A Spa Alternative Amongst Manhattan's Ritzy Hotels

August 1, 2007 at 2:21 PM | by barbarab | Comments (0)

Usually at HotelChatter, we're blogging about the latest hotel spas but this time, we've been alerted to a hotel spa alternative.

Susie Ellis, president of SpaFinder, blogs the spa life at Susie's Spa Blog. As her posts attest, she leads a pampered if peripetatic existence. Since May, she's found herself in Mexico, the Berkshires, South Carolina, Turks and Caicos, Shanghai.

Susie, please tell us this: What is the best spa treatment for green with envy?

Several weeks ago, Susie went to Sphatika, a day spa in at Columbus and 60th in midtown Manhattan. Sphatika means "crystal" in Sanskirt. In this post, Susie waxes euphoric about a three-hour treatment she got at Sphatika that included an infrared sauna, exfoliation, massage and a steam. She notes that one goal of the treatment, which was five years in the making, per Sphatika owner Janet League-Katzin, is to improve people's sleep.

That's where hotels come in. Details after the jump.

Here's part of Susie's post:

Helping people get into deep sleep is part of the goal at Sphatika. I was told that almost 100 percent of the people who have this Royal Sphatika fall asleep during the treatment. But it is the restorative sleep that same night that really is impressive.

Susie's advice?

This is a day spa amidst many hotels in the area - some have spas and some don't. The Mandarin Oriental is right across the street, with the Trump International Hotel and the Ritz-Carlton Central Park nearby, among others. If the concierges in those hotels were smart, they would let their guests in on this secret, private, and very unusual spa.

Let's see. Maybe the concierges at these hotels are being smart. They each have their own full-service spa. (Speaking of which, for a second we lapsed into ignorance and thought the Ritz-Carlton Central spa was connected to the famous Clinique La Prairie in Switzerland. Oops. Not.) As for hotels referring guests to the competition, why would they? Does Macy's tell Bloomingdale's? That is the concierge's dilemma.

Related Stories:
· A Spa Treatment--Five Years in the Making [Susie's Spa Blog]

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