The Woodhouse Day Spa (Photo: Joshua Brasted)
The Big Easy can be tough on the bod. Between the walking by day, dancing by night and the overall journey into excess, you need some pampering at one of the best spas in New Orleans. Tuckered tourists and local movers and shakers alike line up for the latest skincare and massage treatments at these tony spas.
Rise From the Dead
If you want a true VIP experience, the Spa at the Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans is the grandest in town, complete with draped chandeliers and beau monde elegance. Signature treatments include the essence of magnolia, a flower-powered sugar scrub that leaves skin polished and glowing, and the four handed massage, a kind of synchronized swimming on your body, with two therapists lulling you into a state of transcendent bliss. The Southern Satsuma massage incorporates local citrus into an antioxidant-fueled wake up call. What can’t you live without? Where else but in New Orleans can you get a Voodoo massage, complete with incense and honest to goodness voodoo chants? Forget roses and lavender, this massage will leave you smelling a little like Absinthe and Bourbon. Afterwards you just might need a Corpse Reviver No. 2 at the bar.
Feel Footloose and Fancy Free
With locations in the French Quarter and the CBD, Spa Atlantis is the go-to day spa recommendation for guests staying at the AC Hotel. Enjoy a mimosa, glass of bubbly or wine while you are buffed, shined, massaged and firmed with the likes of French green sea clay and avocado oil. If you just want to dip in, the 25-minute foot massage with fragrant essential oils is so rejuvenating you’ll be tempted to suck your own toes. With its contemporary vibe and friendly staff, Spa Atlantis is an oasis of calm in New Orleans.
Let a Pumpkin Polish Lift the Spell
Spa Isbell in the Garden District oozes New Orleans style, with its exposed brick, plastered walls and cypress wood accents. Atop the ground level salon, the second and third floor spa delivers all the necessary pampering, including hot stone massage and detox seaweed wraps. But if the face staring back at you from the mirror seems a bit haggard, opt for the Platinum Pumpkin Peel, a treatment that incorporates pumpkin and fruit enzymes to leave your skin feeling polished and revitalized.
When a Detox is in Order
The soothing scents of eucalyptus and lavender greet you when you walk through the door of Earthsavers Relaxation Spa, a holistic day spa and shop with locations in uptown New Orleans on Magazine Services and in Mid-City. Treatments are low-tech and unhurried with a full line of facials, bodywork, mani/pedis, reflexology and waxing available. If you’ve been partying particularly hard, detox with a head to toe Dead Sea mud treatment, a nourishing slathering of mineral-rich mud guaranteed to recharge your batteries so you can get back in the game. Before you leave, dip into the store to lube up with the ample testers that line the shelves.
Get Your Beauty Sleep
Located up Canal Street in Mid-City — near a bunch of great eateries on Carrollton Avenue — The Woodhouse Day Spa in New Orleans packs a full-on wellness and beauty wallop, offering stress-busting body rituals and facials incorporating seaweed, vitamin C, green tea and other botanicals.You say you’ve been burning the candle at both ends? Woodhouse offers sleep treatments powered by lavender and herbs, a soundtrack of falling rain and deeply comforting massage techniques that will have you in dreamland before you know it.
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