HotelChatter

From Hotel Maven e:

This comment is about the Mondrian's spa, Agua. Agua is definitely "spa lite" and reads like an afterthought tacked onto a hotel fitness room.

I went there with a friend for a weekend spa getaway looking forward to the advertised "serenely beautiful and peaceful place" -- just the thing after a high stress week! You enter the spa through the hotel's workout room...the spa office is a closet-like space next to the treadmills.

You get there by going through the swimming pool area which is full (FULL) of people having a really really good time at the pool bar. Not a "serenely beautiful" first impression. The receptionist was very pleasant and showed me to the (only two) changing rooms, across the hall from the restrooms, which are shared with the pool.

The hall was full of drunk chicks in bathing suits waiting to get to a toilet. You have to change there and then fight your way through the crowd (I had to push against people to even get the changing room door open) and then get past them into the spa hallway (separated only by a screen).

There's a spa waiting room, which is nothing special. The robe I was given was microscopic and the spa slippers mismatched ans stained. I had to hold it together back through the pool drunks and weight room to get a replacement.

There are about four treatment rooms, all in a row. You can see light under the room dividers, which detracts from the experience. I had an alphatherapy (collagen) facial and a Cleopatra Ageless body treatment. The music while I was getting my facial was very loud and throbbing, high energy.

The woman giving my facial said she couldn't control the music and that it DID distract...not the relaxing experience one expects at a spa. Both treatments seemed to use ok but not great spa products...kind of dilute.

Usually, if I go to a spa for this type of thing I can feel a really positive difference afterwards. At Agua, nada.

The best part of the whole thing was having a Mojito in the hotel bar at the end of the day. The Mojitos are the BEST. As for the spa...save your money. There are a lot of great spas in Scottsdale, but this isn't one of them.

[Photo: Gervasius]

Related Stories:
· Mondrian Scottsdale to Open January 30th [HotelChatter]