City: Santa Fe, NM

Category: Health Care

Telephone: (505) 982-9304

Address: 3451 Hyde Park Rd.

Description: Located in the mountains, Ten Thousand Waves is not just a spa, it’s an experience that bathes your every sense. To get to the tubs, you pass rock sculptures and copious hanging plants and climb a few steps that form a bridge over an indoor stream where you might catch sight of a large orange koi or two. In the lobby you collect your kimono and keys and head to the dressing rooms, pleasantly fragrant with the citrus scent of Yuzu, a vegetable-based lotion the spa puts out for clients to use after a soak, a massage, or both. Beforehand, however, you’re expected to be clean and lotion free. Be sure to grab one of the towels you’ll find stacked neatly next to a bin of rubber zori on your way to the shower. Freshly showered and kimono-clad, you’ll make your way to one of nine chlorine-free tubs. You can spend the entire day in the outdoor, coed public tub, which is clothing optional until 8:15 p.m., or the women’s tub, which is fenced but open to the skies. Some are outfitted with a sauna, others with a steam room, and one even has a waterfall.Ten Thousand Waves has more than 100 bodyworkers on its roster, all of them trained in Swedish and deep-tissue massage. Many are also skilled in shiatsu, reflexology, acupressure, Trager, Reiki, Thai, Alexander Technique, craniosacral therapy, Watsu . . . the list goes on. Or you might want to indulge in a “spa treatment,” such as an herbal wrap, salt glow, aromatherapy massage, or Japanese hot stone massage. It’s best to schedule weekday massages a couple of days in advance. Call at least a week ahead if you want your massage on the weekend. Ten Thousand Waves opens at 10:15 a.m. every day except Thursday, when it doesn’t open until 4 p.m. In the summer, it opens at 9:15 a.m. and closes at 10:30 p.m. In winter the spa closes an hour earlier. Except during the peak season, from mid-July to mid-September, locals get an across-the-board discount of 20 percent. They must present a New Mexico driver’s license or other state identification.