http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/travel/escapes/05spas.html?scp=2&sq=buttermilk%20spa&st=cse
The Massage Just Up the Road
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times
REGIONAL The Emerson Resort in the Catskills is part of the growing destination-spa scene in the Northeast.
SARAH KERSHAW
IN the world of spa
travel, the Northeast is not known for leading the way. With a few
exceptions, the best-known, most sought-after destination spas tend to
be far west of the Mississippi and well south of New Jersey; California, Arizona, Utah and Florida are some of the hot-spot states.
But as more travelers seem to expect spa treatments to be part of
their getaway experiences, and spas within driving distance of New York City
recognize that travelers in a squeezed economy want to stay closer to
home, a growing number of nearby hotels and resorts are building spas,
revamping existing ones and rolling out all-out marketing blitzes to
draw more travelers to the luxurious land of the facial, the massage
and the manicure.
Some newer properties — like the widely praised high-end Mayflower Inn & Spa in Washington,
Conn., which opened a 20,000-square-foot spa in 2006, and the
over-the-top Winvian, which opened last year near Litchfield, Conn. —
hope to compete for the upper-echelon business of spagoers who might
otherwise fly cross-country for their pampering, or in the parlance of
spa marketing, “wellness.”
The Northeast spas all have two key
shifts in the spa industry going for them. First, the great spa
experience is no longer necessarily built around warm weather; the
opening of the all inclusive, fitness-and-weight-loss-focused Canyon
Ranch in Lenox, Mass., in 1989, signaled the renaissance of the
winter-weather spa.
“What’s happened now, as the trend has gone to more and more places having spas,” said Susie Ellis, president of SpaFinder.com,
which reviews, publicizes and sells gift certificates for spas, “is
that people have experienced spas in weather that isn’t so great, and
it’s possible to work around that.”
And second, while 10 years
ago spa vacations tended to last a week or more, with many resorts
requiring seven-day stays, more spas, lodges and hotels that have added
spas now allow quick stays.
So a two-day jaunt to a spa is much
more common at a time when Americans are taking shorter vacations.
Wearing a bathrobe while eating grapes and sipping detoxifying teas,
getting a deep-tissue massage and then taking a steam bath, all within
the first few hours of your vacation, is a pretty efficient way to
unwind.
According to SpaFinder, there are more than 1,500 day
and destination spas within a 200-mile driving distance of New York. Of
them, 31 are listed as overnight or resort spas, though Canyon Ranch
and the Deerfield Spa, a much less expensive all-inclusive fitness spa
in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, are among the few that qualify as true destination spas, meaning that everyone has traveled there for a spa experience.
OPENED
in 2006, the Lodge at Woodloch, also in the Poconos but more upscale
than Deerfield, bills itself as a destination spa. The Mohonk Mountain
House, a Victorian-era lodge in New Paltz, N.Y., added a
16-treatment-room spa in 2006.
The number of overnight spas
within a four-hour drive of New York City has increased slightly in
recent years, although the total number of such spas across the country
has increased faster, according to SpaFinder.
Still, spa mavens
have taken note of a few additions and changes on the local landscape —
a green spa and a more traditional lodge that was rebuilt after a fire,
both in the Catskills, as well as a funky and lavish resort in
northwest Connecticut.
An organic vegetable garden,
llamas, chickens, honey bees, goats and peacocks are not typical at
spas, but nor is using solar-power and geothermal energy to heat the
sauna, steam room and mineral salt water pool. At Buttermilk Falls Inn
and Spa in Milton, N.Y., about 90 minutes north of Manhattan, manicures
and pedicures are done beside the indoor pool, which is enclosed by
soaring glass ceilings and overlooks the Hudson River.
The
people who work at Buttermilk describe the property — a 70-acre farm
with two ponds filled with ducks and geese and landscaped with pear,
cherry, peach and apple trees as well as opulent flower and herb
gardens — as “ ‘Dirty Dancing’ meets ‘Jurassic Park.’ ”
A 10-room
inn built in 1680, where prices range from $225 to $425 a night
(separate and much more spacious carriage houses range from $325 to
$650 a night), Buttermilk opened nine years ago and had a small,
cramped spa in one of the cottages with tiny treatment rooms separated
by screens. But last year the owner, Robert Pollock, who also owns the
Great Jones Spa in Manhattan, built the new solar-powered spa.
The
spa, which is open to people who are not guests at the inn, is spare
and sleek and has seven treatment rooms and a small steam and sauna
room. Mr. Pollock said he was planning to bring yoga and a gym to
Buttermilk, and possibly dinner and cooking classes. A 60-minute
deep-tissue massage or a basic facial costs $100.
For those
looking for a fitness vacation, Buttermilk would not deliver, though
there are some running trails on the property and plenty of biking, kayaking and other outdoor recreation in the Hudson Valley.
Included
in the cost of lodging is breakfast, made with eggs from the chicken
coop and fruits and vegetables from the organic garden, and afternoon
tea, but the inn does not serve dinner. There are several restaurants
in New Paltz and on the Newburgh waterfront, about a 20-minute drive,
and the four restaurants of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, about 25 minutes away, which are closed the first three weeks of July and between Christmas and New Year’s.
