Apr. 20--When Canyon Ranch, the upscale, ultra-healthy destination spa, decided to open its third outlet, it did so in a big way. In 65,000 square feet, the two-level spa would offer more than a dozen kinds of massage, 15 kinds of body scrubs and wraps, and a cafe serving gourmet, low-fat fare such as apple-beet-carrot juice, grilled ahi and oven-baked chips, each with calorie count and fat grams listed on the menu. There was a health club with a 40-foot rock climbing wall, a cycling gym and at least 12 classes daily. A nearby boutique sold aromatherapy products, tapes, books and Canyon Ranch logo sweat shirts. 

But while its first two spas were located in serene, out-of-the-way spots in Arizona and Massachusetts and frequented by people wanting to spend a week or more concentrating on their health, this Canyon Ranch SpaClub was different. It was inside the massive Venetian Resort in Las Vegas -- a destination not exactly known for promoting clean living. 

"I think the big question was, `What is Canyon Ranch doing in Las Vegas?"' admits Gayle Brady, vice president of spa operations for Canyon Ranch. "But I think Las Vegas has become just a real destination, so it makes sense. There are huge numbers of meetings and huge crowds who go up just for the weekend, who may gamble, see a show, eat a great dinner and then go to the spa." 

In opening the spa, The Venetian, a posh hotel with more than 3,000 guest rooms that opened in summer 1999, wasn't really taking that big a risk. Like swimming pools in the '50s, hot tubs and saunas in the '70s, and golf courses in the '80s, the spa has become the must-have accouterment of the luxury hotel. 

"Executives in the hotel industry are no longer seeing a spa as an amenity. They're seeing it as a necessity," says Lynne Walker of the International Spa Association, or ISPA. "They're truly seeing that spas will put heads in beds." 

An ISPA study found about 475 resort spas in the United States in 2000. The study also found that the number of spas at hotels and resorts has increased by 20 percent per year since 1995. Today, practically all new upscale resorts include at least a small spa, says Walker, and many of the new spas are downright huge, from 10,000 to 100,000 square feet. And in the past three years, most of the major luxury hotel chains, such as the Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Starwood and Hyatt, have begun concentrating heavily on spas, even opening spa divisions to oversee their construction. 

For instance, the Hyatt opened its first spa, the Anara Spa at the Hyatt Regency Kauai, in late 1990. Since then, it has opened 21 more, most in the past three or four years, and founded a Spa Hyatt division, much like its separate golf division, to develop more spas in its 194 properties. 

"We're not just taking all our resorts with a health club and a massage room and calling them spas," says Holly Porter, a spa consultant working exclusively for Hyatt. "And we're not just building them everywhere. We're trying to go in and build a spa that blends in with the culture and the environment at each resort." 

For instance, at the just-opened Tamaya Hyatt Resort and Spa in Bernalillo, N.M., that means treatments feature herbs and plants grown by the people of the Santa Ana Pueblo, which actually owns that resort. At the new Stillwater Spa in the Park Hyatt Toronto, it means fireplaces in treatment rooms, to take the chill off frigid winter days. 

Next year, the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort, outside San Antonio, will unveil an expanded, renovated spa, replacing what is now considered a small, outmoded facility, with only a few rooms offering four kinds of massage and four facial treatments. The spa menu isn't set yet, but Porter says that "it will have something big. In Texas, you have to have the biggest of something." 

Indeed, it isn't enough just to have a few massage rooms and body treatments. Increasingly, resort spas try to differentiate themselves by offering "signature" treatments, based on local plants, products or heritage, says Sharon Ulrick, vice president of marketing for Spa Quest (www.spa-quest.com), an online booking service. 

This sometimes leads to services bordering on the silly (really, do you want to take a chocolate bath in Hershey, Pa., or a barbecue-sauce wrap in Dallas?). But when done right, these treatments blend seamlessly into the destination. 

