Frommer's Kauai - Jeanette Foster [12]
13 The Best Spas
• ANARA Spa at the Grand Hyatt Kauai ( 80 8/240-6440): Get rid of stress and be pampered in a Hawaiian atmosphere where the spirit of aloha reigns. An elegant 25,000-square-foot spa, ANARA (A New Age Restorative Approach) focuses on Hawaiian culture and healing, with some 16 treatment rooms, a lap pool, fitness facilities, lava rock showers that open to the tropical air, outdoor whirlpools, a 24-head Swiss shower, Turkish steam rooms, Finnish saunas, and botanical soaking tubs. The menu of treatments includes a four-handed massage (two therapists at once), which is not to be missed.
• Hanalei Day Spa ( 80 8/826-6621): Located on the grounds of the Hanalei Colony Resort in Haena, this small but wonderfully effective spa not only has a full menu of massages, body treatments, and body wraps, but also specializes in ayurvedic treatments to soothe and comfort your weary body. Spa owner and ayurveda practitioner Darci Frankel is a recognized expert in the field of ayurvedic treatments.
• Princeville Health Club & Spa, Princeville Resort ( 80 8/826-5030): This spa offers good value. Not only are the treatments a full 60 minutes (versus the standard 50 min. in most spas), but prices are also quite a bit lower than what many spas charge. Just a short 7-minute drive from the Princeville Hotel, this 10,000-square-foot boutique spa has such amenities as an 82-foot heated lap pool, outdoor whirlpool, sauna, steam room, five treatment rooms (plus massage cabanas poolside at the hotel), exercise classes, a weight room, a cardio room, and even babysitting services.
Pampering in Paradise
Kauai’s spas have raised the art of relaxation and healing to a new level. The traditional Greco-Roman–style spas, with lots of marble and big tubs in closed rooms, have evolved into airy, open facilities that embrace the Tropics. Spa-goers in Kauai are looking for a sense of place, steeped in the culture. They want to hear the sound of the ocean, smell the salt air, and feel the caress of the warm breeze. They want to experience Hawaiian products and traditional treatments they can get only in the islands.
The spas, once nearly exclusively patronized by women, are now attracting more male clients. There are special massages for children and pregnant women, and some spas have created programs to nurture and relax brides on their big day.
Today’s spas offer a wide diversity of treatments. There is no longer plain, ordinary massage, but Hawaiian lomilomi, Swedish, aromatherapy (with sweet-smelling oils), craniosacral (massaging the head), shiatsu (no oil, just deep thumb pressure on acupuncture points), Thai (another oil-less massage involving stretching), and hot stone (with heated, and sometimes cold, rocks). There are even side-by-side massages for couples. The truly decadent might even try a duo massage—not one, but two massage therapists working on you at once.
Massages are just the beginning. Body treatments, for the entire body or for just the face, involve a variety of herbal wraps, masks, or scrubs using a range of ingredients from seaweed to salt to mud, with or without accompanying aromatherapy, lights, and music.
After you have been rubbed and scrubbed, most spas offer an array of water treatments—a sort of hydromassage in a tub with jets and an assortment of colored crystals, oils, and scents.
Those are just the traditional treatments. Most spas also offer a range of alternative healthcare like acupuncture and chiropractic, and more exotic treatments like ayurvedic and siddha from India or reiki from Japan.
Once your body has been pampered, spas also offer a range of fitness facilities (weight-training equipment, racquetball, tennis, golf) and classes (yoga, aerobics, step, spinning, stretch, tai chi, kickboxing, aquacize). Several even offer adventure fitness packages (from bicycling to snorkeling). For the nonadventurous, most spas have salons, dedicated to hair and nail care and makeup.
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