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Days of Heaven

By: Nanci Theoret

A blissful sampling of Gulfshore spas and services.

This souped-up Jacuzzi has 122 jets of warm water, and I enjoyed every one of them as they pulsed in rotation onto my back, hips, legs and feet. Erik told me there were several different substances he could add, but the one he recommended was Austrian Moor Mud. I had to ask, Why bring mud all the way from Austria? "It's full of minerals," he said, "to detoxify the body." It also had a fresh piney scent, which made me feel as if I were floating down a river in a European forest.

Meanwhile, Erik was slowly rubbing an aromatic Indian oil onto my hair and scalp. He then combed it through and gave me a head and neck massage. The Royal Taj oil, scented with sweet almond, sunflower, jasmine and lavender, moisturizes the scalp, conditions the hair, and in the right hands adds to that lazy, floating feeling.

Rinsing off, I was convinced that even the tap water smelled of jasmine. That's when I noticed the scented candle on the end of the tub. Danielle's is all about understated style, from the sounds of Vivaldi filling the changing rooms to the tasteful white baseball cap I was given to cover my wet hair as I glided off to my next appointment in the hair salon downstairs.

-Tessa Tilden-Smith

TOTALLY FLOORED

There's no way this is going to work, I thought as I lay down and waited for my Shiatsu floor massage-an ancient treatment that The Ritz-Carlton is adding to its spa services this fall. I can never relax no matter how hard I try. I have a million things I should be doing and ...

"Relax," my massage therapist, Kregg, instructed as if reading my mind. "If a thought comes to you, let it go. Picture it as a bird flying away." An hour later, I lay motionless, unwilling to move any of my relaxed muscles. Do I really have to leave? Can't I just lie here and savor the moment?

"Take your time getting up. I'll be waiting outside."

Darn, he read my mind again.

In the hallway Kregg handed me a cup of ice water and instructed me to take it easy, as I might feel "spacey" in 30 minutes. Shiatsu floor massage, he explained, focuses on the meridians of the body, healing and harmonizing with pressure and stretching-creating a sense of balance my body's not used to. Using the feet intensifies the experience, says Kregg, a former paramedic and intensive care clinician.

As a willing guinea pig who got to preview this new Ritz service, I can attest to its healing powers. I was pretty much mush the rest of the day, aromatic from the warm citrus oil wrap, citrus honey and cream body smoothing treatment and Shea butter scalp massage before my Shiatsu.

-Nanci Theoret

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