In Hawaii, for instance, at the Spa Without Walls at the Orchid at Mauna Lani, guests take yoga classes under palm trees and enjoy open-air, oceanside massages. At the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North in Arizona, American Indian-inspired treatments include a willow herbal wrap, based on a potion long believed to cure colds and flu. At the Ritz-Carlton in Kapalua, Maui, island-influenced specialties include exercise classes called Hulaerobics, a La'au Lapa'au healing massage with Hawaiian herbs, and a couples' massage performed to the sound of Hawaiian love chants. 

The upside for guests is that at a full-service resort, these pampering treatments can be scheduled in between other vacation pursuits, such as golfing, hiking, swimming, shopping or sightseeing, says Jeff Kohl a spa consultant who helped develop spas at the Sonoma Mission Inn in California and the Boca Raton Resort and Club in Florida, among others. They allow vacationers to relax, de-stress and enjoy a full vacation, without the huge time commitment required at a destination spa, which usually requires guests to book longer stays and follow more regimented programs. 

Canyon Ranch, for instance, realized it had to develop a different kind of experience for its Las Vegas spa, says Brady. It de-emphasized its medical component and uses the Las Vegas location as a testing ground for new pampering treatments. One such experiment is its new $120 Sea-Esta treatment, in which guests breathe negatively-ionized "sea air," piped into the room, while receiving a sea-mud mask, an ocean-stone massage and a seaweed scalp treatment. 

"In Las Vegas, we realize we don't have control of someone's existence for a week. They might be smoking and drinking and staying up late and doing things that just don't speak wellness, in the classical definition," Brady says. "We might just get someone for an hour, but in that hour, we try to educate them a little about health." 

So far, the spa explosion shows no sign of slowing, hotel executives and consultants say. Hyatt alone has three major spas opening in the next year. If anything, consultant Kohl sees the trend spreading, with even moderately priced hotels like Holiday Inns going into partnerships with nearby day spas to offer services they otherwise couldn't provide. And established hotels that don't have room to build an on-site spa might begin offering in-room treatments, says Ulrick, of the spa booking agency. 

Indeed, finding room to build a spa is one of the most difficult parts of the equation for established hotels. The Huntington Hotel in the tony Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco attracted an upper-crust clientele for 77 years without benefit of a spa before opening one this year in a space formerly occupied by a fine-dining restaurant. The hotel's Nob Hill Spa, featuring such treatments as a $185 champagne facial using champagne yeast imported from France, was carefully implemented into the hotel's overall design, says hotel general manager Gail Isono. The hotel even brought in a feng shui expert to make sure the spa's fireplace and lobby were juxtaposed correctly with its swimming pool. 

And then there's the Grand Traverse Resort in Traverse City, Mich., which recently added "and spa" to its name to reflect its new 100,000-square-foot facility. The resort followed a lot of current industry trends: It includes a yoga studio, a couples' treatment room, hydrotherapy treatments, hot-stone massages, and luscious-sounding treatments featuring indigenous products. (In Traverse City, known as the Cherry Capital of the World, this means cherry-honey glows and cherry-water mists. "We've got a lot of cherries, and you can only eat so many of them," says pragmatic spa director Ramona Pleva.) 

But industry watchers may want to pay attention to just where this luxury spa was built. Unable to justify a new addition, managers chose to take over some under-used space at the resort that, coincidentally, happened to be a hot, gotta-have-it trend when the resort was built in 1980. 

In the late '90s, however, it seems not many people were using the racquetball courts. 

HERE'S THE RUB: Is a more expensive spa better, or just different? 

Those elegant new spas being built at hotels and resorts often come with heart-stopping price tags. We wondered: Does the pampering feel progressively better the more you pay -- or just different? Here are three spa experiences: at a high-end resort in Santa Fe, a moderately priced lodge in the Texas Hill Country and an inexpensive, historic hotel in Hot Springs, Ark. 

-- La Posada de Santa Fe 

Location: Santa Fe, N.M. 

Age: This long-standing inn, including an 1892 mansion and a Pueblo-style motor court added in the 1930s, underwent a massive $20 million redo in 1999. 

Claim to fame: The Avanyu spa has attracted a glittering clientele (Dylan McDermott, Cher, k.d. lang) and an "In Style" mention for its American Indian-inspired treatments and sleek, Asian-crossed-with-Southwestern decor. 