A much more traditional spa in the Catskills is the Emerson Resort & Spa, just outside
Woodstock
,
about two hours from Manhattan. It completed a major renovation last
year after a blaze damaged much of the main inn in 2005. With the
reopening, the resort, along Route 28 in Mount Tremper, where there is
no cellphone service, opened an 8,000-square-foot spa. The smaller
original spa is still standing across the street and is used for
overflow on the weekends. The 25 suites in the main inn — rates range
from $520 to $705, including breakfast — are handsomely appointed, many
of them duplexes with small balconies. But the adjoining and more
affordable log-cabin-style lodge, with another 27 rooms, where current
rates range from $248 to $486, also including breakfast, feels
something like a downtrodden, overpriced motel.
The spa itself, which is opened to nonguests, does not feel much like
an escape, and has an awkward setup: the facilities — the 10 treatment
rooms, the nail and hair salon and a small fitness center — are spread
out along the public corridor of the hotel’s main building. At least
one fitness class is offered on Sundays and weekdays, and on Saturdays
there are cardio, Pilates, yoga and tai chi classes.
Guests interviewed over a recent weekend said the treatments were
uneven. Although the same guests said they were disappointed with the
food at the hotel restaurant, the Phoenix,
they said the food at the spa cafe was excellent, offering fresh
smoothies and salads with locally grown vegetables. The spa offers
unusual treatments, including a cranberry bog bath and a
hot-oil-and-herb-poultice massage, in which the therapist uses heated
herb packs dipped in oil to scrub and detoxify the skin, followed by
deep-tissue massage. The 50-minute treatment is $105. A traditional
50-minute Swedish massage is $95, and a 50-minute facial is $95.
ALSO
about two hours from Manhattan, in the Litchfield Hills of northwest
Connecticut, is the far more decadent and expensive Winvian.
If one does not flinch at spending, on average, $2,000 a night,
including exceptional meals and ample liquor in your room but not
including spa treatments, then read on. This adult playground (many
reviews have used the words “gimmick” and “whimsy”) is the kind of
place where you never have to leave your room to feel like you have
gone to a very wild, crazy yet relaxing place that has thought of every
detail before it could ever occur to you. Is there a television? Wait,
there it is now, rising mechanically out of the floor.
The
lodging there, inside a grand farmhouse and in 18 cottages designed by
15 different architects, is the highlight, the spa almost incidental.
The cottages, on 113 acres, are from 950 square feet to 1,250 square
feet, each with a distinct theme — the Helicopter Cottage contains a
fully restored 17,000 pound Sea King Pelican chopper, and inside the
copter is the bar and entertainment center; the Greenhouse Cottage is
made almost completely of glass; and the Maritime Cottage is
essentially a luxurious lighthouse.
Each room (accommodations are
for two but rooms have pull-out couches and the resort allows children
only at certain times of the year) has a generous private steam room,
which is nice because the spa has a tiny steam room and sauna. Prices
range from $1,450 to $1,950.
Current rates at the Mayflower,
about eight miles away, with its more elaborate spa and extensive menu
of fitness classes, are $520 to $1,500.
At Winvian bicycles are
left outside your door, and the resort sits next to the 4,000-acre
White memorial foundation, where you can hike, bike, ride a horse, snowshoe and cross-country sky. There are also canoeing
and boating nearby. The resort has yoga classes on weekends only, but
there is a small gym next to the spa with a treadmill, elliptical
trainer, exercise bike, yoga mats, free weights and medicine balls.
Each weekend there is one free yoga class.
The 5,000-square-foot
facility has large glass rooms and vaulted ceilings and evokes the
feeling of an old New England farm, except that the aromas inside go
more toward cucumber and lavender than manure. Like Buttermilk Falls,
it uses an all-natural skin care line, in its case, Ren, a very
expensive British brand in addition to Eve Lom, which is not all
natural. A 75-minute Ren facial is $265; a 60 minute Swedish massage is
$150. The spa restricted to guests of the hotel.
As much as the
outlandish accommodations appear to be Winvian’s main marketing tool,
Heather Smith, who owns the property with her mother, Maggie Smith
(they also own the Pitcher Inn in Vermont), said, “You need a spa.”
She said 80 percent of the guests, most from New York City, are using the spa.
“I saw the trend,” she said. “And it was spa, spa, spa.”
PICKING A SPA
Mayflower Inn & Spa 118 Woodbury Road, Washington, Conn.; (860) 868-9466; www.mayflowerinn.com.
Winvian 155 Alain White Road, Morris, Conn.; (860) 567-9600; www. Winvian.com.
Canyon Ranch 165 Kemble Street, Lenox, Mass.; (413) 637-4100; www.canyonranch .com.
Deerfield Spa 650 Resica Road, East Stroudsburg, Pa.; (800) 852-4494; www.deerfieldspa.com.
Lodge at Woodloch 109 River Birch Lane, Hawley, Pa.; (866) 953-8500 www.thelodgeatwoodloch.com.
Mohonk Mountain House 1000 Mountain Rest Road, New Paltz, N.Y.; (845) 255-1000; www .mohonk .com.
Buttermilk Falls Inn and Spa 220 North Road, Milton, N.Y.; (845) 795-1310; www.buttermilkfallsinn.com.
Emerson Resort & Spa
5349 Route 28, Mount Tremper, N.Y.; (877) 688-2828;
www.emersonplace.com
.
