Why we exist

I have spent twenty years working in spas and the best part of twenty five talking to people who love them. For several years I have judged at the World Spa Awards, which means I have sat with the entries of some of the finest spas on the planet and had to decide what actually separated one from another. Between the judging and the guests and the therapists and the owners, I have heard the same thing said hundreds of times in hundreds of ways, and it is the thing that has stood out to me above everything else.

There is nowhere to go and find out.

Not nowhere at all, of course. There are plenty of sites, and every hotel has its own beautiful website, but a hotel is only ever describing itself and no hotel has ever told anyone about the spa down the road that might have suited them better. So when you want something truly special, the sort of place you would arrange a year around, there is no single trusted point of reference written from the point of view of somebody who loves spas. You piece it together yourself out of other people's marketing, and you find out what was missing after you arrive.

That is why I built Luxury Spa Escapes.

What we list

We love all spas. A good local spa that welcomes everybody is one of the best things going and I have spent my career championing them and rewarding them.

Luxury Spa Escapes is not that. This site is only ever about the creme de la creme, the money no object, once in a lifetime spas that are worth knowing about. They are rare. Some of them are not even open to the public and you have to be a member to get through the door. What they all have in common is something uniquely their own, and that is the whole reason they are here.

How we choose them

Every spa on this site has been scouted and assessed against our own criteria, which is a blend of insider industry knowledge built up over two decades and a great deal of deep research on each individual place. A spa that does not meet the standard does not get listed. The criteria itself stays with us, in the same way any assessor keeps their own, and what you see is the outcome of it on every listing.

We have not been through the doors of every spa on this site in person and we will never pretend otherwise, so everything we tell you has been validated against externally verified sources rather than taken from the spa's own words alone. Where something has never been published, we leave it blank and say so, because a blank is honest and a guess is not.

If you run a spa

If you own or run a spa and you would like it considered for a listing, please apply, we would love to hear from you.

In the meantime, sit back, relax and enjoy reading about the most luxurious spas in the world.