Canyon Ranch SpaClub at the Venetian and the Palazzo

Canyon Ranch SpaClub at the Venetian and Palazzo is the largest spa in town, offering more than 80 treatment rooms and some of the most extensive and extraordinary services available.

The Venetian

The lobby of the two-story Canyon Ranch SpaClub is bright and sunny and features a full-service salon, the Canyon Ranch Café , the spa check-in desk and access to the hotel's pool. 

The entire bottom floor of the spa is covered by the 21,000-square-foot fitness center, which includes extensive cardio equipment, weights, a Pilates studio, a 40-foot rock climbing wall and several classrooms offering everything from yoga and spinning to salsa dancing and meditation. Lecture rooms offer classes on topics such as nutrition, wellness and metabolism.

Canyon Ranch also has a wellness center that offers services you wouldn't normally find at a spa including physical therapy, acupuncture and a nutritionist.

 The spa offers separate men's and women's areas with steam, sauna, hot tubs and relaxation areas where guests wait for their treatments.

The treatment menu at Canyon Ranch is so extensive it might be hard to decide what to indulge in. There are a variety of scrubs, wraps, massages, baths, facials and more.

One of the spa's signature treatments is the Canyon Ranch Mango Sugar Glo, a body scrub derived from natural sugars, jojoba esters and beta carotene. The treatment includes a light exfoliation, immersion in a hydrotherapy tub and an application of moisturizer.

One of the most popular services  is the Ultra Nourishing Cocoon Wrap, which uses Pure Fiji's milk and honey products. The first part of the treatment includes a massage, a milk and honey scrub and a rain shower rinse. After therapist slathers on a milk and honey moisturizing mask, relax one of the spa's extremely relaxing and warm soft-pack beds, which cradles you as you experience the weightless sensation of floating. Guests leave with incredibly smooth, baby-soft skin. Guests receiving Ultra Nourishing Cocoon Wrap also leave with a delicious, replenishing coconut water.   

By far the most unusual treatment room at Canyon Ranch is the Middle East-inspired Rasul chamber -- a beehive-shaped tiled chamber with heated seats where one or two people are coated in therapeutic muds and sent into the chamber for an extensive herbal steam treatment, under a faux starlit sky from which rains fall, signaling the end of the treatment.

If massage is more your style, go for the ashiatsu treatment -- a deep compression massage in which the therapist holds on to overhead bars and uses his or her feet to massage and stimulate the body's lymphatic system.

Canyon Ranch can be a little tricky to find, but it's easiest to park or valet in the hotel garage. From the garage walkway, turn right into the Grand Canal Shoppes' food court and take an immediate right past the food court. Take the elevator up to the fourth floor and enjoy!

-- Review by Kristine McKenzie

The Palazzo offers the ultimate in relaxation

With the extension of the spa on the Palazzo side, the Canyon Ranch SpaClub offers even more amenities, including ultra-spacious relaxation areas and plenty of wet spa facilities.  

While the Palazzo and Venetian offer the same body treatments, the Palazzo features the Aquavana, an area that includes a variety of wet spa elements. The Aquavana includes an Herbal Laconium, a warm, ceramic-tiled room with individual heated seating thrones. For the ideal cool down, the Igloo offers crisp, cool air and three Arctic Mist experiences -- menthol, mint or eucalyptus. But be careful! Though refreshing, the cooling mist might be a little shocking at first. 

For more exotic scents, choose from Cool Fog, Tropical Rain or Caribbean Storm within the invigorating Experimental Rain Showers. To make the experience even more fun and unique, these showers also feature color-changing lighting effects and thunder sounds. In addtion, the Aquavana offers water plunges (where you can control the temperature), heated lounge chairs, an aromatherapy steam room and a sauna. 

Not sure what to do or visit first? The spa provides an Aquavana pamphlet with different combinations suitable for specific body needs. 

Adorned with soft blues and greens, the women's relaxation room provides several couches and nooks to stretch out and unwind. Grab a magazine and treat yourself to refreshing tea and fruit before your service. 

For a more earthy experience, the co-ed relaxation area is also an option. Featuring high ceilings, eye-pleasing earth tones, wicker accents and sounds of trickling water, you'll truly feel like you're in the middle of nature. 

If you've worked up an appetite before or after your spa service, Palazzo offers Canyon Ranch Grill. 

-- Review by Jeannie Borbe