The property: The 159 suites and rooms, scattered on six manicured acres just off the Santa Fe plaza, are done in adobe style; in addition to the spa, there is a pool, restaurant, lounge and large patio. 

Spa menu: The 5,000-square-foot spa, opened in late '99, includes five massage rooms, two facial rooms and a wet room, plus an attached beauty salon and fitness room and a juice bar serving teas and smoothies. There are six kinds of massages, four body treatments and four kinds of facials, plus all kinds of hair, nail and waxing treatments done in the salon. 

Getting the treatment: "Avanyu" is a Tewa Pueblo word for plumed water serpent, and the American Indian theme echoes throughout the treatments, which follow the latest spa trends. I can't get in for a Corn Dance Skin Purification (an $85 body wrap including a mask of cornmeal, oatmeal and clay, followed by application of lavender and sage oils), so I schedule an Aloe Sun Soother ($85). Recommended for sun-stressed skin, it involves a soft, all-over lavender misting, followed by a full-body application of aloe gel and more aloe lotion, scented with rosehips. Relaxing, but not unlike slathering yourself in aloe vera after a long day at the beach. 

But the all-out winner is the High Desert Stone massage ($140), a variation on another huge spa trend. A quiet, supremely professional therapist arranges a row of small, thin, smooth basalt stones, heated to a perfect temperature, and gently assists me in lying down so they lie along my spine. The heat radiates from the stones as she lays more warm rocks on my stomach, places two in my hands and several pebbles between my toes, and puts one, precariously, on my forehead. Then she begins the massage, using a combination of small stones and her hands. After long moments relaxing, the process is repeated on my other side. After 90 minutes, I am warm, cozy, happy and as relaxed as if I'd taken half a bottle of Valium. 

Accommodations: My suite (from $289-$399, depending on season) features a separate sitting area with kiva fireplace, minibar, huge bedroom, fine linens and a bathroom with a Saltillo tile floor; other rooms feature such details as iron beds, heavy Spanish furniture and gorgeous American Indian baskets and rugs. 

Food: Gourmet New American; standout dishes during my stay included grilled black tiger shrimp, glazed with honey and garlic; grilled salmon served with an herbed vegetable ratatouille; and a hearty plate of "migas" at breakfast. 

Fitness: The up-to-date fitness room includes Cybex treadmills and workout machines, a recumbent bike, a StairMaster and free weights. There are no classes or trainers, though. 

Cost: My two-night stay, including a suite, a massage, a body treatment, one breakfast and dinner, prices out at about $870. This winter, the resort offered several packages, including a two-night midweek getaway with two massages and two facials, for $618. 

Bottom line: Pampering, private, posh. I'd go again in a second -- as long as someone else was picking up the tab. Details: (505) 986-0000; www.laposadadesantafe.com 

-- Guadalupe River Ranch Resort and Spa 

Location: About eight miles north of Boerne, in the Texas Hill Country. 

Age: The guest ranch has been open nearly 10 years, but some buildings date to the '20s and '30s. 

Claim to fame: The ranch once belonged to Olivia de Havilland, and its colorful history includes stints as a turkey ranch and an artists' colony. 

The property: The 46 rooms and suites are on a 360-acre ranch that includes a main house containing a restaurant and reception area; two pools; hot tub; tennis courts; trails for horseback riding, hiking and mountain biking; exercise room; game room; and gift shop. 

Spa menu: The 5,000-square-foot Quail Canyon Spa opened last year, with its own pool. Its quiet treatment rooms are set up to provide five kinds of massage and a dozen skin and body treatments, including herbal body wraps, Vichy shower treatments, and Dead Sea full-body masks. 

Getting the treatment: A Dead Sea mud mask ($165 separately) begins with a hot shower, then a salt glow; a lightly scented oil, gritty with sea salt, removes dead skin from all over. It's heavenly on dry, toughened skin. After another shower, a full-body moisturizer is followed with a mud mixture, painted on with a large brush. Wrapped in plastic and a cotton sheet, I drift agreeably in and out of consciousness for 20 minutes. After showering yet again, I get a facial. At the end of the process, I feel like a limp rag, though one with extremely soft, clean, sweet-smelling skin. 

