6 spa treatments offering good vibrations and natural highs

Here’s the rub: In these days of digital overload and high-tech impedimenta, spas are going back to nature in order to stand out from the crowd. Water, wood, sound waves, sand and even fish eggs and poultry are being incorporated into spa treatments around the globe. Here are six spa treatments that are exactly like hanging out in nature:

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Fowl play: Santa Fe, New Mexico

Why did the chicken cross the road? Answer: To soothe a soul at Sunrise Springs Resort in New Mexico. The Santa Fe facility has two dozen purring Silkie chickens. Hold one and feel the sound vibrations throughout its body and yours. Aside from the good vibrations, hanging with the birds also allows opportunity to slow down and reflect upon the human pecking order and other eternal chicken and egg questions.

Sand me an angel: New York, NY

How about a massage in the sand? A bit messy, right? Not at Spa Nalai at the Park Hyatt New York. Here, the “sand” is actually pebbles of quartz, placed on a special table, covered with sheets and heated from below. Once one hops on said table, the masseuse gently pelts the subject with heated poultices filled with warm quartz sand. It’s all designed to alleviate aches and pains and release muscular tension. The Spa at the Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida offers a similar treatment.

Photo courtesy of Waldorf Astoria

Something fishy: Rome, Italy

What’s more natural than being schmeared with caviar? Okay, maybe not so natural (unless you are Vladimir Putin or an incarnation of a Russian czarina). Still, even members of the proletariat (if they can afford it) can enjoy the Caviar Body Treatment at the Spa at the Rome Cavalieri, Waldorf Astoria in the Eternal City. This nourishing and energizing total body massage is said to firm skin and leave clients “shimmering with renewed vitality, improved elasticity and an overall sense of well-being.” High “marx”, indeed.

Bamboo Botox: Montreal, Canada

Everything’s shipshape at Bota Bota Spa-Sur-L’Eau, a floating spa located in Montreal’s Old Port. Although listed as a facial, Bota Bota’s Kobido treatment is more of a massage for the face, as it dispenses with lotions and potions and focuses on the rub. The key to the treatment is the use of bamboo sticks to pinch and roll the skin, pushing out stress and rolling out wrinkles. It’s kind of like Botox without the needles.

If I had a hammer: Austin, Texas

Take a beating at the Spa at Lake Austin Spa Resort in Austin, Texas. For a unique way to relax and invigorate the body, Manaka Tapping is an ancient Japanese treatment that has therapists rapping acupressure points with a wooden hammer and peg. If this sounds too painful, try a cuplift. Cupping is a time-honored Asian tradition (and more recently, a ritual embraced by one Michael Phelps) where heated vessels with mild suction are applied to the skin to stimulate circulation. Warning: post-treatment, it may look like a horse has been giving you hickeys.

Good vibrations: Stowe, Vermont

The hills are alive with the sound of tuning forks in Stowe, Vermont,  best known as the American home of the Von Trapps.  The Spa at Stoweflake Mountain Resort uses sound therapy in several of its treatments. For a full body tune-up, the utensil of choice isa tuning fork. Tapping a tuning fork is said to alter the body’s biochemistry, bringing everything into harmonic balance. Warning: Do not try this at home with a kitchen fork.

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