Spa Solage
The Mud Slide at this luxurious spa starts at the Mud Bar. Choose an essential oil blend based on scent and its description — Stress Relief, Revitalizer, Mood Enhancer or Muscle Soother — and your attendant will add it to the mixture of mud, volcanic ash and a body serum of green tea, wasabi root, pomegranate, strawberry and grape seed extracts. The mix is thinned with the geothermal mineral water from the resort’s on-site well.
From there you are led to a private lounge for the mud phase, where you will find a tiled platform with ice water, cold face towels and cucumber slices for your eyes. You can opt to apply the mud yourself, or have an attendant assist. After the mud dries — within a few minutes — detox on the platform in the 102-degree mud lounge or open the sliding doors to a private sun deck, with a concrete lounge and outdoor showers.
When it’s time to shower, your attendant will lead you to another private room with a tub filled with the geothermal mineral water. Relax while sipping citrus water or, if you don’t mind retoxing, a cocktail.
After 20 minutes, your attendant will lead you to a room to rest for up to 30 minutes in a cocoon of blankets in a zero-gravity sound chair. With New Age tunes piping through the earphones, you will feel the chair come alive with each note.
Extend your Zen before or after your Mud Slide by spending the day at the posh bathhouse’s mineral pools and steam rooms. The large coed geothermal pool is lined with lounges and a row of cabanas that can be rented for $25 an hour (four-hour minimum). Or visit the separate men’s and women’s clothingoptional areas that have 103-degree jetted mineral pools, a cold plunge and a eucalyptus steam. Spend the whole day at the bathhouse — soak, lounge, drink and order from a limited menu (not included) from Michelin-rated Solbar — for $30 Monday through Friday or $50 on weekends.
Mud Slide service ($110 for 60 minutes / $160 for 90 minutes). 755 Silverado Trail N., Calistoga, (866) 9427442. https://solage.aubergeresorts.com