Spas and Retreats

Times may be harder than they have been in recent years, economically speaking, but Ireland still has more than its share of top-rated spas. Nowhere is this more true than in County Kerry. In this region the best spas use exquisite natural settings to spectacular effect, and borrow their treatments from the Irish countryside. Everything from Irish spring water to Irish peat mud and Irish river stones can be used to coax forth beauty from tired, work-dulled skin and hair.

At the Sámas spa in the Park Hotel Kenmare, which has won awards for its unique design, you can soak in the warm spa pool while gazing out over the mountains nearby. If you indulge in the Sámas "Experience" for €150, you'll spend an hour relaxing in the thermal suite (rock sauna, ice fountain, tropical mist shower), before moving on to your facial, wrap, or massage, followed by an hour of indulgent relaxation. The spa is for residents only, although they sometimes make exceptions when it's not too busy.

All guests at the Aghadoe Heights Hotel & Spa outside Killarney are welcome to spend an hour in its exquisite thermal suite for a fairly small fee. With the wide array of steam rooms, saunas, tropical showers, cooling rooms, and hot tubs, it is a luxuriant 60 minutes. Once you're fully relaxed, you might sample one of the spa's numerous massages or facials, using Aveda products.

The spa at the Sheen Falls Lodge in Kenmare features a pool shaped like a flower -- each petal forming a kind of private relaxation space. You can have a hot stone massage or facial and then float off in total relaxation.

The spa at the Killarney Park Hotel is a modern, peaceful oasis, with a soothing pool and such exotic treatments as the Absolute Spa Ritual for €270 in which you are rubbed with coconut before being wrapped in a milk-and-lavender essence and then massaged. It cures jet lag, apparently.