Stealing beauty: $50 treatments during Spa Week

Melt with a hot stone massage at The Peninsula Spa by ESPA in Chicago during Spa Week (Oct. 10 to 16).

By Valerie Moloney

To-dos: Schedule 6-month dental cleanings for both my girls. Order two years’ worth of photos. Buy birthday present for 5-year-old’s classmate. Get hair did and dyed. Sleep, if possible, for eight straight hours. Schedule a facial or massage during Spa Week, to be held Oct. 10-16.

The final task, if you can call it that, is my special treat to myself once, sometimes twice, a year. Held at spas and some hotel spas in 32 states, D.C. and Canada, the weeklong event is a way of justifying indulgence at a price that won’t prompt my husband to file for divorce. These $50 facials, massages, manicures, pedicures and specialty treatments (hello, cat eye lash extensions) cost less than the cheapest pair of designer denim and are my vehicle to escape, renew and vavoomify. Not surprisingly, the appointments go quickly, so I always book early to ensure that those neck and back bones get their badly needed rubdown.

While neighborhood spas are perfectly fine for quick beauty tune-ups, luxury hotel spas turn my yearly tradition from predictable to sublime. At the Peninsula Chicago, where I’ll likely be getting hot stoned, there’s a luxe little lounge area cordoned off by silky curtains and plush chaises, where I’ll wait with my lemon water and gossip magazines until an ESPA-trained aesthetician whisks me off to a massage or pedicure. Honestly, if I dozed off to the ambient soundtrack, I would not want anyone to wake me – unless they were trying to snatch my US Weekly.

Don’t even think about it.

Insider tip: Turn your spa day into a spa vacation at these featured Spa Week hotels:

Arizona Biltmore
Fairmont Battery Wharf
Fairmont Miramar
Hotel Gansevoort
Le Merigot
Palomar Dallas
The Palms Hotel & Spa

Valerie Moloney, who writes and edits the Orbitz blog, will always remember her first black pearl facial.

Tagged: Hotels