The next day, a 50-minute Swedish massage ($65 separately) is competent and soothing. I have the same therapist for both treatments. She's thorough, friendly and talkative, perhaps a bit too much so; it's a little hard to relax. 

Accommodations: Rooms in the old rock cabins are adorably rustic and private; many have screened-in porches or balconies, pine furniture and Mexican-style accoutrements such as Saltillo tiles and tin lampshades; there are also newer, motel-style rooms decorated in a Southwestern motif. 

Food: Inventive, though not necessarily light, new-Southwestern dishes. On my stay, dishes included mushroom and goat cheese phyllo triangles with roasted red pepper sauce, and freshwater trout with saffron-garlic mashed potatoes. Many vegetables and herbs are raised on the property. 

Fitness: There are no organized classes, but plenty of outdoor pursuits such as biking, hiking, horseback riding, tennis and even volleyball and basketball. 

Cost: My one-night package, including three meals, a spa gift and 21/2 hours of spa treatments, costs $309 weekdays, $409 weekends. 

Bottom line: A country retreat with enough urban sophistication to banish any thoughts of "roughing it." A great deal, especially if you can steal away during the week. 

Details: (800) 460-2005; www.guadaluperiverranch.com 

-- Arlington Resort Hotel and Spa 

Location: Hot Springs, Ark. 

Age: The 76-year-old hotel has been renovated several times but maintains an authentic historic style. 

Claim to fame: The finest remaining example of the stylish hotels, health spas and bathhouses that were built around the natural hot springs in this town nestled in the Ouachita Mountains. 

The property: 484 rooms in a complex including a pool and hot tub, bathhouse, restaurants, beauty salon and gift shops. 

Spa menu: The traditional bathhouse offers treatments based on the natural hot springs, piped directly into the hotel; there are thermal mineral water baths, hot pack compresses and Swedish massage. A salon on a separate floor offers hairstyling, manicures, facials and other beauty services. 

Getting the treatment: They've been doing these treatments for generations in Hot Springs, and the routine hasn't changed. I am one of more than a dozen women waiting my turn in the white, spare, hospitallike bathhouse; when I'm called, I linger in a long, hot whirlpool bath in one of the deep, extra-long ceramic tubs. Next, an attendant helps me to a cooling table and swaddles me in sheets and towels; hot packs are placed against my calves, sore from a hike. I finish with a 20-minute Swedish massage from a cheerful attendant whose technique isn't vigorous enough to suit me. Throughout, attendants proffer cups of mineral water, for an extra health benefit. 

Later, in the salon, my friend had a fairly traditional facial with a blue-green algae mask ($65) and I got a manicure ($16), which was fine but not nearly as good as the ones given by a fabulous nail technician I see in Fort Worth. At the time, the salon was frozen in the '60s, with an outdated apple-green and white decor. But the hotel recently completed a face-lift; the wallpaper was replaced, the original tile floor was restored and a new reception area and three new body-treatment rooms were added. Additional skin-care services will be added this year. 

Accommodations: The large rooms are comfortable but not luxe, kind of like an upscale Holiday Inn. The public areas, including the lounge and the restaurant, have a pretty, Deep South feel with floral balloon shades and dark-wood furniture. Fifty of the rooms have water from the springs piped in, a nice touch. 

Food: Basic hotel fare, with American-style buffets at breakfast and sometimes lunch and dinner. 

Cost: Two of us split a $299 package, which included two nights' accommodation, a thermal bath and massage each, and $30 in meal credits, which bought us each breakfast and a snack. 

Fitness: You're pretty much on your own for exercise, but there are miles of hillside trails to hike, and many begin right across the street from the hotel. 

Bottom line: The least sophisticated of the trio, but by far the least expensive; a great budget escape. 

Details: (800) 643-1502; www.arlingtonhotel.com 

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