Spa categories. Enjoying Spas! 4th. Part.

From cmtravelonline.com: The International SPA Association has categorized spas into seven types to assist spa goers in choosing the best spa experience for them.

CLUB SPA - a facility whose primary purpose is fitness and which offers a variety of professionally administered spa services on a day-use basis.


CRUISE SHIP SPA - a spa aboard a cruise ship providing professionally administered spa services, fitness and wellness components and spa cuisine menu choices.

DAY SPA: local spas offering hourly services. Choose a day spa near your home or while traveling when you want a spa experience for a short period of time. Day spas are designed to provide a beautifying, relaxing, or pampering experience with individual treatments that last for as little as an hour or multiple spa treatments that may take up to a whole day. Day spas are freestanding or located in health clubs, hotels, shopping centers, department stores, or even airports.

DESTINATION SPA: spas where guests come to focus purposefully on lifestyle improvement, health enhancement, and self-renewal.

HOTEL SPAS: spas in city hotels. Choose a City Hotel, (also called hotel Spa or urban spa), when you are traveling or wish to have a day spa experience with hotel amenities like a health club and a restaurant. Steam rooms, saunas, pools, exercise equipment, and fitness classes may also be offered. Located in metropolitan hotels, some of these spas are open only to hotel guests, while others are accessible to the general public.

MEDICAL SPAS/WELLNESS SPAS: spas with a focus on wellness and preventive healthcare or cosmetic and aesthetic procedures. Choose a Medical Spa if you are interested in healthcare in a spa setting, either at a day spa or at a spa with overnight accommodations. Medical spas offer traditional and complementary medical services supervised or administered by medical professionals. The spa's specialty may be diagnostic testing, preventive care, cosmetic procedures, or a combination of these.

MINERAL SPRING SPA - a spa offering an on-site source of natural mineral, thermal or seawater used in hydrotherapy treatments. Resort/Hotel Spa - a spa owned by and located within a resort or hotel providing professionally administered spa services, fitness and wellness components and spa cuisine menu choices.

RESORT SPA: spas in resort settings. Choose a resort spa if you want to combine a wide variety of recreational activities with a renewing spa experience. At these vacation resorts, spa treatments and services complement such activities as golf, tennis, horseback riding, skiing, and water sports. Healthful spa cuisine is on the menu alongside traditional fare, and alcohol is available. In the evening, guests can enjoy resort pastimes such as dancing and live entertainment. Children's programs may also be offered.

Yes, I know, the title says 7 kind of spa experiences, but the list talk about 8. I had check it in other webs, seems in the original list from ISPA Hotel and Resort Spas are in the same type, but actually I´m agree about putting them in different ones.

I´m really glad about an international association taking care of giving categories to the different Spas… just that even this is actually not enough from my point of view, because you don´t find the same in different Spas of the same category. For example, what you find at the Hotel Habakuk, Slovenia or at the Hotel Senator Spa Madrid is definitely not the same of what you find at Los Enebrales, Almorox. I´ll talk more about them in other posts for give you a better picture of what I mean. ; )


(Pic: Elysium Spa, Hotel NH Eurbuilding, Madrid).