Las Vegas founding fathers like Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky likely didn’t envision “destination spa” as a descriptor for the city’s future. Yet nearly 75 years later, more people are heading to Vegas not to gamble at its casinos or splurge on Champagne at high-end restaurants, but for a restorative break.
The idea of self-care may be antithetical to the city’s heritage, but these treatments don’t exactly take their cues from the ashram. Like any place worth visiting in Vegas, the best spas are opulent and full of features sourced from all over the globe (like a hammam motherstone and monsoon room at Sahra Spa at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas; fiber optic twinkling igloo and crystal steam room at Canyon Ranch in the Venetian and Palazzo; and heated stone Ganbanyoku beds and salt room at The Spa at Aria, just to name a few).
Which is to say that you’ll find virtually whatever you want in a Las Vegas spa getaway. But thanks to a major remodel at one, a couple of secret menus, and even a soothing virtual reality journey, there are a few insider tips to know before you go. We've collected them here.
The Strip’s one CBD treatment
If you think of Las Vegas as a three-mile-long lawless fun zone ringed by cannabis dispensaries ... you’re not wrong. But there’s likely a wide ideological gap between your Vegas and the casino industry’s Vegas. Thanks to the Nevada Gaming Commission’s strict adherence to federal restrictions on cannabis, casino hotels stay far, far away from CBD—even though last year the DEA demoted CBD containing less than 0.1 percent THC from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 5 drug.
Still, it means you won’t find those adorable hemp-leaf-adorned cocktails in casino bars or CBD massages in any Las Vegas spa inside a casino. The law, however, doesn’t apply to non gaming hotels. In May of last year, the Nevada State Board of Massage Therapy passed a bill to allow therapists to topically apply CBD, and the Waldorf Astoria Spa added a CBD enhancement to its massages the next month. “We did a tremendous amount of research as we considered adding the enhancement,” says Waldorf Astoria’s senior spa director, Jennifer Lynn. “It’s non-psychoactive and anti-inflammatory, and because the CBD massage cream we use is really effective with cumulative use, we designed the it so that you’d take the cream with you after your treatment.”
The two-hour Essential Stress Release massage ($360) with CBD enhancement takes place in the sleek, fully equipped spa suite (designed when the building was a Mandarin Oriental). After, you’ll shower off the scrub, then the therapist works with Lacuna Botanicals’ CBD deep tissue cream. The spa’s therapists all have their specialties, so if you’re looking for something specific, they can pair you with precisely the right person. You’ll leave with the remainder of your 200 mg CBD cream ($50) or 500 mg ($100), which is packaged in a TSA-friendly airtight dispensing jar. For a treatment that long-lasting, it’s a bargain. While the CBD enhancement is on the spa menu, Waldorf Astoria has also added a revolving monthly secret spa menu—which you can request upon check-in.
Virtual reality and a temporary facelift
When the Nobu Hotel opened in 2013 in a renovated tower of Caesars Palace, Qua Baths & Spa teamed up with Natura Bissé to develop a whole line of Japanese-inflected services for it—with the blessing of Nobu Matsuhisa himself. The Nagomi Ritual involves a foot treatment with crystallized honey, and a massage that combines elements of Thai, Balinese, and Shiatsu, plus a facial that uses topical carboxytherapy (transdermal CO2 infusions) to tighten up your skin.
It’s still a winner, but for Nobu’s fifth anniversary last year, Qua added a facial that starts by donning a virtual reality headset and having your feet and spine packed in detoxifying seaweed masks. Called the Nobu Go (“go” is Japanese for “five”), the 100-minute, $555 treatment begins by whooshing you through a cloud-filled sky and into a verdant forest landscape and over molten lava. The improbably relaxing headset comes off after 10 minutes, then on go paraffin foot and hand masks. Meanwhile, your aesthetician uses a combination of malic, tartaric, lactic, and glycolic acids to cleanse your skin before applying Natura Bissé’s “Cinderella lift.” You’ll end with a 24-carat gold dust mask—because, Vegas. (Also, gold is a natural anti-inflammatory, so it’s a good pre-big-night-out treatment.) To top it off, you’ll leave with a Natura Bissé travel gift that includes lifting serum.
Perpetual night and singing bowls
In November, Wynn Las Vegas unveiled its completely renovated Wynn Spa, a transformation that sexes up the retreat in moody, dark hues of indigo and brown, with coffered ceilings and treatment rooms with their own crackling fireplaces. Disorienting in the best way, the new design draws on the restorative powers of night. The rooms feature a layering of textures and stonework, off a dramatic hallway lined with 28 glowing five-foot onyx pillars topped with hand-blown Murano glass vases. “Our guests have been in a treatment room for 50 or 80 minutes, and as they emerge into darker meeting rooms, it’s not as startling to walk out,” says spa executive director Erika Valles.
Her favorite spots: the spa’s central relaxation room, anchored by Torus, a massive mirror-polished stainless-steel sculpture by David Harber, and a hydrotherapy area enveloped in 18-by-90-foot murals of koi fish by Paul Montgomery. Rather than rely on spa trends to develop the new therapies for the space, Valles says they designed them for the space itself—and to capitalize on the particular skills of Wynn’s therapists.
“With all the energetic properties in the stonework, we were inspired to seek the healing therapies of Himalayan singing bowls,” she says. They built treatments that incorporate relaxation, energy therapy, and chakra balancing as a result. Get the Samadhi Enlightenment, a 105- or 130-minute experience ($375 or $470) that combines Ayurvedic massage, guided chakra balancing with semi-precious stones, and the singing bowls. Two others, “Forest of Dreams,” which involves heated bamboo and contoured stones for targeted reflex work, and “Mojave Bliss,” which uses plants and semi-precious stones to balance the skin, are unlisted for now. As always, the best things in Vegas aren’t free—but they are for insiders.
