Vichy Showers
We’re about thirty minutes north of Atlanta traveling I-85 when a courtly country estate, reminiscent of 16th-century France, pops into view on a crest speckled with two-hundred acres of grape vines. This is Chateau Elan.
The property’s sprawling 3,500 acres house the winery, convention hotel, Irish pub, tennis center, motorsports racetrack, equestrian center, and four golf courses.
Spa-goers can stay in the main 306-room inn or be cocooned from the bustle in the stand-alone spa’s 33,000-square-foot mansion tucked in its own little corner overlooking a tranquil lake, gazebo, and wooded forest.
Visitors are greeted in a living-room lobby featuring warm earth tones, a vaulted ceiling, and a fireplace. An adjacent sunny dining room is ideal for afternoon tea. The spa has its own restaurant that specializes in healthy cuisine.
Fourteen spacious spa bedrooms are individually decorated, their names hinting at some of the whimsy inside: the Zimbabwe Room, Victorian Wicker, Country French, and Fox Hunt. For a romantic couples’ escape, try the Celebration Room and its red bathtub.
Chateau Elan’s adults-only spa offers a full array of services (wraps, scrubs, soaks, massages) as well as others that pay homage to its unusual setting: The Winery Harvest Crush and The De-Vine Mud Body Wrap with Vichy Shower. Georgia peaches no doubt inspired the Signature Peach Clay Wrap.
We enjoyed a pre-treatment jacuzzi soak in a lovely mural-walled tub featuring lavender oil and rose petals. As the whirling bubbles heated up, the locker room attendant applied an eye mask and slow drip of ice water to the head, followed by a neck-and-shoulders massage.
A Spa by the Sea
One visit to the famed Cloister at Sea Island, Georgia, reveals why generations of families and honeymooners have made it their resort of choice. This revered retreat opened its doors in 1928 and hearkens to that yesteryear, family vacation characterized in the movie Dirty Dancing.
The Cloister is a place where you dress for dinner, take dance lessons, learn horseback riding by the ocean, and go target shooting. For the past twenty-five years, patrons have also been coming to the Sea Island Spa, one of the country’s only oceanfront spas. Tiny by modern standards, future plans have it moving to more spacious digs closer to The Cloister’s main inn.
Sea Island Spa is best described as open to new treatments, but conservative in its approach. History and tradition have made the Cloister successful for seventy-five years, so change should and does come slowly.
What The Cloister’s spa does go for in a big way are treatments that embody its seaside setting, such as its Thalassotherapy Gentil, a full-body seaweed treatment. With more than fifty spa treatments on the menu, you’ll appreciate the guest services coordinator who will not only set up your spa appointments, but also arrange your services in the salon and fitness center. Of course, you’ll also have to squeeze in horseback riding, target practice, turtle walks, and kayaking.
A three-night minimum Spa Retreat Package runs $750 and includes a sea stone massage, renewal facial, one-hour reflexology, nutrition consultation with body composition analysis, fitness consultation and a half-hour with a personal trainer. Room rates are additional.
By Kathy M. Newbern and J.S. Fletcher
- 17th Annual Earth Day Beauty Awards - April 22, 2026
- Nature’s Nectress - April 21, 2026
- Simpler Hair Color - April 20, 2026