Coast to Coast Island Spas 2

Island Royalty

The Cloister at Sea Island

Sea Island, Georgia

(888) SEA-ISLAND, www.seaisland.com

With eighty years of tradition to its credit and a recent major renovation under its belt, The Cloister is truly the Buckingham Palace of American resorts. Underscoring this description is the Spa at Sea Island, a 65,000-square-foot wonder that includes an equally magnificent menu of spa services and amenities. The fitness complex consists of five separate exercise centers that hold more than fifty classes per week. In addition, the Cloister offers a variety of lifestyle enhancements, including wellness cuisine by Chef Laurie Erickson and a labyrinth walk.

The spa menu features therapies from around the world, including the Turkish Hammam – an intensely pleasurable spa journey that involves seven heavenly steps, including a rose and jasmine body polish, a twenty-minute soak in an enzyme-infused tub, and a fifty-minute fig butter massage. After your treatment, attend a “Second Thoughts” class on how our thoughts can affect our health, or retreat back to your Spanish revival-style room and meditate over the view.

Zen moment

Sit in a pew in the Cloister Chapel and give thanks for a wonderful vacation, and life.

Just Breathe

Daufuskie Island Resort and Breathe Spa

Hilton Head, South Carolina

(800) 648-6778, www.daufuskieislandresort.com

Surrounded by marshes and bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Calibogue Sound, the Daufuskie Island Resort and Breathe Spa offers a choice of lodgings, although none is as grand as the Melrose Inn. Providing splendid antebellum-style accommodations, staying at the Melrose Inn means sleeping in a Queen Anne-style post bed, soaking your cares away in a large garden bath, and curling up with a good book in a roomy sitting area.

At the Breathe Spa, book the Ladies Days package for harried women that aims to relieve backaches and headaches through the power of lavender. The package includes a massage, body wrap, and hydrotherapy bath that all revolve around this lovely, balancing herb. Afterwards, you’ll feel ready to explore Daufuskie Island.

Rent a bicycle to more intimately learn about the island; you’ll quickly find yourself pedaling past stately, moss-draped oak trees and saw palmettos. Be sure to visit the Iron Fish Art Gallery and Studio, featuring Chase Allen’s metal sculptures. Even if Allen isn’t around for a chat, you can still make a purchase, thanks to Allen’s honor system.

Zen moment

Ride the ferry across the crystal blue waters of the Calibogue Sound while watching the bottlenose dolphins play in the ferry’s wake and enjoying the salty breeze in your face.

Southern Charm

The Sanctuary Hotel & Spa at Kiawah Island

Kiawah Island, South Carolina

(877) 683-1234, www.kiawahresort.com

Kiawah is a barrier island situated twenty-one miles from the historic city of Charleston. Besides playing golf on one of the five championship courses, there are woodlands to traverse, birds to watch (over 200 species), and downtime to be spent on the white sand beaches where there is ample towel territory. If these amenities aren’t enough to entice you to visit, there is one more thing that makes visiting Kiawah Island a must: The Spa at the Sanctuary.

The Spa’s design is reminiscent of the grand plantation homes that still dot the mainland of South Carolina, with plantation shutters, and soft, neutral colors that mimic the natural hues of the island’s flora.

For a true Southern experience, sample the blissful Carolina Cloud Nine treatment that includes a full-body exfoliation, thermal steam, rain shower rinse, and hand and foot massage. Afterward, descend the grand staircase and slip out to the butterfly garden aflutter with thousands of these beautiful winged creatures.

Zen moment

Walk on the beach at the eastern end of the island at sunrise. The area is so quiet that you will feel like you are hundreds of miles from civilization.

The Little Garden of Eden

The Wauwinet Inn and Spa by the Sea

Nantucket, Massachusetts

(508) 228-8718, www.wauwinet.com

Nine miles outside of downtown Nantucket on the northeast tip of the island, the Wauwinet Inn and Spa by the Sea is surrounded by the Nantucket Bay on the one side, and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. The lawn at the Wauwinet stretches down to the beach, and just down the road from this idyllic resort, the Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge is rife with bayberry, beach plum, heather, and beach grass. Fall is an ideal time to visit Nantucket when most of the tourists have packed their bags, the foliage is brightly decorated with gold and crimson leaves, and lobstering is in full swing.

If time permits, take a tour around the bay on the Wauwinet Lady with Captain Rob McMullen at the helm. If you manage to trap a lobster or two, Chef David Daniels will prepare them for you, along with drawn herb butter, local cranberries, and freshly baked bread.

But pit a day hunting for lobster against a day at the spa and the spa wins every time. For some local flavor, savor the Cranberry Crush treatment, which blends New England cranberries, organic raw sugar cane, and a hint of orange essential oil. Afterward, stroll through the spa gardens and take some time to stop and smell the roses.

Zen moment

Sit on Topper’s deck (restaurant) and watch the setting sun dip below the horizon over Nantucket Bay.

Yankee Heaven

Spruce Point Inn

Monhegan Island, Boothbay Harbor, Maine

(800) 553-0289, www.sprucepointinn.com

With sailboats dotting the harbor, and quaint New England shops beckoning you inside, Monhegan Island serves up a sweet slice of east coast culture that is at the heart of the 100-year-old Spruce Point Inn. With its sweeping lawns, wraparound porches, prim white-frame buildings, and expansive ocean views, the Spruce Point Inn is the epitome of what a Maine cottage ought to be. Book a deluxe suite equipped with a Yotul radiant wood stove, roomy marble bathroom, and whirlpool tub. The best treat of all, though, is the private deck and magnificent view of the garden below.

The Spa at the Spruce Point Inn is a petite sanctuary, offering such therapies as massages, facials, body wraps, manicures, pedicures, and Reiki energy work. Tip: When booking a facial at the Spa at Spruce Point Inn, make sure to request Alex Walker, an esthetician and reiki master who incorporates energy work into every facial.

Zen moment

Soak in the saltwater pool and watch the sailboats drift slowly by.

September/October 2008